Borealis 2015-2016

The Opportunity of a Lifetime Much later, the men would return. After many hours of deliberation, debate, discussions, disagree- ments and demoralization, a conclusion was finally reached. Whether or not they had in fact come to an agreement was not disclosed. The people had no desire to know, regardless of the lack of disclosure pertaining to the decision that would shape the rest of their lives, and the lives of their children, and the lives of the children’s children,and so on for approximately three generations. They would much rather close their eyes and pretend that nothing was wrong, and that nothing had happened, and they would be on their merry ways. After all, their ignorance was more blissful than a day at the beach after sleeping in till noon, eyes still red from the night before, having a picnic at a park bench, riding a bicycle down the boulevard at sunset as a warm breeze blows through their hair and loose clothes, making a pitstop at an ice cream parlor before arriving home to fall asleep under one bedsheet with a fan blowing lightly from the next room over. They would look away from the issues they face, and they would chug along for a century or so like a train during the industrial revolution. Chug along, that is, until their temperament became hotter than a Hiroshima baby carriage, at which point their silly heads with all their gears and widgets twistin’ n’ turnin’ away, would blow apart, and shortly thereafter, they would demand that the men revive the deliberations and debates, discussions and disagreements, and demoralize each other some more. Ethan Uslabar 12.30

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