Hobo (Short Story)

Everyday he wakes up by the dawn, his work at the bank is far away from his home. There is no time to say goodbye to his wife. There is no time to have his breakfast. And what if there is time for both, everything will be in a hurry, no amusement, no feelings, just a filling of a habit. It is a long way to the bus station, and a long journey to work, everyday. It is like every journey in life, it changes. But this journey changes him from a man into a machine. During the journey he starts to turn to be like a cog, has no purpose but to take some papers at the end of each month. He likes to call them, magic papers, because they have the ability to disappear within days. His only amusement was sleeping. He hates getting up too late and going to bed too late.

After years of working, he finally could get a loan to buy a comfortable car to go to his work, and, considering himself a lucky man, he could also get another loan to buy a house near his work. Thanks, to the new house and car, his journey to work is easier, but the magic papers are getting more powerful, they last shorter and shorter.

His wife is a very beautiful woman, because she is a magazine reader, she spends her paper in everything that makes her look pretty, because her work obliges her to be beautiful. She is a receptionist, and she has to be a representative of a beautiful institution. She knows deep inside her that a company hiring people according to their outside appearance is a superficial company. She knows that deep inside her she is not that beautiful, just like her company. But, she is satisfied that the company is helping her to remain beautiful, without her magical papers she won’t be able to afford buying all these cosmetics and chemicals.

When there is time for the couple to meet, they argue about one thing, what to subtract the rest of our numbers in? most probably they settle on one thing, insurance and junk. Like everyone living in this modern life, they spend their numbers on noting but these things: a car to go to the corporation, a house near the corporation, a loan from a corporation, insurance from a corporation, and junk to eat from another corporation. However, the only good time they could have is when they eat together anything.

All the time, they thought they had an important rule in life, he is a banker and she is a representative of one of the biggest companies in the world. Only when that day came, when the wife was going to her job, her vital and important job, she was hit by a car, ironically it was the car of her boss, she died at once, but her company went on that day, exactly the same way it used to run on the other days.

The husband knew what happened to his wife. He realized something funny, something that no one could realize unless something strong let him wake up from that hypnosis he is living at. “I am a slave to money” the man realizes. I am losing my like for papers and numbers, big numbers and big papers, but there is no time nor health to enjoy them, and even when I buy things to get happy, I lose this happiness in queues, reservation, prices, time, expiration dates, taste,.etc. there is nothing called a “Joyful product” in fact, MONEY CANNOT BUY HAPPINESS. Even if you think that you work so that you could have a value. You will die as well as your so-called value.

The man asked himself: “now what to do? I bought the car and the house for the job, not for my family, and for these two things I have to work everyday all the time so that I could keep them, for my master to enslave me. I will go, I don’t need anything from my corporation, they can keep the house, they can take the car, I am happy there is a last resort to man to regain his freedom; I CAN become a hobo. Only those who can could survive. As long as you are satisfied with simple things, you will live happily, because happiness lies in simplicity.

Free water for all (short story)

One day a white man came into a village, or a forest. People there was living a very simple life, they were like children, or like animals. Yet, they had their values, rules that control and dictate their existence, Rules that were put by SOME of them. That is the meaning of a rule; to make sure that there is order for the sake of the most, in case that the most case is in the favor of those who put the rule.

The white man had his own rules too, his rules made him appear like more sophisticated, more human, and more grown up. However, when he is seen alone he acts as childish as the villagers. But nobody sees him alone, even he himself has never seen himself alone before. That is why he believe he is better, because he is always under the spot, always busy. He is not as instinctive like the villagers because he doesn’t let himself to have the time to be like them.

The river used to pass by the village everyday, new waters pass by without getting bored. Maybe the river doesn’t think, but the villagers worship it, although they think. Maybe they don’t find it a problem, because to them the worshiped shouldn’t necessarily be a thinker. It is enough to be powerful and satisfier. Thousands of years ago, the river used to grant them clean water to drink and wash and grow their animals and plant. And on some occasions when the river gets angry, because of the sins the villagers commit, it stops delivering its water. So, they pray and ask for it, couple of months, and the water comes again. The villagers got happy and thank their god, river.

It was that day, when the villagers drank from the river, and all of them got sick from the water. It tasted funny, and disease began to prevail between the villagers. They all asked what happened to the water. No one could answer. Only, when the white man delivered his speech, everyone knew what happened.

The white man: “fellow villagers, for the sake of you people, I have seen your miseries, your ignorance, your unemployment, and decided to help you, a new project that will change the image of your village. I know you have nothing to do, your time pass in vain. That is why I decided to build a new project for you, A mining factory to extract oil from the river. You have a real treasure under your running river. I dag and oil came to the surface. You need oil for your kids, you need it for investment, you need it for communication, and you need it for power and security. That is why I decided to open the new factory by your river, to give you all jobs, so that you can all afford to buy CLEAN WATER.