OK Stupid by Walter Mackey

                Walter Mackey isn’t known as Walter Mackey. Nope, you can find him as an eggplant, residing up north, in Canada, living, writing, and vlogging. Not everyone appears to enjoy his style of vlogging but I’m not here to discuss his vlogging preferences. No, I am here to announce his release of the ‘OK Stupid’ short story. Originally I thought this was going to be a chapbook of sorts. I was wrong.

                You enter here. A lovely animated woman welcomes you into her pages. Next we see an excerpt from the now famous long-distance alt lit couple Spencer Madsen and Stacey Teague. For those unaware, Spencer used to go up on the rooftops late at night and say ‘Hey Teagues’ while Tiny Chatting with this New Zealand based creature. So you know you’re in for some serious heart-tugging stuff. 

                Poor Sarah she is depressed. Everything depresses her. Weirdly she thinks an online dating site will make her happy. I doubt anything will cheer her up. Masturbation doesn’t cheer her up. Different weights don’t cheer her up. Augusten Burroughs doesn’t cheer her up. In her defense though, if anyone gets cheered up by Augusten Burroughs that may be the most depressed person on Earth. 

                The story goes through all these hip, relevant websites that connect us. Despite the websites intention they fail. None of them manage to cheer poor, depressed Sarah. She dreams of killing herself next week. She weighs 102 pound when dry and 103 pounds when wet. 

                Eventually she somehow meets somebody. I don’t know how this happens. A part of the story is dedicated to explaining how this happens. Rumor has it this is taken from one of Walter’s online conversations with the mysterious Gabby Gabby, who has yet to reveal herself in a place besides Williamsburg, Virginia. 

                Greg and Sarah meet at a library. I have had extremely mixed experiences with library dates. Let me take that back: I have had uniformly terrible dates at libraries. Those dates were nothing more than listening to the other person for roughly three hours non-stop only to be insulted at the end of the date for not being attentive enough. 

                Oddly in this story Greg and Sarah fare better than my bleak-ass life. They ‘hit it off’. Grandparents play with Skype in the library, trying to learn how to communicate with others. While the grandparents try to learn, Greg and Sarah succeed. Sarah becomes a little less depressed and a little happier. 

                This is a sweet little chapbook. It gives me hope. If two hopelessly depressed post-emo kids can hit it off then so can you!