ONE TRUE FAN • by Clare Feliz Tan

When Ella Marie first woke up one morning with a rechargeable desk fan for a head, she found it infuriating that nobody noticed the change.

Her husband’s calm, breakfast-in-mouth greeting of “You look lovely as always, dear,” made her want to yell, but the only sound she could make was a soothing background whir. Her father’s mumbling “There’s a breath of fresh air around you today, Ella,” was disappointing, but at least partly excusable by the fact that his vision was getting blurry. But by far, the most painful and unexpected betrayal of all was from her best friend Jeanne, who spent their entire lunch together glued to her phone shopping for Japanese folding fans.

Really, what was the point in spending months watching online video tutorials on how to turn your head into a fan, if nobody was even going to notice it?

Disappointed and defeated, she was already typing, “How to get your head back after it turned into a fan,” when her daughter came back from school.

“Ew mom, what happened to your head? You look horrible — uhhh, why are you hugging me?”

Ella Marie had never been so happy to be insulted in her life. 


Clare Feliz Tan is an aspiring writer and Computer Science graduate from the Philippines. She has previously written for the CCP Encyclopedia of Philippine Art Digital Edition. In her free time, she enjoys cooking, drawing, hugging her cat, and trying to keep her potted plants alive.


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