The Question

Helka Ondok


This story is about two best friends, Emily and Olivia. They were the epitome of ‘best friends forever.’ They did everything together, knew each other like sisters do, and also had a little tradition: every last Friday of the month, Emily would bring an interesting fact to tell Olivia.

Years passed by this way.

In high school they started drifting away from each other, they talked less and less, but neither of them forgot about their tradition.

One day Emily stopped Olivia in the school hallway and started telling her about that day’s fact. It was about ‘the breaking of the fourth wall.’

Considering Olivia had never heard about it before, she was quite fascinated by Emily’s explanation of the topic.

Once she knew what it meant (when a fictional character acknowledges that they are fictional, and they make direct or indirect contact with the audience) she was quite enthralled by it.

Of course, because she was the type of person who overthinks everything, she asked Emily a very funny question. Olivia wanted to know whether, if they were in a short story about a wall, her question would count as breaking the fourth wall.

Both girls laughed at this and went on with their day.

To this day they still don’t know how close they were to the truth.

Finally, to answer Olivia’s question: Yes, it did count as breaking the fourth wall.