Invent a Word that Means Forgetting What Year it Is
This week’s prompt: have fun inventing a word
This week’s prompt: Invent a word that means you forgot what year it is, and use that word in your story.
Asking what year it is used to be the province of lost time travelers. “What’s the date?” the time traveler asks. When the stranger responds, “March 17th,” the person who’s lost in time follows up with, “The year, what’s the year?” The stranger’s eyes narrow, and they think, “Who doesn’t know what year it is?”
Asking “What year is it?” is no longer an odd question.
Temporarily forgetting the year is something a lot of us do during the first couple of weeks of an ordinary January, but with pandemic lockdowns on, then off, then on again, Zoom replacing actual human contact, 2021 feeling like a repeat of 2020, and other disruptions to our regular, rhythmic existence, not knowing whether it’s 2019, 2020, 2021, or 2022 has become a common mental condition.
The world needs a word for this phenomenon. I can’t wait to read what you invent.
Your story can be science fiction, romance, literary fiction, horror, a thriller, a western, or any genre you want.
(You’re welcome to write a non-prompted story, too.)
Centina Pentina publishes microfiction of up to 250 words.
Please include one of the following tags with your story:
6wordstory for stories that are exactly six words long
Pentina for stories that are exactly 50 words long
Centina for stories that are exactly 100 words long
OneSentenceStory for stories that are told entirely in one sentence
PostcardFiction for all the rest, stories that are 250 words or fewer
