2025-2026, Borgesian Fiction
"The Odyssey of Otis" – Sophia Vrcic '26
In the Quantum Transfer Department, Otis works hard every day to recover artifacts from other universes. Otis is a smart and strategic man. He can be a little stubborn, but he is excellent at the work he does, and his problem-solving abilities make him an excellent transferer. Even though he is an incredible worker, Otis seems to have horrible luck, and runs into challenges wherever he goes. He's always almost in the right place, but somehow things seem to go wrong. If it isn't his father Larry, worrying about him, and texting or calling him on the daily to ensure he's making it around alright, it’s his difficult boss, Clyde Lops. Clyde insists everyone uses the nickname Cy, which he made up for himself, as a power strategy. Even though his job is hard, and his boss is a menace, his work is his life, and he considered the department to be more of a home to him than his actual house. This morning, August 31st, though, Otis faced a particularly difficult journey on the way to work.
To begin, he could not find his phone on his way out the door, which caused him to miss his bus. This led him to need to spend money on an Uber, which not only took forever to locate, but then made multiple wrong turns on the way.
“It keeps rerouting me, sir,” says Otis’s driver, “Traffic is backed up. This part of the city is always the worst at rush hour. I swear I will never end up going the same way twice!”
Because of these wrong turns, and the fact that he was almost an hour behind his regular commute time, Otis ended up waiting in traffic right outside of downtown Ithaca, New York, where the Quantum Transfer Department was located.
Otis felt relieved to finally have made it to work, but then faced the wrath of his boss, who not only publicly humiliates him in front of his co-workers, but tells him he needs to spend the day doing the worst job on site, the Catchers. When a universal portal is opened, there is no way of predicting what may come out. It could be a book, a couch, a plant, or even animals, and being the person responsible for catching whatever comes through, you pray there is never another Elephant Incident again. The only thing that made Otis excited to be a Catcher for the day was the idea of spending his time with Penny, the coworker he never sees, but when he does she brings a level of patience and stability he rarely finds in the office.
“What a jerk!” Penny says under her breath after Cy freaked out on Otis for his lateness. “Just remember to remain calm, you don't want to lose your job over something like that.”
After all the chaos of the morning calmed down, the rest of the day was boring, and nothing came through the portals before the lunch break, which rarely ever happens. When they returned afterwards, and Otis got into position to catch, the portal stirred, and as it made its whirring noises, Otis prepared for the worst, yet only a singular sheet of paper slowly drifted to the floor. Otis felt compelled to read the sheet, even though it went against the department’s policy for catches to be the ones inspecting items, he took off his sanitized gloves and began to read:
A Book Review: The Odyssey
To begin, I want to address the way that Sophia Vrcic has been able to completely change her writing style with the creation of the new iBook 16. This new update has allowed authors to publish their books as a 4d experience, which is an extension of the 3d offerings that came with the iBook 15. This change comes with a lot of new possibilities in the art of writing, and I am proud to say that I think Vrcic is one of many few authors who is established enough to fall so perfectly into a new style that accompanies this update. In her last novel, The Great Gatsby, Vrcic showed excellent mastery of the 3d elements, which are seen in her use of a real green light that flashed into readers’ eyes from a distance, and the illusion of a yellow car barreling towards you as Daisy kills Myrtle. These elements helped Vrcic rise to the top of the charts, as well as earning herself a “Book of the Year” nomination at the Grammy’s and winning the “Best Author” category at the Oscars, even though she was up against some difficult competition.
Many critics doubted Vrcic's ability to win in this category because she was going against two of the top charters this year: Christopher Nolan and Taylor Swift. Oppenheimer was the number one rated book of the year, and Nolan’s use of the 4d experience stunned readers. It's often that historical fiction novels don't do well in the box office, but Nolan’s execution was incredible. The heat that radiated off of the pages during the Trinity Test, and the few seconds of total silence before the BOOM made readers feel completely immersed in the scene.
Taylor Swift, on the other hand, had an incredible short story this year, “All Too Well”, which resonated with young women across the world for many reasons. From the wind chill that comes with the opening line of the story, to the background music readers can hear as the characters “dance around the kitchen in the refrigerator light”. These elements led Swift to winning the “Best Short Story” category, her only victory, and the only category Vrcic was not also nominated for.
The reason that neither of these books won when competing with Vrcic’s novel though, was the fact that they didn't utilize the most revolutionary update that accompanied the iBook 16: the future predicting technology. iBook explained that writers can choose to work alongside the company's newest technology to pair souls with any other living being, throughout all possible universes, and be able to completely re-write their future. This technological advancement will change the art of literature forever, and it's possible that one day, in the near future, we will be able to see the effects this has on society, and watch as someone's life plays out in front of them, no matter how hard they try to change their destiny.
The Odyssey by Sophia Vrcic is a revolutionary novel that follows the excruciatingly long journey of main character Odysseus, as his patience and identity is tested. From cyclopses, to Lotus Eaters who further extend his journey home to Ithaca, and the bag of winds blowing him further off course. Of course, Vrcic utilized both the 3d and 4d elements to make her book more compelling to readers, but no one wants to talk about that when the question of whose life she just damned forever is still out there. Both Vrcic and iBook have referred to this new update as "collaboration between author and reader” suggesting that there is an element of consent or approval from the soul they are being tied with, in some sense. But who would ever willingly let this happen to them? Who out there is living this life, knowing how it will end? The bravery, and the opportunities and questions this creates, is exactly why Vrcic deserves all of the accolades she has received for this incredible new innovation in the literary world.
Otis sets the paper down, and it doesn't take long for Cy to rush over, and chew him out in front of everyone for having the audacity to be late and then break protocol on tampering with the items. Otis barely registers the words. As the portal hums behind him, he struggles to think clearly as thoughts run through his brain.
The only thing that snaps him out of his trance is hearing Cy, in the heat of his rampage, snickering at the mention of a cyclops, which he finds humorous since his name has always sounded similar to, and everything begins to click. He thinks about the rerouted Uber this morning, the bus leaving as he watched it from a block back, and his phone being out in plain sight as he ran around his house in search of it for 10 minutes. None of it feels like a stream of simply bad luck anymore. It feels intentionally difficult. Even Penny's kindness now felt as though she was simply playing a part, and reading lines off of a script.
Otis looks back at Cy and the paper, heart racing, unaware of what to do. Even though the portal was only a few feet behind him, it sounded miles away as it began to whir again. Instead of getting into position to catch, Otis watches as the review is snatched right out of Cy’s hands, and floats delicately right back into the universe it came from.
Only then did Otis realize: Not only could a human life be predicted, but his already had been.