The Strangest Ad I’ve Ever Seen - Flash Fiction

On a crowded pedestrian in Central Jakarta, I was sitting on a bench eating tuna sandwich, reading the news. It was an ordinary sunny day until I saw the strangest ad I've ever read. It said: "If you have the credits. We have the time travel."

What credits? Time travel? Really?

Tell you the truth, the ad was unconvincing at all. The image was crappy. The font style was cheap. I can tell that the designer was lazy. But the letter was bold. The moment I read it, there was a rumble in my head. As if I knew, the ad was meant for me.

Maybe you have your own particular ad that you feel, it was meant for you. Beer ad, cola ad, cars, houses, pizza, snacks, anything. Sometimes you just feel it, and you’ll say “The ad was meant for me. That is the product I definitely will use.”

I did too. Sometimes I’ll catch myself staring at the ad because I like the models or the design. But this one was different. Like I said, it was a badly designed ad. Unattractive at every aesthetic level. Even my grandma could do better with Microsoft paint. But I do feel the ad was meant to me. It’s weird.

“Have you see this ad?” I ask someone.

“Yeah?” She says. “What about it?”

“Do you know what ad is it?”

“I don't know. It’s a weird ad. Maybe they sell fraud tour packages?”

She was really cute. Definitely my type. Long hair, sharp eyes, with a thin smile.

“Pardon?” I asked. I was stunned by her looks.

“You know. That kind of packages which you should pay upfront, but turns out you’ll never get that until you die”

“Strange.”

“Yeah. Crazy, right.”

“But,” she says, “maybe it’s only a timeshare ad”

“Yeah. True.”

“Or, maybe they are selling time machine.”

She said that so lightly. As if the time machine is really simple matter. What about time paradox? What about the big bang?

She was gone before I started to question about her stand in relativity theory or quantum leap.

Good for her. Because I wish I could talk to her. We will have an hour of meaningful conversation. Then we will talk about ourself. I will know her hobbies, where is her favorite restaurant. Maybe I will ask her out, for dinner, or coffee, and then with any kind of luck, we might end up in bed.

My head started to rumbling, harder than before. My heart beat faster. I know this ad was meant for me. It really was. I should have said this to her. I wish I could make a lot of jokes about time, future, or past life, and then deliver the punchline that she was meant for me too. But, gosh, she already gone, drowned in the massive Jakarta’s traffic.

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This flash fiction was written for the #twentyfourhourshortstory contest, hosted by @mctiller. The theme was 'A man reads a newspaper ad: If you have the credits. We have the time travel.' Check out the contest here.

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Illustration photo by Srikanta H. U on Unsplash