Chapter 2

This is Chapter 2. Please review!

 

Chapter 2

               

Colin bid goodbye to his friends and stumbled through the front door of the house that he shared with his father. He dumped his school bag in the cramped hallway and kicked off his shoes adding to the pile already accumulated there. Then he made his way into the small kitchen with his sock-clad feet slipping across the shiny tiles.

 

He was met by the sight of his father leaning against one of the work surfaces, a cup of tea in one hand and a photo in the other. His slightly balding head was catching the last rays of sunlight seeping through the window. With him was a woman in her early thirties who had dark curly hair and an overly whitened smile. Colin recognised her as Mrs Whittle, their neighbour from across the road.

 

“And that’s his first smile,” the woman gestured to the photo with her own dazzling beam plastered across her face.

“He’s adorable, Janet,” Colin’s father, Oliver complimented her before looking up and spotting his son standing in the doorway. “Oh, hey Col how was school?”

“The usual,” the boy shrugged using the reply that all teenagers universally implemented when they meant they couldn’t be bothered to go into detail.

 

Once he’d gotten over the surprise of seeing Janet Whittle in his house, Colin made his way over to the cupboard and pulled out a glass. He then put the object beneath the tap in the sink and stated clearly. “Ice cold water.” The liquid spurted out immediately.

 

“You get bigger every time I see you, Colin,” Janet announced in that voice that adult’s used when they’re trying to be polite and friendly to break an awkward silence.

“Growth spurt,” the teenager muttered as he brought the cup to his lips and sipped.

“Well, my little Freddie is growing fast. Just yesterday he had his first giggle. I knocked it right out of him, mind, with my trusty wooden spoon. He won’t be trying that again in a hurry.” The woman smiled in that sickly sweet manner.

 

It is natural for the human child to laugh even before they know how to speak or understand basic language so they can express emotion. However, in this society it is not tolerated and the instinctive laughter has to be weaned out of them using methods usually involving the fact if they laugh they are hurt. This training method is psychological and similar to that of a dog with an electric collar, if it bites it will be electrocuted so therefore it will not bite again. It associates the action with pain. This is the same with young babies so by the time they reach one they learn never to laugh again.

 

Despite the fact they are not allowed to laugh people are still allowed to be happy and have fun. Then can be cheerful about life and have a chipper and optimistic attitude yet never be allowed to laugh. Emotions other than laughter are not restricted at all.

 

“Anyway, I must be off. Dave is going to be back and wanting his tea. Its meatloaf tonight isn’t it?”

“No, that’s tomorrow, tonight is Mediterranean pasta,” Oliver informed her kindly.

“Ah, I always forget. I need to memorize my Menu Guide more thoroughly. Goodbye! See you again some time.”

 

Each week members of Britain are sent a Menu Guide which instructs them on what ingredients they shall be receiving and what meals to use them with. That way the Ministry of Food can very easily monitor and control how much everyone eats.

 

If someone in the household was vegetarian or had a food allergy this would be taken into account. However, with the healthy eating regime in place, less and less people were finding they were intolerant to any foods.

 

The food they were given definitely wasn’t bad at all, nearly everything being organic, and considering the generation barely knew anything of chocolate or crisps other than myths they didn’t know what they were missing. They were used to the schedule and never thought about changing it.

 

Once Mrs Whittle had left, Colin headed for his bedroom where he dropped onto his bed and picked up the book he had been in the middle of reading the night before. It was quite old-fashioned considering all the words stayed in one place and it had so many flimsy pages that were vulnerable to damaging tears at any moment. Colin loved the texture and the layout however so only ever read the books which his dad had hoarded over the decades having been passed on as an heirloom. They just felt much more real and honest than the electronic, unfeeling screens of the Teletext and Colin revered and took care of them diligently.

