The Fault Of Society

• Charli Barber, Grade 7, St Kevin's Primary School
• Short Story
• 2014

Excellence Award in the 'The Text Generation 2014' competition

Believe it or not this busy city was once quiet. These people did not overcrowd the once non-existent streets. It used to be isolated from the rest of the world, only inhabited by the lost souls of those who didn’t belong. They refused to be confined to the burden of society. They didn’t think the same way as others nor did they act the same. They were looked down upon and pushed away from all they cared about. Their homes and all their belongings were taken away. The ones they loved disowned them. All they had left was dismantled memories and dreams to fit in. So they left and never returned. They bred their own society. They created their own rules, their own state of mind. Finally they didn’t have to try to follow everyone else, they finally had somewhere to be free.
These people were considered crazy to the outside world. They thought differently to others. Sometimes they would just tune out the world and get lost in their own thoughts. It took them a while to process the words they were about to say because they had so many other things going on in their mind. They could just sit there and do nothing. They would contemplate the world and the reason for its existence. They would take time to appreciate every blade of grass killed by their footstep, every fallen leaf floating in the wind. They weren’t normal and so they were rejected. They were rejected from modern day society where everyone must be the same. Everyone eats the same way, everyone works on the same days and everyone gets the same amount of income. It was like a never-ending train of marching people. If anyone stood one foot out of line they were left behind, if anyone moved a different way they were isolated from the rest. They were unaware of individuality. They didn’t know how to be themselves, mostly because they thought they were all the same person.
People continued to live in this way for what seemed like an eternity until eventually a revolution began. Those people who were once outcasts of humanity began to thrive. They were just crazy enough to build towers tall enough to reach the clouds. They were just crazy enough to figure out the reason for their own existence. They were just crazy enough to understand the creation of the earth and what would eventually happen to it. They were just crazy enough to send a man to the moon. They were just crazy enough to cure deadly diseases.
If only those people who had once despised their existence and turned down anything they had to say, knew what the future held. If only they knew that their own version of mankind was continuing in endless circles, unable to evolve or move forward. If only they knew that their own version of mankind would eventually die out. If only they knew.