The App Game

Sam looked at the app store and felt sick. There were so many apps. Every app had already been made. There were no more apps to make. Some of Sam’s friends had gotten rich off the apps they’d made, and millions of other people rushed in to make their own apps. The app space had become fully saturated. Now there were apps that made other apps. There were even apps that made apps that made other apps, as stupid as that sounds. And much of it was very stupid. Now AI was making apps. AI could make a hundred apps in mere seconds. The apps were completely unnecessary, of course, but the same could be said for every other app. Sam didn’t know much, but he knew this: he had to get out of the app game. But where does one go after leaving the app game?

Sam went for a walk in the park to think about the sad trajectory of his life.

He watched a butterfly flit about a field of daisies. He looked at the clouds, which rose like snow-covered mountains against the bright blue sky. He breathed deeply among the trees.

As he walked along the paved path, across a crude but colorful Hopscotch design, it occurred to Sam that no one had invented a new sidewalk chalk game in a very long time.

Sam went through his mental Rolodex of sidewalk chalk games. He knew of a handful.

There was the aforementioned Hopscotch, of course. There was Tic-Tac-Toe. There was Find the Otter. There was Swirls. There was Lords a-Leapin’. There was Around the World. There was Where’s Alice? There was Don’t Look in the Cellar. There was Park Avenue. There was Desperately Seeking Licorice. There was Rainbows and Catacombs. There was Fight the Powers That Be. There was Woodchuck’s Folly. There was The Floating Rictus. There was God’s Dead. There was Butler’s Keep. There was Dirty Money. There was Puppet Master. There was The Old Lighthouse Keeper. There was Hopscotch 2: You Can Never Go Home Again. There was No Sanctuary. There was Gravedigger’s Revenge. There was Apple Blossum Big Shot. There was Right in the Breadbasket. There was The Final Indignity. There was Wipe That Smug Smile Off Your Goddamn Face, Jimmy. There was You Can’t Win. There was Dark and Stormy. There was The Brave Little Parasite. There was Cover Your Mouth. There was Betwixt and Between. There was We Are Legion. There was Bite Your Tongue. There was Blood Brothers. There was The Electrician’s Lament. There was Too Big for Your Britches. There was Egads, We All Got Lice. There was Phil Clogged the Toilet Again. There was Lonely Ghosts. There was Dig Dug a Dipshit. There was Abandon All Hope. There was Hopscotch.

Had he already mentioned Hopscotch? Yes, he had.

And that was it. That was all Sam could think of. Maybe there were others. But that was probably the vast majority of the sidewalk chalk games currently in existence.

Sam wondered if he had it in him to make a new one. He got into his car, drove to the store, and bought some colored chalk. Then he went back to the village park and found a nice open stretch of untouched sidewalk.

My canvas, he said to himself, and then he immediately regretted saying it.

Sam got on his hands and knees. He put his face close to the pavement.

Sam grabbed a piece of blue chalk and drew a big circle. Is this something? he wondered. A big blue circle? Is this a game? He stepped inside it and waited for something to happen.