 

Suddenly a warm furry body leapt onto his stomach and the boy issued a surprised yelp as his cat padded across his torso. “Hello, Casper,” Colin greeted him and ran his hand down the animal’s sleek back receiving a delighted purr from deep within the cat’s throat. Casper twisted round to lick his master’s bony hand in an act of affection.

 

“Col, have you got any homework to do?” his father’s voice called from downstairs and the youngster groaned. He pushed the feline off him and thumped down the stairs in a very reluctant fashion. Once in the hallway he picked up his bag and shook out the history Teletext screen that he was supposed to be studying. “Colin Hart, are you going to answer me?”
“Yes, Dad, this is it!” Colin entered the living room and shook the book in front of his father’s face with a disgruntled expression gracing his young features. “Happy?”

“Very. Supper will be ready around seven.”

“Great. Whatever,” the teen shrugged; turning to leave the dingy room with the curtains half closed but paused as he spotted what was on the television.

 

The screen was paper thin and completely wireless. It could literally be stuck on the wall with some sticky tack like a poster. The picture on it was perfectly defined so it almost seemed as if the person on the screen was in the room with them.

 

Since the introduction of the no comedy law, television programmes had vanished almost completely until there were only three channels left. One was for news, another for documentaries about Britain and the last for very serious, hard hitting dramas that were very intense and grim.

 

At the moment, Oliver Hart was watching the news channel and they were talking about the most recent space mission. The space probe exploring the extended solar system was called Reach II and it was searching for alien life on a newly discovered planet that showed very promising signs of water. The man speaking on the screen was the American President, Harrison Gellar. He was promoting the mission explaining how good it would be for Earth to finally discover extraterrestrials and realise they are not alone; the same record that had been playing for the last thousand years.

 

Colin didn’t understand how this man and the four other World Leaders could spend so much money and resources in these projects in outer space with rockets and probes that were not exactly environmentally friendly when he wasn’t even allowed on a hybrid bus without good reason. He wasn’t the only one to share this view and the Five-Point World Leaders had been criticised openly numerous times for their priorities.

 

The Five-Point leaders were the elite of the world today. They represented the countries of America, Britain, Japan, Russia and China who were essentially the higher powers in worldwide society. They controlled the rules and regulations and were the group that had implemented all the ideas to make the ‘world a better place’. Each leader was democratically voted in by the people but considering the how little the amount of voters was it was reasonably easy to secure a place. The same people had been part of the Five-Point for the last seven years.

 

For America it was the enigmatic black man, Harrison Gellar. For Britain it was the brutally honest and strict, Kevin Lurch. For Japan it was the highly intelligent Winston Yang. For Russia it was the no nonsense, tough woman Gavrilla Elstin. And finally, for China it was the creative and charming Bingwen Sun. All five believed they were the only ones who knew how to make the world how it should be.

 

“Hey, Col, you going upstairs to do your work or not?” Oliver snapped his son out of his thoughts and the child spun on the spot and proceeded to clamber up the stairs.

 

Settling himself on the comfortable chair by his desk, the teenager dropped the Teletext on the surface and began flipping through the pages with the scroll icon to get to the point he had reached in the lesson.

 

He eventually found it and resigned himself to a boring next hour or two until supper which would be a short reprieve before more reading.

After about forty five minutes, Colin had reached the beginning of the 2400s and the start of the Rebellion. This was the only bit of the entire homework text he was interested in and he began concentrating in earnest.

 

Extract from ‘British History 2000-2600AD’

 

The Rebellion of 2401 – 2410

 

Considering all the rules and regulations put into place without much warning it was hardly surprising that some people were not happy. This unhappiness resulted in something larger than just resentment towards the government. It developed into an uprising from protesters who wanted comedy, cars and food back. Essentially they wanted their freedom of choice.

 

There were three main leaders of this bold rebellion. They were Samantha Regal, Jeremy Tanner and Greg Robinson. These three were childhood comrades and decided enough was enough.

