The Rebel

An eerily all too familiar noise and smell was omitted from the crosswalk as the city’s lights began to brighten in anticipation for a chaotic surge in activity regarding the social activities held there – or rather – they dimmed; in respect for the absence of those who forbid to partake in such deeds. On a particular street were several shops selling jewelry, and this jewelry was targeted, primarily, towards middle-aged workingwomen, who had enough money to buy such meaningless items. On another particular street were several young people of whom were quite apparently in the progress of dealing with synthetic drugs – if sighted within an arms length. It was something that, precious and forbidden, was regarded as secretive, after all. The thoughts, the feelings and emotions of the young men engaged in these deals was unknown. One may be able to attempt to guess their motives, perhaps even their reasoning; but their exact state of mind is a concept that quite clearly, wasn’t reproducible. Were the expressions on their faces snarls? Laughs? Frowns? That’s something that those people would only reveal among themselves. On another particular street was an alcohol store, and this alcohol was targeted, primarily, towards middle-aged workingmen, who had enough money to buy such meaningless items.

Max was in his room. He was thinking about how rules should be destroyed in society, and how society should rebel against and overthrow the government. Max was called to eat dinner by his older brother. The food that his Mother had prepared was called steak, and to cook it took her almost as long as Max took thinking about such a meaningful subject. After Max finished eating, his Mother kindly asked him to wait at the table until the other members of his family were finished eating. This is bullshit! Max thought. I shouldn’t have to wait for them to leave after I’ve eaten! To hell with that! After his family had finished eating he helped them wash-up. Did he have anything else better to do?

Max was in his second year of high-school, but he didn’t often tell people just what high-school he attended. And for very good reasons too. Max thought that people would start defining him based on what school he went to. Like, ‘Oh, you go to that school? You must get excellent grades, I heard it’s tough to get into there.’ Of course, Max didn’t know if people talked like that or not, because he didn’t actually go to one of those schools. If he ever did, he lied to himself, he wouldn’t tell people what school he went to. ‘The education system has numerous flaws.’ Max typed on his computer. He paused and sipped some Pepsi. He right-clicked on the mouse to correct the spelling of the word ‘numerous’. He had spelled it incorrectly and the computer had corrected it. He continued. ‘For one, we should learn what we want to learn, instead of being just told to do things.’ Max was a Christian, and he believed in God. Two years later, he named himself an Athiest, and claimed that God was a man made concept. In university he majored in Creative Writing, in his first year at least. By the next he had switched to Economics. He got a job in the Australian Bureau of Statistics after he graduated. The job payed well. He began to think differently. When he was 55 years old his house nearly was destroyed in a storm. Oh God, Jesus help me! He got on his knees and prayed. He scrambled towards his bookcase, before turning to run towards his bedroom, to search for a bible. Christian, Mormon, Taoist, Islamic; it didn’t matter what one.

It never occurred to him,
That he had never owned one.
He concluded he must have lost it.

The day after Max typed about the Education System, in Max’s high-school, a group of young boys approached him. Max’s favorite sport was golf, and he was quite skilled at it, although not nearly as much as he would have liked to be. He liked it’s qualities in that everything was very structured, yet free, and thought of it as a metaphor of how life should be. Of course, there were lots of rules in Golf. There was lots of rules in most sports. The sport that the group of boys played was soccer. They spoke with strong British accents, and Max hated them, because they were from England. He was born in Australia, but he also hated Australians. He was a very sociable person and went to a lot of parties. He claimed he was being ironic, because he really wasn’t very fond of the people he met at the parties either, but he pretended he was. The group of boys he recognized from one party or another. He disliked them.

He walked up to the boys. As he did so, stepping on gum. Bubble gum, the brand was Hubba Bubba, the flavor either blueberry or strawberry (common flavors) from first glance, but it was actually a new experimental flavor called APPLEGRAPE, and was labeled so on the gum’s wrapper in capital letters, to make it stand out. It was a new and exciting initiative to boost their profits. Or rather, more than something ‘new’ and ‘exciting’, the introduction of new flavors had become somewhat of a seasonal event. Max greeted the boys, ‘Hey’. The boys said something of ridicule to him, decorated by the words ‘Faggot’ and ‘Homosexual’, to which Max replied to with, ‘You guys are seriously the most unintelligent people I have ever met. You just go by, living your life like this in this system’s grips – you think you’re rebelling by using the language you do and doing the things you do, but you’re not – you just end up buying shit. Heaps of it. You’re pathetic.’ The boys who Max attempted to lecture, later that day, went to their soccer training. The next day’s afternoon they had work. Some of them worked in a fish and chips shop, another a sportswear shop and another a bookshop. The boy who worked in the bookshop was only there because his Uncle owned it, but he enjoyed reading books. His favorite book at that moment was by a fantasy author, and it was about a young boy traveling through the woods, and killing himself there. The boy thought it was very well written, and had ordered more of the author’s writings from his local library. The boy had a particular dislike for horror films. He kept this all a secret from his friends. They might ridicule my tastes if I tell them, he thought, but they’re good people inside. Everyone’s the same I guess really. That boy died at the age of 39. He overworked himself in whatever job he had at that time. It doesn’t matter, right? But worry not of his life; he would live on – as a series of facts and figures on a sheet. And then one day something would happen, like the Sun exploding or nuclear warfare, and everyone would die.

When Max got home that day he turned on his PC. This particular computer Max’s parents had paid for two years ago, and Max wanted a new one. On his computer that evening he chatted to one of his friends. ‘so did u read Tujis latest esay that Ms08 posted this morning?’
‘Not really.’
‘its one of his more notabl works. good social commntery on the modarn perseption of Marxism.’
‘Oh, I see. I’ll have to read it later, I’m a bit busy trying to finish this assignment for class tomorrow.’
‘Dude,’ Max typed, ‘Screw schol, ur just gona end up geting a boring job. Then, youll work until ur old or have enough money to retire, and youl die in some hospital.’
‘Oh, right. I never thought about it like that.’ Of course he was lying. ‘Well you’ll have to link me to more of those essays tomorrow. What was the site called again?’
‘CorruptUnion.org’
‘I typed it in to the address bar just then, that isn’t a real website.’
‘u needa pasword to get into it. this is the stuff that midle-eastern extremasts plan there latest ideas with. i even helped them with some stuff one time. did u heard about the van incidant?’
‘I’d love to keep chatting but I’ve got this assignment to do. Cya man.’
The User only talked to Max a handful of times after that.

He felt no, or little, regret for doing this.

The next day Max woke up, and got a hammer from his family’s garage, and used it to smash the Television that his parents had brought for him for his birthday. I am breaking free of the system! It no longer confines my soul to the stereotypes that generations before me have been ensnared into! I am truly alive!
And there he was, smashing his television.