Prologue

Prelude to novel "The Abstract Approach" Inspired by a true story

            The schoolyard was filled with students in uniforms of blue. All lined up and disciplined like a small army of small men. The dark clouds above were frowning at the newly discovered expressions of anger and hatred on the lips of the children below. Long and numerous lines of young boys shouting in harmony things they did not fully understand and yet did not question.

On one side of the yard, a group of adults were standing on top of the stairs that led to the main building, and on the opposite side of the yard a lone boy with messy hair and an unbuttoned uniform wandered at the back of the lines, seemingly lost, definitely out of order. Under the feet of the older men three flames were giving their much needed light to the dark and aggressive early morning. Each flame was devouring a flag. All different combinations of white, blue and sometimes red. Flags that somewhere else children with their hands on their hearts were pledging their loyalty to, while singing anthems they did not fully understand and yet did not questions.

The lone boy stared into the burning flags, the insult, the disrespect, all were overseen but yet another flag. One that flew high above them, one that stood tall with pride, one that Stone pledged his loyalty to. He could only hope that the children of the schools where his flag takes its turn in the fire, would stop trying to recognize whose flag the flame burns so they can see whose air the smoke curses., or at least get a laugh out of the irony. Truly god is a comedian performing for an audience too scared to smile*. Stone chuckled to himself.

*"Creator " A comedian whose audience is afraid to laugh." " H.L. Mencken, in A Book of Burlesques‎ (1920), p. 203. and A Mencken Chrestomathy (1949), Ch. 30.

Author's Note

Prelude to my novel "The Abstract Approach"
I have so far only made the prelude of my novel available in order to get helpful feedback. Please be brutal with your criticism.