So... Yeah based on the summary, you may be asking, why?
Well, it was a narrative assignment for my freshman English class, and I had difficulty thinking up my main characters.
The original names for these two were "Cleon" and "Lucina". I have since changed them to accommodate the characters in SNAFU.
I truly never written anything like this, any feedback is appreciated.
Enjoy.
"Typical" I slowly whisper. The park was filled with children's laughter and friendly conversations between groups of people. It was something I grew to despise and loath throughout my wretched life. As if it wasn't bad enough the once bright, blue, and true skies started to darken when the clouds started settling in, crowds of ignorant and blissful citizens started running as if it was the end of days, me? I just pulled out my umbrella.
I started walking until I met a familiar yet dangerous face, Yukino. She glanced towards me as I slowly trudged my way through the new formed puddles that started to pop up around the cracked, grey pavement. She was an elegant one, long black hair, fair milky skin with piercing dark blue eyes. As I got up to her she glared daggers at me that subliminally spoke 'all idiots should die'. Yeah I hated her too. "What are you doing here, Hachiman?" she spoke with an icy tone that made me shudder at my very feet. "Am I not allowed to take a simple stroll in this wonderful weather?" I sarcastically retorted. "Fair enough" she said as she started walking with me, truth be told I had no idea where I was going, it was an aimless walk to nowhere but the end of this slowly rotting world.
An awkward silence befell us as we continued our fruitless journey through this dark and gloomy park, mostly everyone departed to their obnoxiously loud vehicles and drove to wherever they decided to reside in. The entire park was devoid of everyone as me and her continued to avoid large puddles and the bullets of rain drops that fell from the sky. I started to think. Why was she following me? We are polar opposites, but in a way similar. I was pessimistic, she was optimistic, I was pushed away from people, while she pushed people away from herself. We did things differently, yet we were both in a way, loners. And no we were not friends nor lovers, we were just there for eachother, a stranger for a stranger. "Go away" I suddenly blurted through a straight and emotionless mouth. "You're bothering me".
"How so?" She replied through the exact same way I told her.
"Well for starters your very presence, no existence makes me fear for my own life" I explained. A simple and unamused "hmm" escaped her lips.
She then spoke as if she didn't care about my insult, instead she spoke with an unusually soft tone, "I just wanted to talk about all the segregation going on here." 'of course' I thought to myself. No matter how much Lucina distanced herself from people, she still yearned to help and assist those in peril. "What of it?" I said in a disinterested tone. The sheer and utter hatred towards blacks always made me want to vomit, they did nothing wrong, in fact I believe WE should be punished for the crimes we put on their humanity. "You know of Mr. Robinson?" Yukino asked. "You mean Jackie Robinson, the one trying to get into the big leagues of baseball?" I replied. "Yes indeed, I believe if we could motivate him, he could abolish any sort of racism and set a standard for blacks everywhere" She said in a more motivative and optimistic tone. I pondered her words as if she had read them from a folktale from years past. Would that actually work? Would people finally stop with their hypocritical crap that they like to spew to blacks and finally accept them? No, It wouldn't be that easy… We have to take this one step at a time. I do believe that Jackie Robinson can change the hearts of people, just not everyone. "And you want me to help?" I questioned. "Of course, just like old times right? Us silver tongues can control the world" Lucina surprisingly joked but retained her elegant and mature posture. I kept thinking about it. Do I really want to get involved with a topic so controversial that I may end up being publicly humiliated if I defended a black man?
Of course I do, no amount of pain can break me anymore, for I already experienced the full blunt of the blow. I slowly looked at Yukino, a genuine and beautiful smile formed on her face, as if she already was already aware of my answer. "Fine" I muttered, red faced and looking away, "I'll help you".
