Happy Sunday!
So, a blog I follow,ย Fractured Faith Blog,ย posted a really cool and fun little challenge – read about it here:
B Movie Blogging Challenge
Of course, Iโm going to participate. How could I not?
What follows, is my entry. And, once again, even it is not chosen, I shall include this โshort storyโ (of sorts) in the book Iโm putting together with other such โtiny tales.โ Enjoy!
* * *
โThe Naughty Wanderer from National Securityโ
He was just a man. A man working a job. Sure it wasnโt your basic โ9-to-5er,โ but it paid the bills.
Then one day it all got to be too much – too many citizens-turned-terrorist, too many senseless almost bombings, too many good people gone bad – too much, too much.
And so … he just walked away. Didnโt even pack up his desk. Just left it as is. There wasnโt much of his stuff, of himself and who he was, there anyway. He preferred to keep his real life separate from this place, from his work.
Without a word to anyone, he walked to the elevator, took it down to the main floor, flashed his badge to leave, and exited the building. Never to look back.
See, that wasnโt exactly prescribed protocol. Wasnโt how it was supposed to be done. Not quite. โWell,โ he thought to himself, โthat was just too damn bad.โ
And as he stood there on the cold hard sidewalk, gazing about at all the people coming and going, clueless in their certainty of โwhat was,โ he considered – what to do from here? There were options. Other jobs, for one. Places he hadnโt yet been. Friends to make he didnโt have. Maybe even a real life to be made, with a wife, and kids. Then again, maybe not. He knew first-hand the type of world he lived in, and the unseen dangers which lurked around every corner.
Not being one to overthink anything, he began walking, around the corner of the building heโd worked at for eight long years. And just kept right on walking.
Sure, theyโd probably come after him. If nothing less than to ask why. Why? The why shouldย be self-explanatory. What they all did there, their assigned duties, hardly seemed to make a difference. Most days it seemed as though the bad guys were winning. But then, if they didnโt do their jobs, if they didnโt push back against those same bad guys, werenโt they failing those whom they were sworn to protect?
It didnโt matter anymore, at least thatโs what he told himself as he rounded yet another corner.
Maybe, it was time to switch sides. Or, simply appear to.
And as he passed by a face he recognized, recognized from a wall of such people heโd been staring at for years, someone who had no idea who he was; he smiled. A slow, sly, knowing smile. Pivoting lithely on one foot, he resumed his walk, following that face. Pursuing a different course, altering the direction of his life, becoming a wanderer in a new, and ever-changing landscape of possibility.
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