short story one

Room 101

Hi there. I know it may sound strange and maybe I’m the only one feeling this way, but I don’t know. Some people say that I’m not very normal and I cannot deny this statement, but I was wondering if I’m the only one feeling this particularly way.

Imagine yourself being invited to a party and it is a social duty to accept it, but you would rather eat two kilo’s of pure salt at once than attending this party. My dear friend let me explain you why. It’s not so much about the place or the time, it’s not even that you are tired or that your favorite game is on TV, but it’s all about the people.

I don’t know if should tell you directly the definition or the description of these people so you can find out for yourself what exactly I’m talking about.

You meet these kind of human creatures in your everyday life. You see them in supermarkets, while they are walking their dog, at cinemas and exhibitions, theatres and museums. To put it differently, they are all around you, and I don’t know if you notice them, or maybe you notice them, but you do not mind. One thing I ‘m hundred percent sure of is that they are the most nerve-breaking-irritating-pain in the brains-human beings.

These kind of people park their big fancy cars in front of their even bigger and more expensive houses situated in nice, quiet and safe suburbs. These residences are usually surrounded by a neat and perfect miniature copy of a French or English old style gardens which are decorated with “ancient Greek” statues and fountains or any other kind of “artistic valuable” ornaments. In order to make long story short, everything has to be according the book. There is nothing that can be different from the rest. Every place is exactly the same, but yet “original”. The rule is that if someone plants a new type of tree, then almost all the neighbors will plant exactly the same tree, but maybe a different color in order to be original. If the family next-door buys a new car, then the neighbor has to buy a bigger and more expensive car so he can show that he isn’t any lower on the social scale. This type of people also dress up more or less the same, according the latest fashion and magazines of “The Society Shop” or any other shops of that kind. Even during a “gardening day”, when the whole neighborhood gets out in the lovely weather to perk up their neat gardens, they will wear their old clothes that consist of: a f 300,- pair of half a year old trousers with a tiny and invisible hole somewhere in a place that the human eye is not able to see, a Yves St.Laurent polo-shirt, the most expensive gardening gloves that can exists in order not to damage their fine hands and a pair of rubber boots, so clean and shiny that I would be able to use it as a mirror so as to get a clean shave. This is the way that my fellow human colleagues look like.

I’m trying not to judge by the appearances, but their outside does not differ much from their inside. When I told you that their gardens are decorated according the book, I wasn’t just throwing words into the wind, because this is exactly how their minds are as well. It may sound weird, but it’s true. There is nothing special about them; they don’t have any kind of weirdness in them, in order to make them special. They are as dull and normal as a wooden door. No, I’m sorry, a wooden door is more special, because someone special has created it, but these mortals are trying to be impressive by their prosperity.

Regularly they live an overdone formal life according to the book of good manners. Please don’t understand me wrongly, I don’t have anything against good manners and politeness, actually I’m really in favor of it, but the controversial part is that if one lives his entire life in a very formal way, he will loose his own natural personality. That’s what bothers me so much. I’ll try to be more explicit. Let’s say that you are a top-manager at a middle-size firm and the work requires formal clothes. Fine. No problem. The problem arises when you get back home and you are with your family or friends having supper or just sitting around feeling nice and cozy, then please, I’m begging you, take that god-dammed tie off and just be yourself.

When I said that you are surrounded everywhere by them – at museums, theatres, cinemas and parties – I essentially wanted you to observe their way of acting. These beings are all laughter and talking and it is very interesting to listen to the conversations they are having. I don’t know if you already have had the possibility to do so, but you have to trust me when I’m telling you that all they are talking about is very superficial. The best part is when they start commenting an exhibition or a theatre play, because they don’t have a personal opinion. It doesn’t matter how crappy it was, but they still like it. Shall I tell you why? The purpose of their visit is not to enjoy it, but it is to be seen by their fellow kind or to tell the neighbors during a party that they have been there and how “lovely” it was. This is just to change the subject: “the weather”.

After reading all this you’ll probably ask the following question: Who are they? Well, I don’t know the right definition, but I think that I shall give them the name of snobs. O yes, just one more thing before I hang up; even if I’m generalizing, and even if we all are God’s creatures, there is still one thing remaining: no human is the same.