 

To begin with the entire process was harmless; they just painted signs and rallied together some demonstrative marches against the new laws. However, Tanner didn’t think that was sufficient as the government just ignored them. The group needed to come up with something bigger and more effective. So was born the Underground Comedy Groups.

 

These were illegal meetings organised by the threesome all over the country in the dead of night – well after curfew. The gatherings would consist of eating and drinking banned substances and introducing comedy and laughter to those who didn’t really know what it meant to have fun.

 

The government tried everything in their power to quash these groups and capture the instigators but the trio eluded them time and again.

 

Soon, Tanner, Regal and Robinson became known throughout the country as the Justice Jesters, a name coined from the medieval character which made people laugh for a living.

 

The Justice Jesters were encouraged and supported by so many for about six years with over ten thousand people signing up to be part of the Underground Comedy Groups and taking part in the marches.

 

However, that was when the Five-Point leaders stepped in with their no nonsense policy in order to resume the norm. They threatened anyone found dealing with the Justice Jesters and said that they would be killed and their families severely punished for their misdoings.

 

Numbers went down dramatically after this warning though a few hundred still remained completely loyal to the Jesters.

 

Around 15^th May 2408, Jeremy Tanner declared that the Justice Jesters would come out of the shadows and battle for their freedom in front of everyone. This was practically a declaration of war on the Five-Point leaders who were more than happy to reciprocate.

 

From then on the Justice Jesters attacked government buildings, vandalised Patrolling Droids, painted the streets with graffiti, hijacked the news channel and took several famous politicians hostage in aid of their cause.

 

Bloodshed was abnormally frequent in the commonly peaceful society with over two hundred people losing their lives on both sides. These included discovered Justice Jester members being dragged out onto the street and having a bullet through their head in front of their entire family.

 

On 7^th October 2410 everything came to an end when the headquarters of the Justice Jesters was stormed and Samantha Regal was killed. The co-founders were captured and both Tanner and Robinson were sentenced to death as an example to the masses. It was never discovered who betrayed the three friends’ hideout to the law and it was pure bad luck that the trio were there when it was attacked as they could’ve been at any one of a number of hidden places.

 

Since the rebellion there have been several smaller ones but none as effective or devastating as the Justice Jesters plight for freedom.

 

                       ***

 

Jonah Silvas did have a very unique personality compared to hundreds of people who lived in the era he did. It may have had something to do with the fact that he grew up with another sibling in the house – even if she wasn’t related by blood – or maybe it was just the way he was born. Whatever the reason Jonah’s character contrasted dramatically with many others, mainly because he was out-going, fun-loving and forever optimistic and cheerful. These traits were so rare altogether in one person because grouped together they verged on someone who could easily be funny. And Jonah definitely did have the potential to be funny.

 

Several times the comments he made or things he did could so simply be turned into a catalyst for laughter however he never received it, mostly because no one knew how to laugh or completely missed his underlying meanings. Only Jonah knew how close he occasionally came to slipping up and breaking the law but even he didn’t know what it meant.

 

At the moment, however, he was currently involved in a very loud shouting match with his sister over who would have which place at the table.

 

“Netti, I always sit here! I need space to stretch my legs,” the tall boy stated struggling to push his sister off him.

“Yeah, but I put my plate down there so that’s where I’m sitting. We shouldn’t have designated places to sit. I want to sit wherever the hell I please,” Netti scowled and resumed the bombardment of Jonah.

“Will the two of you just quit arguing for one moment?” their father growled and pulled his daughter away with ease considering how light she was and dropped her down in the seat next to her brother. “There, now you sit there and leave your brother alone.”

“That’s not fair-“

“Netti, I don’t care what’s fair. We are eating dinner and you will behave. Understood?”

“Yes, Dad.”

“I’m glad. Now, let’s eat.”

 

By this time, Jonah’s mother had taken the last pot of vegetables off the stove and headed over to the table to take her own seat. Sophia, as usual, looked absolutely radiant, her cheeks rosy from cooking and her thick golden curls drifting like a halo around her head. She offered a small smile to her husband in thanks for dealing with the two squabbling children and picked up her fork to dig into her pasta.

