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Wednesday, November 1, 2023

"The Average American" by Christian G

 


January 1, 1920

            My Mother told me to start writing this diary, she said it would be a memory to look back on. Or whatever. So, I am a High School freshman this year at Ponca High School, (Nebraska), and tomorrow I am going to have a merry day at school.

John had thought how odd it felt to write his feelings dpwm, but his Mom and Dad insisted on it for some reason, saying that it helped them manage their feeling during the Great War.


January 20, 1920

            My Dad asked about how the diary writing had been going, once he found out that I hadn't worked on it I was yelled at for an hour! You want me to write my feelings in this, WELL I HAD A TERRIBLE WEEK; THERE. What do they know! I am failing and I became the laughingstock of the school on my first day of school!

            I don’t want to go back to school but I need to, I can’t just let it go like this, this diary I’ll just lose it.


I can’t believe I found this old thing again. As he goes to blow off the dust, “cough, cough”, he opens the book and reads the only 2 entries. His only thoughts were, “ I really was a snotty brat. Maybe I should try writing again.

May 28, 1924

            I just graduated High school, and although I feel like I just started High School, time really does fly, doesn't it? (I guess I can quickly write down what has happened to me.) After I took care of my fellow classmates I was able to have fun and do things that mattered to me. Time doesn’t feel real right now, I have the hold world ahead of me.

“John we have to get going!” yelled Robert.

“Okay,” he said, as he shoved the book in his jecket.

He was moving out of his parent's house and has a job across town now.


June 3, 1929

            I lost my job, times have become rough and my car is being taken, I am living with Robert now and don’t know when I’ll have time to update this dirary, I’ll be moving back with my parents. But now is nothing but a time to celebrate Robert is getting married tomorrow and joy is the only thing we need moving forward.



 

August 18, 1933

We don’t have enough to eat, I am starving and my Mom and Dad may not last another day, I need to go out and find food. We won't last another day. Robert and his family have left for California, but we don’t have the funds to do that. I don’t know what is going to happen.

      Radio, “Tensions are still high after the banks have crashed causing an economic downturn never seen before.

John needs to go into town to find food of any kind. There, a basket of potatoes sitting on the floor in the distance he needs to grab it. As he began running toward it it seemed like it was getting farther away, it was a hallucination, but it was too late the wind's roar scattered in front of his face and into his eyes, he needed to take shelter now or there would be dire consequences. He ran into an old mine without any hope for shelter, as he sat in the mine he thought, “It smells funny in here”. The mine air was poisonous, it was slowly killing him; he who had no muscle to the fiber of his being. His only choice was to crawl deeper and deeper into the mine hoping to find shelter. Once he had reached the end of the mine it was a dead end, there was no hope of survival no hope of escape; but his will refused to give in he grabbed a leftover pickaxe a struck the floor causing a sinkhole to form so large it swallowed him whole. With a broken arm and broken leg, he laid in a pool of water that seemed to shimmer as if a light had graced itself upon it. His wounds healed his pain was no longer and his mind was ever clear. His only thoughts were “Sleep I want to sleep now.”...


Unknown

            I woke up in a strange place, the water that I thought I had laid in had disappeared, and I felt refreshed. Now to make my way out of this mine.

      John had easily climbed his way back up to the hole as if his body was in its prime state. Hewas able to enter the mine but now he no longer felt deterred by the strange scent. Although he had smelled something funny he was no longer affected by sent. At this time John did not notice anything, the fact that he was immune to a previously toxic gas did not even occur as a thought. When he had emerged there was nothing by dust to see for miles. He was able to get to town and ask a few survivors questions about what had happened only to learn that it was now the year 1938.


August 18, 1938

            GONE, GONE they are all gone. My parents, our house, and my town were swallowed by the dust and turned into dust. How, how could this have happened? I was only going to get food, none of this was supposed to happen.

      A radio off in the distance, “A war is predicted to break out in Europe within the next year, but no need to worry The Neutrality Act is being proposed by President Roosevelt. All of this information had never even made it into John's thoughts as he was engrossed in sorrow. He ended the night as a recluse in what used to be his parent's house.


August 18, 1942

            The attack on Pearl Harbor has harmed us. Robert sent me a letter saying he was serving in the war, I can not lose someone else important to me, and have sent off my draft registration card to join the army. I will not let him die, no it cannot even be thought.

      John had set off on a journey to his local draft board, which was located in the main city. He was able to get hold of a car, and although the roads were quite terrible he had made it in time for the first draft and would be stationed with Robert.


December 23, 1942

            They have been training us and I have been separated from Robert, his current whereabouts are unknown to me, they are apparently classified. They say we will be stationed soon and that for now we need to focus on building our teamwork.

            John's spirit was slowly breaking with nobody to rely on and no one to assure him of the future he slowly grew paranoid. It unconsciously implanted a seed of doubt in his heart.


 

 

 

April 1, 1945

            We are being deployed to Japan, and the days are grueling and hard but I am able to keep up because of Robbert, although for some reason when I talk to him around others, they never see him there. We are fighting today, and I am ready for the battle later today, I will take down those imperials.

            Robert has been long gone, lost in battle, his body has not recovered and many refuse to believe that he is dead, but Johns grief has caused him to suffered from hallucinations.


September 3, 1945

            A second sun has descended on me, gone once again, all around me is gone, the people are nothing but shadows. The buildings were gone and the spirit of the land burned. It wasn’t long before people came to investigate what had happened, and why they died while I survived, I needed to run or they would start asking questions.

      John had run further into the nuclear waste and people could not follow him due to the lethal levels of radiation, but it did not affect him because his cells were regenerating as fast as he was losing them.


 

 

September 3, 1945

            I don’t know what day it is but the season has passed and I don’t feel a day older. It’s just me in the house, everything dies, and nothing stays alive. Seems like a pattern with both people and plants is to disappear. Won’t it be easier to never be around life? I will just leave, loving people isn’t worth the trouble.

            The end…

 

Feeling unsatisfied, me too…

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