Flash Fiction: The Unexpected Answer

by Chris McGinty

He found it funny to ask deep questions in circumstances that didn’t call for deep questions. He felt it tended to throw people off.

He was at a small DIY conference for entrepreneurs held at a fast food restaurant, discussing things like supply and demand and market saturation, when he decided to be the questioner and ask, “What is the meaning of life?”

One of the men looked at him and answered, “The only meaning to life is to ask what the meaning of life is.”

The questioner opened his mouth to argue with the answerer, but the answerer said, “First, ‘I think therefore I am.’ Second, look up the meaning of the word apophenia.”

The questioner remained quiet for the rest of the conference.

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