An Interview I Guess

• Hamish Mclean, Grade 11, Brisbane State High School
• Short Story
• 2016

Excellence Award in the 'Top Secret 2016' competition

I was tired. I'll tell you that for free. I had been in that room for hours on end. Bidding to the needs of the cruel government which enslaved me. My job didn't entail much to be fair, better than some of my friends. All I had to do was step into this room, watch a monitor, then behave accordingly. I'm afraid I haven't got too much time to talk about it at the moment as my shift is about to start again but there and they like it when I'm punctual. Some of my peers who were enslaved by the same scheme have to jobs that are infinitely more strenuous than mine, they have to bare unbelievable weights and transfer them, and they have to oversee the other absurdities that occur within these harsh confines... Wait sorry what was the question?
"Why are you so tired?"
"Ah, yes it was too. Pardon my lack of punctuation previously I just didn't want to spoil that it was dialogue. Also excuse the Fourth Wall Break."
"I can excuse both, actually I find them humorous. Funny quirks in a strange being. There is no 'Fourth Wall' to break, we aren't in a TV Show or anything."
“Right.”

“Can you answer the question now?”
“Right. Right, of course. I was tired because I had a particularly confronting day on the monitor. I usually sit there and watch TV Shows and make decisions on what the characters do. I guess you could consider me as a freelance writer for different shows. Anyway, this day, this mother of days, I had some frustrating ‘shows’ on the monitor.”

“Can you give me an example of an event in these shows?”
“Sure. Oh! Another important thing to note, it seems as if I’ve been assigned films that are exclusively filmed in the first person. Anyway, one of the films or shows or whatever had a kidnapping of the cameraman.”

“What do you mean?”

“I know sounds confusing. Whichever character the camera was supposed to represent the perspective of got kidnapped.”

“Wouldn’t this be a common event…? Considering you watch TV shows and all.”

“No. Not at all.”

“Well aren’t TV shows suspenseful and action packed and commonly include events like kidnappings?”

“Not the shows I watch. They’re mainly mundane social interactions from the perspective of this one character.”

“Sounds boring.”

“I guess it is. I haven’t thought about it. I suppose they could be described as in depth biographical documentaries.”

“Right.”

“Do you ever get the same show twice.”

“As far as I can tell, I have only ever got 2 or 3 shows. Maybe it’s just 1 show.”

“How can you tell.”

“Well, 5 days I go to work and they’re practically identical shows. Then 2 days they’re set in a different place. Then every 10 weeks or so there is a 2 week block of a single show that’s in a completely different place.”

“Ah. Sounds like it closely resembles a school term.”
“Yes, I noticed. Strange isn’t it? It’s almost as if I’m walking into the skull of a High Schooler… wait what?”