Our journal together

Theme Park

On a cold winter night, a park isolated away from the busy city, where other than the sounds of the trees and leaves rustling from the brisky wind, is silent. Faint footstep gets louder and louder through the silent park, a lone figure of a man with a white curly long beard resembling Santa Claus with an astringent and musty odour, he walks towards and sits on the bench that has the only flickering light-stand in the park. The old man looks up to the dark cloudy sky, he sighs slowly through the frosty air as he shivers from the cold like a penguin on a stormy night in the North Pole. The cold air is like several needles piercing through the lung, numbing the fingers, and breathing slows as if floating on a shallow pool. Through the dark, a shuffle approaches. A young man dragging his feet with his head dropped dead to the ground, walks aimlessly like a drunkard comes toward the bench.

In a rusty voice, the young man asks "May I sit here?" 

The old man smiles, "As you please, young man" 

There is a short silence, the young man takes his pack of cigars and his shiny block lighter out of his pocket. He struggles to get the fire, the sound of the flicker spreads through the silent night park, the spark is like a firework, it melts the frozen eye and gives warmth.

The old man looks to his right where the young man sits. He feels a sense of pity towards the young man smoking his cigar. The clouds slowly covers the moon, and darkness rises. 

"Whenever I see someone smoke cigarettes it's as if they're saying their life isn't worth living..you know they say, Smoking cigarettes is like paying to have your life cut shorter." the old man scoffs 

"I don't know..perhaps you're right, but I smoke because smoking contributes to somewhat calm and objective judgement in all human affairs...you know?" the young man scoffs as he exhales the smoke.

"Are you saying your life isn't great?" 

"I don't know...I have a life that everyone wants and envies...I got a stable job, a family of 3, a wife and our 4-year-old son, I don't understand why I feel so empty, frustrated, and pathetic when I should be happy and be grateful for the things I have...Maybe I just believe smoking will take away my worries, problems, and this feeling of emptiness with the smoke" he scoffs and shrugs.

"Problems?"

"I don't know. There's this man 5 years younger than me and acts as if he's the boss of me. That rich bastard... I did everything everyone said! I smiled every day so everyone liked me, I worked hard until late at night to finish important assessments! Why am I still a manager? He became a Director in just 2 years! In 2 fucken years! It's just not fair! You know?.. You probably understand my situation more than anyone because you already went through this all."

"You don't know" 

A short silence occurs. The moon slowly appears as the moonlight brights the bench where they both are sitting on. 

"Hear me out."

The young man tilts his head up. 

"Are all human beings truly equal? These days, everywhere you go there's the talk about the fight for 'equality'. There's this one quote by a Japanese author. It is said that heaven does not create one person above or below another. Since we are all equal at birth, soon things begin to change. Pauses You see, all human beings change based on their actions. Academic effort is what sets some people apart to rise above others, people who are full are fed more than those who aren't, one's own greed is what makes some people selfish, and apathetic people are what makes them ignorant. There's more to it, if you keep connecting things, because our universe, the shape, the behaviour, human; quality and emotions are all connected if you stop for a moment and think deeply. Truth be told, at the end of the day, equality is just a fantasy and most of us go through life denying the fact that we live in a meritocracy."

The light-stand stops flickering. 

The park is silent again, the wind is quiet, the trees are still as if the time has stopped. The young man throws his finished cigar on the ground and walks straight into the dark with the sound of his heels hitting the concrete fading.