The Contract

The story of a young man learning the importance of meeting obligations in life.

            The Contract

When Dudley was just learning how to talk he started to tentatively grasp that his parents expected certain things from him.  At first it all seemed to have to do with his bodily functions.  He had to eat with a tool, poop in a receptacle, wear clothes and wash in the morning.  He did not know why he had to do these things, and he resisted quite a bit to them.  For a while anyway. 

As he grew older he was "forced" to take on more conventions.  He learned you had to say thank you when someone did something for you, you had to behave in school and control yourself, avoid cutting through neighbor's lawns, etc.

It was all a drag and he did not understand why anyone would do any of this stuff if they had a choice.  But as far as he could tell he had no choice, the consequences were too staggering for choice.

Then he got a paper route.  He did it for the money so he could buy things for himself. At first he slopped through his deliveries every morning at the latest time possible just to get paid. Every two weeks he would collect his money and he gave little thought to his customers. 

But then one day Dudley received a tip from a customer who liked getting his paper early in the morning.  He did not get it to him early intentionally.  He just happened to deliver to that person first in the morning.  An idea occurred to him: if you gave good service you could make more money.  He decided to get up early and make sure he delivered to everyone without accidently missing them.  The tips grew considerably and it was then that Dudley conceptualized to himself that the more energy you put into a job, the more you could get back from it.

After doing the paper route for a few years, it came time for Dudley to take on more.  His parents would hint that he should get a salaried job during the summer, in order to prepare him for adulthood.  This did make some sense to him, though he was not excited at the prospect.  He'd just as soon have as much down time to himself as he could get--to listen to his music collection, play with his friends or play games.

So, reluctantly, after giving it some thought, he decided to work an entre level job for a summer at the Grand Canyon.  It would get him out of the house, and it was a beautiful location. 

He applied through the mail and a month later received a contract to work the summer season as kitchen utility, which was a respectable term for dishwasher.  He looked at the contract as a formality that had to be signed in order to work.  He did not give it much thought.  So when May came, Dudley went off to the Grand Canyon.

There, he met some interesting young people from all over the world.  He also began working full time at hard physical labor for the first time in his life, and it was drudgery.  His eight hour shifts of doing the same boring thing over and over again seemed to take forever to get through.  After about two weeks he found himself violently scratching out each day he spent there on his calendar, impatient to return home and start college.

One day after he had been there about a month, he received a letter from his older brother inviting him to visit him in California--if and when he had the time.  Suddenly, it occurred to Dudley that he could abandon his job at the Grand Canyon and drive out to his brother's place and take it easy the rest of the summer.  He technically did not have to work, had plenty of money saved up from his paper route.  He put in his two week notice.

The day after, he went to work only to be invited into the kitchen manager's office.  His boss frowned at him.  "You signed a contract for the entire season.  You know what happens when someone leaves early and breaks their contract?  The others think it is okay for them too.  Pretty soon they start dropping like flies."

Dudley looked back at him sheepishly.  "I haven't seen my brother for a couple of years, and I don't like it here."

His boss frowned even more.  "You have to do some things in life you don't want to do.  Society would not work if everyone broke their contracts."  Then he seemed to have an idea.  "Maybe I can give you a few days off.  You can take a short trip to see your brother and come right back.  Everyone will be assured that you are staying on here and are honoring your contract."

Dudley was sure he did not want to come back.  "Sorry."  He walked out of the office feeling ashamed of himself but glad his burden was nearly over.

He spent the next month travelling on a grand road trip out west, ending at his brother's place in California.  At first this was novel and fun.  But eventually he got tired of hanging out at his brother's and decided to go back and visit the Grand Canyon once again.  He had some friends there he missed.

But when he got there, he discovered that everything had changed.  Many of his friends had left, and nearly half of the kitchen employees he had worked with just a month ago had left.  He ran into his former boss.

"I told you they would start dropping like flies," he said.  "Happens every time."

Dudley felt a sharp pain of guilt.  Then he decided to do something about it.  "Tell you what.  I'll came back and work my old job till the season is over.  Will you take me?"

And that is how he returned to work and assuaged the guilt he felt from breaking the contract and causing complications in the workplace.

After that fiasco he learned to honor his work contracts, though he soon discovered there were other contractual arraignments out there in life.

He learned that romance and love cannot sustain a marriage--partners needed to work at their marriage and to share responsibilities of raising children.  He learned that attention of his children was a kind of investment that was needed in order for his children to pay attention to him and heed him.  He even learned to tithe because as he put it: "the universe seems to work on the spreading of love and energy."

When Dudley was an old man he spent some time listening to his wife every day, playing cards with other retirees, volunteering at the local library, and attempting to live conscious and  considerately every moment of every day.

He died a happy man who had come a long way from being bewildered by conventions.