(This is part five of a short story. It is written as a
script in case I talk someone into making this into a TV special.)
To catch up click here or here
or here
and
here…and now…on with the show:
By SJ Otto
Later that Friday we
were at Hilda's apartment getting ready to go to my club, Our Guns Are Fun. She
was wearing her usual black. The tattoos and the metal rings all give her a lot
of color she usually doesn’t have.
HILDA: These metal rings are starting to hurt.
HARLEY: I usually don't put that many on at one time. But
we're almost done. You'll get used to them pretty quick. I take it you already
have your fake tattoos on.
HILDA: Yes.
HARLEY: You're looking pretty good.
HILDA: Thanks.
HARLEY: Are we ready?
HILDA: I guess we won't need to sneak in booze to this place.
HARLEY: No. There will be as much liquor as you want.
We hopped in my car
and went across town to the club. A few miles down the road, in the middle of
the block was the large yellow plastic building. It was built with a modern
form of plastic that most of the newest buildings are made with. The building
had two large doors. Once inside there were TVs on every wall. It was hard to
tell what color the walls really were. Then there was the stage on the back
wall. Tonight they had the band; New Hands, to play cover songs. Then there was
the black plastic chairs placed everywhere.
Once we got in there,
I saw three of my friends, Ted, Ratchet and Edward. They were all dressed
similar to me, with various shades of tan pants and hipster beards (that is hipster
for that time period). And they all had their own unique types of metal
implements on their arms, ears and necks.
They were standing in
the bar area. I went over to the three. Ted and Ratchet had beers. Edward was
holding a scotch on the rocks. Then I went up to the bar to get a butterscotch
beer for me and a vodka rabbit chaser for Hilda.
HARLEY: Hey you guys!
TED: Hey! How's your Trump Hoover running?
HARLEY: Great. I think it is ready for the mid-level hover
tracks. That reminds me. I almost forgot to pay my road fees for that part of
town.
RATCHET: Who's the
girl?
HARLEY: This is Hilda.
THEY ALL SAY TOGETHER: Hi!
HILDA: Hi! And by the way. Did you guys know that roads were
free at one time?
TED: What?
HILDA: The government ran them and they didn't charge
everyone fees to use them.
TED: Then how were they paid for?
HILDA: They took it out of taxes.
HARLEY: Hilda is a political freak. She likes to talk about
political things, like history.
TED: Wow. That could come in handy...I guess. I kind of hate
politics. It's too boring.
HARLEY: How about the Trumpville Tigers. You think they will
win tomorrow?
TED: Sure. Say, I’m thinking of getting a Plasmodium Hover Kicker
95. You think those are good hover cars?
HARLEY: Sure. But not until this year’s model comes out.
Just then Eva came up
to them. She was wearing red pants and a bright green shirt. She is blond, and
had here hair spiked with metal clamps. Her hair looked like a Mohawk. She was
holding a Bubble-fest
and bourbon.
EVA: Hey Everyone!
ALL: Hey!
EVA: Who is your new bird?
HARLEY: This is Hilda.
EVA: Good to meet you. What do you do for a living?
HILDA: I work as a librarian at the Wal*mart Library.[1]
EVA: I work in a finance office, of Chet and Ormies. How do
you like the band they have here tonight? (The
music of the band is playing in the background.)
HILDA: Fine.
EVA: They play a lot of songs by Commercial Potential. That
is about my favorite band.
HILDA: Really? I can’t say I’ve heard them before.
EVA: Never heard them?! We’re have you been the last year?
In a cave? Anyway, I spend a lot of time listening and following my favorite
singers and bands. My boyfriend is in a band. He plays an electronic trombone.
HILDA: I don’t really like music that much…What I mean is I
don’t really follow any bands or special kinds of music.
EVA: Oh! I see. I’m hoping to be a singer myself, someday.
HILDA: Like being on 'America Wins?' (A more modern version
of 'American Idol.') If you win, you get a big recording contract.
EVA: Yeah! I practice my singing a lot. Some days I just get
lazy. Sometimes I get as lazy as a chicken.
