Micro/Flash Fiction 3

Fog, by Alice Whittenburg
http://www.pifmagazine.com/SID/522/

Fog is a story about a man who is captured by fear. For years his fear held him prisoner in his room. For years he lived this way, missing only the varying natural light of the day. The man is the main character and he is not very complicated. He allows his fear to control his life, and lives in the dark, until he hears of a fog approaching the city. The fog completely envelopes the city and the man is hypnotized by it. Intrigued, he opens his blinds and allows the light into his room. A filtered, gray light fills his room. He finds the fog and the gray light comforting. He seems dependent on it, listening to the weather each day hoping that the fog will continue. The presence of the fog makes a difference in the man. He dreams that the fog gives him freedom to enjoy the outside world. He dreams of being a part of the fog and observing the outside world. He is drunk on the fog and obsessed. The fog becomes a crisis for the city but gives this man a new outlook on life. He tries to bring the fog into his home, but is not very successful. Wanting more and more of the fog he leans out his window and immerses himself in it. In a euphoric state he throws himself out into the fog. Having the fog around removed the man's fear, but when he throws himself into the fog, his fear returns. The man is more in tune to the fact that his fear returned than the fact that he is falling. Based on the fog's effect on the man and the way it is described (feels like the tail of a gray cat), it can be classified as a character. The conflicts are between the man and his fear. Fog has a theme of fear and the effect that it can have on you. Fog also shows how you can overcome your fear but how having no fear can be dangerous (the man's fearless obsession with the fog leads to his death).