I think Foolish Intentions by Rylee Usher was a short story that left me wanting more. I felt like the protagonist, Alice, based off of what we know about her, was consistently making poor choices. I mean, I think we all can relate with some of the things Alice does but sleeping late everyday and not having an appetite screams that Alice could be missing something in her life. She may even be depressed. Alice also seems like she does not work and has not worked in a while due to lack of experience. It is ironic considering you can’t really get a job without experience but you have to get a job for the experience. I just wonder what her source of income may be or does she rely on her roommate for everything? These do sound like poor choices to be making five years out of high school.
I do wonder why she is this way and does her roommate make an effort to break her out of this cycle? Maybe the person who sent the package was her roommate. The readers were never told about where her roommate had gone but we do know that her roommate would be gone for a few weeks and would not be coming back for a while. What if Alice’s roommate actually had malintentions and decided to send it to Alice, expecting it could cause harm. I could maybe have it all wrong. Maybe her roommate sent a gift to her to cheer her up and get her out of this repetitive life she has. But why would there not be a note? The lamp does make me wonder since the story ends as Alice was finally going to use the lamp but instead falls over and hits her head. I think I would maybe categorize the ending as anticlimactic since nothing really happened here. I do wish Rylee continued the story with maybe a paragraph or even a sentence that would have given us something to think about. For all we know, Alice could be dreaming right now since sleep has always been something she was able to do. Of course, this is my opinion but I felt like I needed more to say if I enjoyed this short story or not. I could be missing something or overlooking the story but I do wish there was more here for me.