This short story is an entry in the 2003 Soc.Sexuality.Spanking Summer Short Story Contest and is copyright by the author and commercial use is prohibited without permission. Personal/private copies are permitted only if complete including the copyright notice. The author would appreciate your comments
Category: Parody
This is a parody of a completely vanilla One-minute Story by Jin Sheng entitled Imitation, published in 1997 by the Chinese Literature Press, Beijing.
Wrist Coins
By
Valerie Meilong <meilong@excite.com>
Charles Hong got on the underground to go home after work. It was crowded as usual.
Sitting opposite him was an unkempt individual.
"Typical county bumpkin, up to the big city of Beijing to seek work," he thought. His lip curled in a nauseating display of superiority. He was a yuppie, he proudly told himself, employed by a big American firm. He was someone who'd made his mark in the new money-grabbing world of China 2003.
He noticed the bumpkin's right wrist. Two gleaming copper coins were fastened to it. «What the hell was a farm-lout like this doing with a fashion accessory?» he thought.
Immediately he wanted one. It would contrast beautifully with the fake Rolex watch he was wearing.
Two days later, after persuading an out-of-work jeweller to make him some, he proudly went into the office with his wrist coins rattling. He immediately became the object of curious and envious male eyes. The girls in the office flocked around him. He felt as if lyrical music was being played that touched the very core of his heart.
Angela Li nagged her boyfriend to get some. So did Pearl Xu.
Zack Peichung also noticed the coins, and immediately went green with envy. By the end of the week he'd also found a friendly jeweller to make him some wrist-coins.
He used the local bus to get to and from work, and soon his coins were the envy of many of the males in the crowded vehicle.
The vogue spread. It got to the University area. Within a month, no student would dare come to classes without wrist-coins. They were so in, so modern, so creative.
A jeweller, quick to see opportunities was soon making the wrist coins en masse. Business boomed. Stalls appeared in the Hutongs. The demand now exceeded the supply. Prices rose. They even reached five Yuan apiece. It seemed as though everybody who was anybody in Beijing was wearing the exquisite and fashionable wrist-coins.
Some weeks later, Xu Ling packed a small bag, left his wife, and with pathetically high hopes got on the overnight train for Beijing, lured by the prospects of at least some employment; anything, as long as it brought in a few Yuan to enable him to eat better than the miserable congee that was all he could afford in his local town where unemployment was rampant. Two weeks later his money was all spent, and he had no alternative than to sit in an underpass across Chang An Boulevard, cup in hand, begging.
Later that day, Pearl Xu saw him and, feeling sorry for him, dropped a few coins in his cup. She jumped when she noticed his wrist-coins. «Curious,» she thought. «Why should a beggar wear a fashionable article like that?»
"Where did you get that from?" she said sharply, pointing to it.
"That?" said the beggar, "It's not mine. The police in my home town put it there. They do that when you're found guilty of beating your wife."
The End
© Copyright Valerie Meilong 07 August 2003
Reviews
Redhawk <redhawk(at)screaminet(dot)com>
Good story. Keeps your interest right to the end. But it needs more spanking or punishment in it.
Ted <quixotoes(at)aol(dot)com>
The source of the parody is mysterious to this reviewer, but it is a fine little fable about human nature and its universal foibles. I quibble with the phrase, «He was a yuppie, he proudly told himself....» No yuppie would ever call himself one, at least not with pride. I suspect there might be more humor intended than I found, but on its face, the story is readable and meaningful.
Patricia <patricia(at)cedar(dot)net>
This one had me waiting for the other shoe to drop, which you did, but not in the way I expected. While I was prepared for the coins to be visual sign of humiliation, I was not expecting it for «...beating your wife.» However, I do have one question...Was it your intent for the « beating your wife » suppose to be the one reference to spanking for this contest? If so, I personally do not think the two are equivalent. The story is an interesting look at how fashion can come about, but I'm not convinced it is a spanking story.