HILDA: As lazy as a what?
EVA: A chicken. You know. Those lazy people we eat.
HILDA: You just assume they are all lazy?
EVA: Well they are. That’s why we use them for food. They not
useful to our society other than their food.
HILDA: Don’t they work and hold jobs?
EVA: Yeah. The crappy jobs that regular people don’t want.
They only do them because no one else will do them.
HILDA: But they do those jobs and they are not always easy
jobs.
EVA: That doesn’t matter. They only work when they have too.
They would do nothing if we let them get away with that. Most of those people
have no real talents. No real abilities. My great great uncle said the
government used to pay poor people like them to sit around all day doing
nothing. They just sat around doing nothing all day long. And they lived to be
real old.
HILDA: Well, do you think they are just born lazy?
EVA: Well, generation after generation of those people just
sat around doing nothing for so long, it became part of their culture…their
personalities. After several generations of people not having to doing anything
for themselves they just started to turn out that way. It was obvious these
people couldn’t take care of themselves so now we put them to good use. We eat
their meat.
Just then Ratchet
heard them. His face showed an interest and he walked over to get in on the
conversation.
RATCHET: Those people are dumb.
HILDA: How can you be so sure?
RATCHET: None of them go to college. They work at real
stupid jobs.
HILDA: They don't live long enough to benefit from college.
And they probably take the only jobs they can get.
RATCHET: If they were smart they would get better jobs.
HILDA: So the only thing they are good for is to be eaten?
RATCHET: Eating them is the best thing for them. After all,
they can't really do much with their lives. If they lived as long as we do, it
would just be a waist of their time and ours.
HILDA: You think they are better off dead?
RATCHET: Well yeah. They don't even notice how short their
lives are. They are so dumb they believe everything our society tells them.
HILDA: How's that different from the rest of society? I mean
do you believe everything you hear from our political leaders?
RATCHET: Well I'm not saying I believe everything I'm told,
but I can tell when I'm being scammed.
HILDA: So they are being scammed?
RATCHET: Well if they were smart they wouldn't let the rest
of us just eat them.
HILDA: Have you ever really met any of these people?
RATCHET: Sure. I work with some of them.
EVA: So do I.
HILDA: Have you ever gotten to know any of them? I mean like
meet their families or go out for drinks with them?
BOTH EVA AND RATCHET: Are you crazy?
RATCHET: Why would I hang out with an idiot chicken. That
would be a complete waist of my time.
EVA: Yeah.
(Hilda walked over to
me and asked me to dance.)
HILDA: Let's dance.
HARLEY: Sure. Lets go. (We
both walked to the dance floor. A slow song was playing, so we got in close.)
HILDA: I want to leave. Can we go now?
HARLEY: We just got here. And you're doing a good job of
fitting in.
HILDA: No. I'm not. I've been defending the chicken class
and they must be wondering why I would do that. They seem hateful. If they knew
who I was they would hate me. Can we go back to my place?
HARLEY: OK. If that is what you really want.
HILDA: It is.
(We walked out the
door and headed to my car. Then back to Hilda's place. We stopped to pick up a
bottle of vodka. Then we ended up in Hilda's Kitchen, sitting at the old wood-like
plastic table.)
HILDA: I guess I knew your people were like that, but this
is the first time I heard it all from them in person. It's not just an
editorial or a sound byte. It is the real thing, up front and personal.
HARLEY: That is what we all have heard our whole lives. I
guess it takes a lot for a person to go past all of it and see what the other
people are really like. You can't really blame people for saying things they
have been taught to say.
HILDA: Maybe I can't blame them for the way they were
taught. But would it kill them to at least think about those things they've
been told. They may not realize it but they are mean and cruel. They don't know
anything about real chickens. Everything they believe is a lie. How can they
not see that?
HARLEY: I guess most people never question those things.
HILDA: You aren't like them. How did you see past all of
that?
HARLEY: I was horny and you looked real hot.
HILDA: I guess there is something to be said of a person who
follows their basic instincts.
To be continued.....
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