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44
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