I looked overhead as we approached Jackie Robinson's hotel, it was somewhat rundown with cracks lining up against the walls and a few broken windows replaced with flat construction wood, in summarization: it was the definition of disrepair. Bob certainly wasn't able to fix this…
It was still pouring outside as me and Yukino entered the lobby, the walls dampening the thunderous claps that emitted from dark sea that was the sky.
As we approached the receptionist, I heard muttered whispers coming from two black children sitting near a wall, "Are you here to hurt us?" One of the children asked. "No" I gave a sharp and emotionless reply. 'What has this world gone to?' I Angrily thought to myself. No one should be worried of getting hurt by another human being with a different skin color! As Yukino extracted information from the receptionist, I couldn't help but wonder, what kind of person was Jackie Robinson anyway? Did he fit the rumors of being a savage ape? Or was he genuinely a kind person who only wanted to change society's view on blacks? As I was burying myself deep into my thoughts, Yukino nudged my arm and said "This way" in a commanding tone. "I'm not a damn puppet" I replied with the same amount of harshness. Now that I think about it… How did Yukino even find out where Jackie Robinson lives? Is she some kind of witch? Brushing off that terrible train of thought, I followed her into an elevator, ascending into the sixth floor.
As the elevator's doors opened, I could already see the dull flickering lights carve a path in the dark ominous hallway. "You aren't scared now, are you?" Yukino teased, giving me a sly and devilish grin, as we walked through the hallway. "Of course not" I gave an annoyed yet monotone reply. We made our way through the grim corridors to eventually find a room labeled "257". "If all else fails, then i'm doing this MY way." I stated. Yukino just gave a solemn nod, probably remembering the days in which my actions and reasoning worked, but in a more emotional cost. Some part of me wishes it doesn't have to go that way, but results are all that mattered now.
Yukino gave a quick knock to the door, which reverberated throughout the hall, giving a low sounding echo. We waited for a couple moments until the door opened. A young adult, much like ourselves emerged through the other side, His eyes were slightly pink, mostly likely due to tears that fell every time some twit would throw hurtful and poisonous words from their mouth filled with biased hate. Dark lines were also apparent under his eyes, mostly due to stress.
"Good afternoon" Yukino said with that wonderful smile from earlier. "Mind if we come in?" she asked.
Jackie hesitated for a moment before allowing us entrance into his room. It was expectedly small from this "hotel". As we sat down on a couch I couldn't help but notice a small picture frame that had a young woman on it holding a baby, the frame at several letters on it that spelled out "Rachel". 'Wife?' I thought to myself.
Jackie offered us some water as he joined us on his couch, I could already tell that those crazed rumors were just fallacies constructed by a hateful delinquent. In actuality, Jackie gave a comforting presence, always with a smile on his face as if he didn't care what the world thought of him. "What brings you two here?" he said, his voice was raspy yet comforting nonetheless. "We're here to help you" Yukino stated bluntly. Jackie looked confused, as if he was unaware of the discrimination that he felt day by day, "Help me? I believe you have the wrong person ma'am" . Yukino lost her polite tone, instead it was replaced with a more monotone and slightly icy voice, "So what you're saying is that you don't care? Stop playing the clueless game and let us help you, it'll hurt more if you hold it all in…" I was glad i wasn't at the receiving end of her cold voice, it always made me rethink my life…
With a sigh, Jackie took a quick sip from his cup as if he was trying to delay as much time as possible to avoid Yukino's hurtful yet truthful words. 'Heh it hurts doesn't it?' I jokingly thought to myself.
"What the point?" Jackie suddenly asked, his comforting presence soon turned to a more gloomy expression, which in a way mimicked my own posture.
"What the hell is Ricky even thinking? This is all crazy! He expects me to change the world! How in the hell is a black man like myself supposed to do that?" Jackie exclaimed. Lucina sighed, happy she broke through the barrier that Jackie set upon himself. "Maybe you can start of by being more optimistic?" I shuddered at her words. "You shouldn't let oxygen-wasting degenerates berate you for no good reason, and i'm not telling you to get violent either, just ignore them, it seems to be affecting your physical output in these recent games lately" Yukino finished. Jackie started to ponder her words and a few moments later a small whisper came out of his mouth, "You don't understand".
