Sacrifices

At least the day was starting out good he thought to himself. From the window of the station wagon Bradley watched as a blur of fallen glory sped by. Deep within autumn the leaves painted the landscape as they always did and his eyes thrived on it. How much more beauty could one ask of the world? To him it seemed as if someone had taken all the colours of a sunset and brought them to earth illustrating the heavens to the commoners. The colours blurred by as the station wagon hit fifty, seeing what was around him made him feel content. Mortal and frail perhaps, but the world was grand and more importantly it was his. Except on Sundays. The splendid age of fifteen had taken its toll. And it was that every Sunday he would take the long drive to the local church with his foster parents. They demanded that until he moved out he would accompany them for two hours every Sunday.

God Damn it! He would think to himself. That followed by the realization of the irony in his statement. It’s not that he didn’t believe in god, but in his life there was no need for a god, so why would he ask him to damn anything? His life was somewhat void at the time and he loved very little. So the conviction to worship something (especially something he couldn’t see) seemed like a waste of time. And as for the whole redemption deal, he felt that he hadn’t done anything wrong. His birth parents had taught him simple guidelines in life. His dad was a steel worker. He had the look of an intelligent man who hadn’t been taught anything. Left with nothing but common sense he did the best he could with what the world had dealt him. His Mother was a stripper. She was beautiful. Her long red hair could draw attention and hold it captive for a moment of lust. But that wouldn’t be the real her. The one thing that seemed to surprise all of his school friends was the love his parents had. There were (or seemed to be) no lies or real problems between the two of them. Arguments arose but were dealt with reasonably. They taught their son the art of negotiation. Through reason anything could be accomplished even if reason is with one out of two.

"The rules of life are simple. Don’t take what’s not yours that applies to everything. Not a life, not a dollar not a thing that is rightfully another person’s is yours to take. Everything you are will decide what you have and no one can take that from you."

Those were his dad’s words. He smiled when he remembered his reply to them.

"What about women?"

His father laughed and said ""In that case don’t take a body that isn’t offered to you". They laughed about that for a while. His mother looked in the room and his father winked at her. His father then said,

"Look all I’m sayin is that there’s nothing worse in the world then greed. Murder, war and all kinds of death, it all comes from people to stupid to do things on their own. Don’t you do that to yourself. You get strong enough to run your own life and those parasites can’t touch you."

He didn’t completely understand at the time he was only thirteen. But his father insisted he was becoming a man.

He loved his mother dearly. As most children did he ran to her in times of fear and sadness.