Obsequious

A Story by JD2D

Short story, really short. Wrote for a bit of fun to get the creative mind flowing.

Obsequious

Jack stumbled through his front garden; exhausted. As he lay on the knoll and looked up at the bittersweet tangerine sky of the late evening he wished that he didn’t live in the city. Stars seemed to avoid big groups of people, or at the very least avoid their buildings.

Work had continued as usual for the young man of 25. Pale office walls and even paler humans inside of them. Surely a person can only answer the same phone so many times within a day and still remain sane. Jack’s eyes winced as he ran his hands through the tall grass of his lawn. Every day for months he’d had the same tradition of lumbering home from the train station and collapsing on his lawn. It brought him peace and gave him enough heart to get ready for the next day.

“One day this trick isn’t going to work or there’s not going to a night sky as good as the others and I wont be able to take the next day” thought Jack to himself. “Who will save me then, maybe I’ll just float off into space.” As he began humming the tune to Space Oddity Jack wondered if something could come from nothing. If this life that he had could be made into one that was enjoyable. Or even if he was someone else would he enjoy his current status. The curious mysteries of a mind too exhausted to properly realize that his best work shirt was getting increasingly grass stained.

Was obedience something that was drilled into him or something that he had obtained after giving up. Servile to a fault Jack though to himself. If his overlords deigned to pay him less would he had the backbone to stand up for himself or even quit. The unctuous work ethic that infected his peers had always annoyed him but was he any better then they. Tight shirts, boring shoes and flattened minds.

“I wish it was as simple as leaving” Said Jack to no one in particular.

Maybe tomorrow he’d have the courage. By now the sun had completely set and dinner needed to be made and eaten. Jack groaned audibly as his tired bones matched his tired heart. Slinging his coat lazily over one shoulder he marched to the light of his front door and entered ready to face to day.