Brutalist Stories #42

He’s sat there, and I watch the android come over to him and help him clumsily pick up his cup and bring his juice to his mouth and I wonder what the future will bring for him. My son, this delicate young soul that has some sort of path ahead of him, some sort of time that’ll see him grow into.

“Are you okay there, son?” I ask him and he looks up at me and smiles and nods his little head, and his big brown eyes look into me and through me. What potential they hold, for good or for evil, for tyranny or freedom. What will he become and what am I to do to try and shape him and push him towards a good path?

Right now, he’s shovelling mouthfuls of cereal into his little mouth, sugar rich and full fat milk feeding his little growing brain that houses such a mind that can be twisted and shaped and somehow, I’m responsible for this? For putting him on a path, for pushing him on some sort of path? What sort of man am I to be responsible for this? What have I done to be granted with such a duty? A decision I make now may mean that he one day picks up weapons of war and fights the fight for good or for bad, or perhaps he’ll pick up the pen and write to solve the riddles of man and all the questions we have through telling tales that will bring out the thoughts of many.

Maybe he’ll walk the straight path, and become what we consider a good man. Persevere with actions and causes. Get through education, find a job, find a wife, make a home and see it through for good or for ill. Maybe he’ll travel the world and talk to all its people and leave a brush stroke of genius and humility on those he meets, leaving them with a new idea, or at least a smile. Jesus, maybe he’ll find something to hate and force it down and down and ball it up inside himself for no one to see until he explodes and takes the life of another or many, destroying those all around him, or perhaps just himself.

What am I meant to do here? What am I supposed to teach him, what am I supposed to let him know? Consider tyranny and freedom, my son. Consider the cards that are dealt for those around you, and that not everyone is on an even playing field. Consider the stars and take a step into the void once in a while to try to understand the duality of your potential insignificance or grandeur, depending on which way the universe will run. Consider love and how it transcends, consider hate and how it will eat you. Consider music and art and literature and fine food and rich drink and laughter from the belly and sex that breaks the silence of the night. Try to consider all this, and more, more and more and more, and take a good path.

The android says, “Sir, can I get you anything?”

I think, and I say, “Some answers would be nice.”

“And what is the question, Sir?”

“Why?” I simply say and the android stands and walks away without answering and my boy is sat there and he drops his spoon in his cereal and starts to giggle and I think, maybe he’ll just be happy, there’s always that idea too.

Building inspiration: Church in La Laguna - Spain