3
Beyond the Sword

"Now I am become Death, the destroyer of worlds." Bhagavad Gita

He would open the door to find pages taped on the outside. He would snatch them off before the parent could reach.

Why are you still awake? What are you thinking?! would ask the parent.

He would unfold the pages to find bills, water $294.11, phones $250, electricity $239.17.

When are you going to be a responsible paren—person and pay your own god damn bills?

When are you going to put that degree of yours to use and be a CEO somewhere?

You don't even fucking understand the world anymore, there are no fucking jobs, dad.

Stop making excuses and apply yourself already.

Stop being an irresponsible human being and asking your son to pay your bills for you, mom.

You have no idea what the real world is like, son, you're too young and inexperienced to understand. Don't argue with us, we know best.

The world's changed so fast these past ten years that you have no idea what you're even talking about.

I know enough about being a family, and I know you wouldn't embarrass us by disobeying your parents. It's your duty to help a family member. Think of your younger brother, is this the kind of role model you want to be for him?

He's your responsibility; I didn't choose to have him. How about you think about yourself and your own image and yourself as a role model: you think having parents who can't pay their own bills and would rather pay for cable and a few beers will help him in the future?

Just do what we tell you and grow up already, you're twenty-two for God's sake. It doesn't matter if the world's changed, you're obviously too lazy to get a nice job at a nice office and work with important people who actually make a difference in the world, and actually make money doing it.

Oh, they change the world alright, and they fucking make money alright, while they starve the rest of us out of it. You guys just don't fucking get it. Sooner or later it's gonna bite you in the ass, and by then it'll be too late for you guys to do anything. We don't live in a same world anymore. We've moved on and you just don't want to understand: we live in a digital age.