The Story of Madeline, Stuart and Bejamin Richardson

#1: Benjamin Richardson

The crisis has turned Benjamin Richardson into a conspicuous misanthropic and devilish misogynist of age 50.

Benjamin possesses all the disgraceful qualities of an old man, proving the common stereotypical epithet to be correct: men of old age are sardonic, cynical misfits fueled by abrasive sentimental delusions. Oh, and some of them also have hypoglycemia.

Ben was sick of it all: arbitrary judgement of his manners by hypocritical creatures - the victims of cultural conditioning. Who are they to judge? He was sick of it; sick of thinking about people discussing about him, sick of hearing their quiet, evil voices get to his particularly inflated ego. He was so sick of them that it bought him virile with anger, with ugly malice. When the fires of frustration finally died down, it revealed a surly, ill-tempered misanthropic of a man.

"He is ethically undeveloped" - the snooty, posh neighbors would remark and then cast a sneer in the direction of Ben's house.

The repetitive buzz of a fly's slender wings.

Ben lazily reached out and smacked it against the coffee table. The disfigured stone-dead fly lay flat against the surface of the table as if trying to collage into a compound of insect carcass and glass. Ben uttered out a small sigh - he was visibly unhappy. Unhappiness has washed itself onto the crevices of his frail skin causing embarrassing wrinkles in the skin of the face. The killing of the fly had not bought him happiness as his previous supposition suggested. How long has it been since the last time he was happy, the last time he had a moral incentive for life?

***

An extremely flexible 360 ° flip in midair sent Sandi back into the water. The astounding plunge into the waters left a column of liquid tumbling down into Row A2 of the outdoors theater. Most of the water came down onto Ben - who, as usual, was sitting with an air of dissatisfaction. The shockingly cold temperature of the water made Ben audlibly wince in agony, much to the audience's amusement. Even Sandi the dolphin looked like she was laughing at him through the transparent template of the tank. Ha-ha. Okay. I'll slit your throat for tuna tonight, you bitch-fish, he thought.

A dripping-wet Benjamin tried to find the exit to the theatre. He suddenly stopped in his tracks, due to him hearing a faint voice trying to converse with him. No, that can't be, Ben shook his head in disbelief. Nobody had ever attempted to make conversation with him in his life - except for justifiable work purposes.

But, alas, a low and vehement voice of a female made him turn around.

"Hey, just wanted to check if you are okay?"

He was not sure if the person he was speaking to was of the opposite or the similar sex. A very thin line between the two. He/she was short, with auburn hair in a pixie cut. No makeup - quite strange for an American woman: American women wore heavily lined eyes, penciled brows and red pouty lips. Maybe a male?

"Just a bit cold. I'll manage."

If, for instance, the stranger was a female, it would be his first encounter with a stranger of the opposite sex - excluding the justifiable work encounters with female co-workers. Sure, he'd talked to females that weren't his co-workers, but they hardly fit the criteria as "strangers": his mother, his grandmother, his aunts, his great-grandmother.

"I wish I could apologise, but I cannot. It's not Sandi's fault either - she hardly understands the Archimedes principle of volume. Anyhow, come with me, and I'll find something to dry yourself with."

Ha-ha. He was visibly amused. He/she was quirky and intelligent but he still thought that if bitch-fish had a lil' dignity, it would jump lower, closer to the surface of the water to avoid the column of water tumbling down on him. But fish don't have dignity. Another document supporting eating fish - and possibly replacing fish for every other meat alternative.

Finally, his gaze dropped down the name tag the person was wearing. "MADELINE FERGUSON - ANIMAL TRAINER" Oh, so, it is a she.

He followed Madeline.