 

Both parents found their family as perfect as they could ever want it, however, it was a very different situation to what either of them had dealt with in the past so they did find themselves encountering some unexpected obstacles with two children in the same household. To start with they needed a bigger house than those provided for the normal sized family of three and also, when ordering their food supplies for the week they had to specify and present evidence that there were four within their family. This had proven extremely stressful to begin with but eventually they had got used to it and going down to the supermarket to collect all the right quantities on their shelf wasn’t hard.

 

All the main supermarkets in London and all over Britain in fact, had designated catchment areas and those who lived in that certain area would only get food from one supermarket.

 

These supermarkets were all owned by the government and stocked only the food they decided. Unlike the conventional markets in the past these huge warehouses were not for browsing.

 

For the weekly shop one would go down and find their shelf, alphabetically ordered, on which would already have been placed all the right quantities for the main meals. Alterations could be made for dietary needs (such as pregnancy or allergies) and also for special occasions or family get-together where more food was needed.

 

Other than that the supplies were already set out and could simply be shoved in a cart to be wheeled home. Each household had their own trolley for weekly shops and no tills were needed as food bills were paid in advance by credit card.

 

The Silvas family sat and had a relatively peaceful dinner with Jonah and Netti only occasionally throwing jibes and insults at one another under their breath so as not to attract their parents’ attention.

By the time the meal had finished, night had completely blanketed the entire city outside. There was little need for street lamps at this time when no one was out so they were not switched on pretty much leaving the whole of London in pitch black. The only light sources that could be seen were the orange glows issuing from between the cracks in curtains of the houses down the street.

 

Jonah excused himself from the table and the washing up in favour of doing his homework. This left a very disgruntled Netti to do the dishes.

 

                       ***

 

Rory combed his wet locks carefully after his shower, inspecting the roots and making sure he didn’t need to apply any more dye this evening to cover up fading patches. However, everywhere he looked his hair remained a dazzling crimson. He smiled to himself and shoved the products he had been planning to use aside so he could reach his journal.

 

The teen had already eaten his evening meal and done his homework and tidied his room and had a shower and brushed his teeth. Now all that was left was his nightly ritual of scribbling down all his thoughts and feelings into his trusty journal.

 

He began writing his diary – if you want to call it that – about three years ago when he was going through a particularly rough patch in his life. Rory found that the writing of all his problems in a book helped him vent his cooped up feelings and ideas about the world he lived in and the life he led. It was his outlet for pent up anger and frustration, rather than a punch bag Rory liked to write.

 

Tonight, despite the fact it was almost the end of the school week he was in quite a depressed mood.

 

Extract from Rory Gunner’s journal

 

Ok, this is probably going to sound downright depressing and to my future self or whoever comes across this journal I’m sorry, but my life at the moment seems repetitive and tedious. I have no aims or ambitions, hopes or dreams; everything seems to be dreary and grey.

 

My day revolves around getting up, having breakfast, going to school, coming home, doing homework, eating and going to bed. It’s an endless circle that I can’t seem to snap out of (now I know how a gerbil feels trapped in a cage with no freedom and just mounds of dull sawdust for company).

 

I want something to happen, something that will unbalance everything and turn the world upside-down: something that can free me from dying very slowly of pure boredom.

 

I mean, what’s the point of living like this? We may be conserving the Earth and our health but what’s the point of life if you can’t live?

 

                       ***

 

Once the youngster had finished scratching down his thoughts he shut the book and chucked it into a drawer in his desk. Then he padded over to his bed and slithered under the covers. Usually he wouldn’t go to bed this early without a fight but quite frankly he was exhausted.

 

As Rory turned off the light a couple of streets away both Colin and Jonah did the same.

Author's Note

Sooo....tell me what you think!