This story was originally written in 2015 and won the Bartleby Literary Magazine’s Micro-Fiction Contest.
While it is an earlier work that in many ways I have outgrown, I still see it as a stepping stone in my writing accomplishments. I hope you find some merit in it as well.
The star of today’s matinee is a boy in a grey corduroy uniform. His bruising knuckles are shining on like a crazy purple diamond. Decorated in acrylic red, blood continues to spout from the recesses of the cracking skin. The setting of today’s play is a classroom of silent voyeurs comprising students and a teacher. At center stage, little Robert is enjoying his moment of violence as he beats the shit out of his Big Bully, Stephen.
Of course, this senseless violence wasn’t unprovoked. This week had been a particularly stressful one for Robert. Stephen had decided that as a birthday present, he would make sure to publicly humiliate Robert every chance he had, a reasonable punishment for being another year older.
In his moment of stress relief, Robert starts to remember the time he found out that his Aunt Beatrice died. From his bedroom, he heard his father crying in the kitchen. It was the first time he had heard the sounds of sadness since crying was deemed an illegal act long before his time.
He is reminded of his academy days when free time was moved inside due to yearlong cleaning maintenance on the main streets that forced the children indoors. Robert realizes at that moment that it was probably a cover-up by the city so they could control the riots that no longer raged the streets.
A year later, his brother went off on the annual war. The papers said it was going to be quick and finished in a month. Today, Robert’s family is still waiting for their firstborn son to come home.
Oh and we forgot to mention: at this precise moment that little Robert decides to go animalistic, an invisible force of cosmic proportion decides to place a finger upon Robert’s head. This force of nothing and everything pours knowledge into the reservoirs of his brain cavity, filling the well with answers equal to 42. It’s driving Robert mad.
Yes, right now, Robert is feeling pretty down. It’s a good thing that he is still relieving stress through the little sack boy. His fists continue to pump into the flesh. The blood from Stephen’s face and Robert’s knuckles start to mix. Robert can see now why his father had cried that day. He wants to do it at this moment but years of social conditioning are getting in the way.
Then, the landscape of his memories starts to terraform into a vision.
Robert sees that within a few years, he would eventually go off to fight his own war. He would come home to marry Susan who currently sits two classrooms away from his own. After their fifth child, they would escape to the countryside as the government would be tracking down families who break the Population Control Act. His children would get used to enjoying life in the countryside. Robert would come to appreciate the hills and how they seemed to stare along with him as he watched the setting sun slowly extinguish below the valley.
Three years after, the government dogs would find his family. His wife would “disappear.” His children would be given over to the state. Eventually, he would be locked up in the state prison. That same year, the Department of Education would file for bankruptcy, forcing millions of young students on the streets. He would die in prison two years later.
Then, Robert saw his fourth son, Cecil. By this time, all of Cecil’s siblings will have died. Seeing as he will be a mediocre, slightly above average, plus one to the population, Cecil will be sent to a children’s camp. He will be punished for producing the least results. He will be shunned by his peers. He will suffer.
But something inside him will spark in his moment of defeat, the desire to see his world on fire with the streets basking in an orange glow. People will cry and laugh until they are out of tears in their ducts and air in their lungs. He will smile at the festivities of reincarnation as the citizens march screaming “We Did It! We Are Humans Once Again!” For the first time in forever, they will feel happy.
As little Robert continues to beat his victim, he starts to crack a smile as tears flood from his eyes. The world is terrible. The world is beautiful.
Happy Birthday, Robert.
Danger Wonka 