\u2018Oh sweet, you owe me 1400 bucks. Welcome to Pennsylvania Avenue!\u2019 shouted the poet.<\/p>\n
The cop\u2019s daughter handed over the cash, casual and cold. The student didn\u2019t think he\u2019d ever seen her smile in or out of that coat, but then again out of all of them, she was the only one who was in real danger. She was still quieter than normal, though, and he knew that was his fault. The cop\u2019s daughter kept eyeing the cross dangling from his girlfriend\u2019s necklace with suspicion.<\/p>\n
\u2018How did you find the group?\u2019 the girlfriend asked the student, sitting cross-legged on the floor beside him.<\/p>\n
Before the student could answer, the poet said, \u2018I brought him in. The group finds you!\u2019 He sniggered, childish yet disarming. \u2018I saw him scribbling nudes one day on his notebook in one of the lectures and I thought my mate here had fallen out of the system.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018Nudes?<\/em>\u2019 she said, unable to mask her surprise.<\/p>\n This was a moment for her discover some of his new truth. He said, \u2018Yes, nudes<\/em>. This is who I am, don\u2019t you get it? We\u2019ve been way too clinical with each other, holding back our thoughts and feelings, keeping ourselves pretty and pious. When we lost our virginity together I bet you felt the same as I did at the time \u2013 with instant regret that we\u2019d spoilt what we were. You ran straight for the shower, right?\u2019<\/p>\n The girlfriend said nothing, her face blushing, eyes drifting away towards the board.<\/p>\n \u2018But it\u2019s true. People shouldn\u2019t behave like this. We\u2019re meant to be alive and sexual creatures that hunger and lust. We\u2019re all supposed to be having fun and making babies, not wearing camouflage. When did tying instinct become part of the human condition? It\u2019s not what the real God would have wanted. Your religion… the President\u2019s religion… it\u2019s a lie, I tell you. Am I right or am I right, everyone?\u2019<\/p>\n No one said a word. In fact, all of the gang seemed to be more interested in their Monopoly cash and property cards. The girlfriend\u2019s blush spread down her neck.<\/p>\n He moved closer towards his girlfriend, intent on making his point now that it had arrived. \u2018Sex is like dirt under the fingernails. That\u2019s why I draw the pictures. It\u2019s to challenge me, to prove that I don\u2019t care about the rules of society. Christ, we didn\u2019t even leave the light on. Fumbling in the dark with bits we can\u2019t see. That\u2019s not sex, that\u2019s play-acting. Did you make noises at all the right times? I think I did.\u2019<\/p>\n His girlfriend was shrunken and motionless, bowed away from him as if in prayer; a few tears dropped from her face and spattered against the board, flooding the Reading Railroad<\/em>. Then he realised he was an idiot, talking about their private affairs in public. He had sought tears earlier, but not here, the odds were stacked against her – fool. He might not have had inhibitions, but she still had, and one angry, open conversation in a clique of strangers wasn\u2019t going to work. Way to go, asshat.<\/p>\n The thinker broke the silence. \u2018Economy being flushed down the drain too,\u2019 he said. \u2018Fed Europe\u2019s imports being crippled by that ethical signature shit. China doing it\u2019s best but America is not getting what it needs any more, you know. Being poor is getting really dangerous now and that means more crime… and more crime means harsher punishments….\u2019<\/p>\n The girlfriend, with a wet, red face, broke out of her depressed torpor. \u2018You can\u2019t be serious,\u2019 she said, angered. \u2018Things are getting better. We\u2019re in the country of Rising Morality. We-\u2019<\/p>\n \u2018Don\u2019t sound bite me,\u2019 the thinker interrupted.<\/p>\n \u2018Let me finish. We don\u2019t <\/em>accept goods obtained through immoral means and we don\u2019t <\/em>tolerate garbage in politics anymore. Why do you think we all voted for that man and then prayed for him <\/em>through civil war? Are you telling me none of you voted for him? Turncoats, all of you<\/em>. Hypocritical savages<\/em>. Crime is down, people are happier. Business now thinks for its people.\u2019<\/p>\n The student was surprised, heartened perhaps, that she was suddenly punching for her side.<\/p>\n \u2018Listen, there\u2019s only one type of business that thinks for its people, Goldilocks,\u2019 the thinker said, leaning backwards against a sofa behind him. \u2018Government. Business is being controlled so much that it is becoming <\/em>government. Some companies \u2013 think Microsoft \u2013 are being nationalised, swallowed whole and absorbed by the Whitehouse. Stop watching \u201cFucks\u201d News. You might think it\u2019s good for the people, but this is not going to end well while that God-fearing President of ours is in power. Actually, I take that back. I don\u2019t think he fears God at all.\u2019<\/p>\n Everyone snickered \u2013 everyone except for the student\u2019s girlfriend.<\/p>\n The student thought again of the bound woman, smiling, comfortable and pleasured within her straps.<\/p>\n He jumped into the fray again, more animated than before, \u2018It\u2019s nice being told what to do and what to think \u2013 it frees you from the burden of decision. You can never make a mistake, because you never have the opportunity to do so. Your life is as good as it can be, because it is prescribed<\/em>. You can be very happy like that. But One Flew… we\u2019re not happy with that. We want the freedom to be wrong and make mistakes. We want the freedom to learn. The generation of our Mom and Pop want it put down, like some lame dog, but every dog has his day!\u2019<\/p>\n The thinker interrupted, as if he were concerned the student was stealing his own illustrious thunder, \u2018Think about that. To take away our capacity to err, to be cloaked in warm, thick control, to see merely fences around us and wonder, frightened, what might lie beyond. To make us all just toilers of land, with nothing to cry or think about \u2013 we become beasts of burden. It is guilt and blasphemous wisdom that sets us apart from the rest of the creatures on this planet. Everyone wants a simple life, rules telling them what to do \u2013 it makes us no better than animals<\/em>.\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" \u2018Oh sweet, you owe me 1400 bucks. Welcome to Pennsylvania Avenue!\u2019 shouted the poet. The cop\u2019s daughter handed over the cash, casual and cold. The student didn\u2019t think he\u2019d ever seen her smile in or out of that coat, but then again out of all of them, she was the only one who was in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[6],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=82"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/82\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=82"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=82"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.hammerport.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=82"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}