Jim heard the loud bang on his door as they all huddled in their parent’s room on seeing the violent situation going on in the house behind them. Natalie, the beautiful, strode towards the door while Jim, the bold, stopped her from opening it.
She let out a shriek of anger. Donald interfered while Melissa was trying to pull Natalie out of that struggle. She was concerned for the physical wellness of her daughter considering Jim’s capricious behavior with her in the past. Natalie knew who it was at the door, for she has been watching the house in her backyard shrink to nothing when it started developing factions inside of it, workers in the house demanding basic rights, while owners or officially the masters of the house showing all signs of hostility towards such requests. She would often ask her father as to what is basic human rights for which she dearly got the answer: "its deserving things based on one’s luck dear". She would give a quizzical look to her father every time he says the word luck. Its a word she had never wrapped her head around till date. She thought she was unlucky to know the true meaning of it.
Natalie was in her teenage now and understood the situation in the house in backyard. she confronted Jim for a reason for his refusal to open the door. “You cannot open the door! Did you see what happened to the house in backyard? They let people inside their house and it just fell apart. Now those people want to take things from us. Dad! Tell her we shouldn’t let them in. Dad!!” They both turned to their father while he was on his way back from comatose to consciousness.He let out a deep yawn and stretched his hands to get a grip of the situation. He asked them to sit down and talked it through. Neither Jim nor Natalie could understand what their dad was going to say but Jim was happy that they haven’t opened the door till now.
“Why do you want to open the door. I think Jim has seen things and is warning us. To me it looks like we should be cautious. What do you see in there that makes you think we should open?”. Natalie took a step back to understand what was being put forth as a question to her. A battle fought inside her head to decide on the nature of debate she was going to have with her dad. A moral or a selfish one. “You cannot say that dad! People need help. We have everything. We have more than what we need. They seem to be desperate and if we deny them the excess we have its just going to make us look bad! I have played with the kid in that house and they are nice people dad!” Just as she started to argue for her neighbors, the servants of the house began to approach the room on hearing the loud bang on the door to get consent from their master to open the door. “What if you give them too much and now you don’t have any? What will you do Natalie? What if they want more than what you can give? Its a selfish society and you have to be for yourself if you need to survive Natalie. You will understand when you reach my age. Stop this childish behavior and learn from your brother”. Donald let his hard-hitting argument that Natalie was appalled at. “Its always you first, if you have enough let your family grow. When your family reaches sufficiency then save for your future generation. Enough of your communism and equality. Society is not fair so you don’t have to be”. As Donald was about to finish Jim let out a deep yawn, humanity would never know if it was a mirror neuron reaction to his father’s yawn or if he was genuinely bored. No more words went through her neural system. While Natalie stood there motionless with servants in the periphery, giving a mix of cautious and devious look at their master, Melissa approached Donald to calm down and took Natalie by her arms. “Understand! Your dad is the bread winner of this family. If not for your dad we wouldn’t be indulging in the niceties you and your brother enjoy today. Ask for penance and go back to your bed!”. Natalie endeavored one final time in trying to explain the nature of human minds before she was reprimanded with “NOW!” from her mother. She turned and the back of her head apologized to her father as she left their room. She couldn’t sleep that night, not because of the loud bangs or hue and cry outside her house but because of her inability to convey her opinion across the aisle to her dad. Neither age nor her words helped her that night.
As days past by when Donald fortified the house with strong iron fence and dealt with his neighbors in strict business rules that he thought was benefitting his family. He would always hold on to his fence and sway it as hard as he could in front of his kids to symbolize his strength and advice them to get stronger as he did. The fence became the edifice of strength upon which Donald’s ego was built. Even though Jim was blinded by present safety he never had the premonition of imminent danger for his dad’s actions. Donald always thought the fence protected his family from everything, never to realize he had secluded himself from the outside world. Cast one self out. Days past as the world saw the slow seclusion of Donald from it, his loyal family and well guarded house, boasting how he and his family escaped from treacherous people in the backyard.
Drought hit his house pretty hard. As the dearth of water increased during time of harvest, Donald decided to open his gates to water his crops, for without water he could not do business and sustain a life with his family. Irony took a swing when his neighbors raised forts that prevented any water that they have to go out. Huge bores dug out on each backyard sucked up all the water in the ground leaving Donald helpless. He would often bring this up during supper at nights to teach his kids how cruel society is when it comes to survival. “They cast you away as an incompetent person unfit to live in this society. They always say its you who is responsible for your failure. Look at them sucking up all the water and sharing none with me. Natalie, are these the people you wanted to share your home? Look at them I’m not the bad guy here”. Whenever Natalie heard such argument she would let out a long yawn, humanity knows its out of boredom.
Donald reached the fringes of his family’s survival, for there was no water for the entire season leaving all his crops along with his family dead. He always noticed a young child peeking out of the window in front of his house whenever he let out a desperate cry of frustration seeing no rain for his crops. One by one of his servants left either on their own volition or desperation for he could not pay them for their service. Anger lead to Hubris lead to frustration as he reached destitution. He reached a point where he now saw what Natalie was referring the other night. Human selfishness, just like kindness, is contagious. After going into submission he took what he could from his house and left with his family to reach out for help. “Let us ask the people in front of our house dad. I have been playing with the boy in that house and he seemed nice to me. Let us ask for help from them dad. Ask them”. After taking the last piece of advice from his family, Donald along with his family walked towards the house in front of them.
Thud Thud Thud.
Neither wishes nor wisdom were exchanged in time. So is this short story. Belated Independence Day wishes all!