"You don't understand" he said again. "How can you possibly expect me to continue? You don't even have a single clue to what it means to be black!" It was true, me and Lucina could never understand discrimination due to color, we were lucky.
The conversation continued between the two as if they were trying to win the lottery in trying to understand one another. I just sat there, still and motionless it was like the two had forgot my very existence as they were caught up talking to one another. "Get out" Jackie suddenly commanded, he was clearly done with Yukino's way of words. She looked at me as if she failed the entire world. The plan was to motivate Jackie Robinson to continue his endeavors so he can gain the acceptance of society, this plan ultimately failed. I looked at Jackie, you could tell he was in pain from the world he was put into, he was fed up with it and wanted to leave baseball. I sighed I didn't want it to end like this, neither did Lucina, but it was the only way, it was my painful trump card, and I had to put it into play.
"Pfft" I sneered with glaring eyes, "Of course you would want to run away, is that all you do? Run away?" Jackie was taken aback from my venomous words that seeped out of my tongue. "And what's your name?" Jackie questioned with a glare that made me step back a few times. "Hachiman" I said in a displeasing tone. Jackie never replied back, he was waiting for me to continue from earlier, "A nigger such as yourself should've never even tried to play baseball, why don't you try soccer first?" These words of mine were fallacies I designed myself, I regretted them, but it was necessary for a greater outcome. "And also, you think you could've changed the world? Ha! Someone like you needs to learn their place, in a gutter." Jackie's face was devoid of any emotion, I couldn't tell what he was thinking. Suddenly he raised a fist. I closed my eyes, as if I was accepting my well deserved fate.
But the fist never connected, I opened my eyes to see a clenched up hand inches away from my face, which slowly lowered down. "You're just like them" Jackie stated through clenched teeth. "What gives you the right to talk to me like this? All you are is scum!"
The words were filled with anger directed towards me. "People like you need to understand that we're human beings too!" Jackie stopped as he turned around, "Fine" he said in a more motivative yet angry tone. He turned to Lucina, "I'll continue to play baseball if it means people like him would just shut their mouths for once." Lucina nodded and started walking towards the exit, with me following behind. Before I left, Jackie called out to me, "I'll prove to you that we're good people" he said with solid determination. "We all could live happy lives if we just accept each other… Even if we're bad people" Those words stuck me like a freight train. By no means did I think Jackie was a bad person, in fact he was a messiah compared to most people nowadays. "We'll see" I gave a cold reply to further enhance my falsified persona. I walked to see Yukino waiting for me near the elevator.
As we walked out of the hotel, the dark sky started to dissipate, like stage curtains opening up to reveal the bright, blue sky and the radiating sun. "You don't have to sacrifice yourself like that…" Lucina spoke in a soft and comforting tone. "It's the only way I know of" I said in my signature monotone voice. I brought out the worst of people and myself to help them endure any sort of predicament, if they could handle my hellish and spiteful words, they could survive anything. "Maybe it's time to change" Lucina spoke in that continued soft tone. 'Change' I thought. I looked back at my conversation with Jackie. 'We all could live happy lives if we just accept each other… Even if we're bad people". Those words kept replaying in my head, what did he mean by accepting each other? I already acknowledge who people are if they're good or bad…
Then it hit me, I have to accept myself, out of everyone in Earth, I hated myself the most. I hurt many people in the past. due to my questionable yet effective methods.
I looked at Yukino, her cold yet endearing gaze looked into me as if she was trying to understand me aswell, "Hey Yukino" I grumbled, regretting to even speak in the first place, "Can we be frien-" her face turned slightly pink but vanished in an instant, being replaced with nothing but a glare. She walked off muttering, "Not a chance" Yeah maybe I need to try and accept her too...
