Terence Sun: Short Story Proposal

Exposition: The story takes place in a summer, far into the future, where intergalactic travel is possible, plausible and life on other planets is possible--much like traveling to other countries. The main character, yet to be named (open for suggestions), decides to take a break from life and visit a renowned planet in a different galaxy, both yet to be named (suggestions?).

Inciting Incident: After the intergalactic shuttle touches down and the main character exits, he is immediately met by a squadron of officials who tell him to leave his bags and go with them. He is taken into a dark, double-paned glass room and sat in a chair. The main character is left with the seemingly "head guy" who, with a loud voice, questions the main character about a name that he knows nothing about; the main character thinks that they have the wrong guy, the officers do not believe his "bullshit". The main character is jailed for future use.

Rising Action: The main character, as he is being transported to another place, escapes and goes into hiding. He goes around the town to see if anyone recognizes the name of a breakfast diner that he found on a business card from his wallet with his hand writing on it "Ask for Jim". Over the years, he has kept the card in his wallet because it was mysterious to him that the place did not exist on the face of Earth. Some one leads him to the diner where he is greeted by Jim, as if an old friend then immediately runs into the back room to retrieve something. Jim hands him a box: "So you're finally back, here it is, I've kept it for years."

Climax: After finding several boxes of items and short riddles that seem to have been left intentionally for him, the main character's thoughts seem to fit into place and he finds out that he has been to this planet before--maybe even born there. Yet, the main character feels that there must be a missing piece to the puzzle and the last riddle does not make any sense at all. All the work he has done to try to figure out the reason he is there seems wasted.

Falling Action: The main character sees newspapers that spark him to remember the dreams he has had and suddenly, the random letters on the back of each riddle in each box spell something out and he finds the remaining piece of the puzzle and unveils the truth (not going to spoil... maybe you have a guess? go ahead).

Resolution: (Cliff hanger) Leaves the reader with a feeling of the action being only partially resolved: the truth has been unveiled but it is questionable as to what the main character is going to do. "and he walked out, a different person, on a mission."

Dénouement: None. It would ruin the cliff hanger effect if I were to tell the reader what ended up happening. The mood of the ending will, hopefully, spark imagination in the reader to think of the possibilities.


Any ideas to help shape the story or suggestions would be awesome :)
Comment at will, it can only help.

-Terence Sun