Forgiving Who We Are by Andrew McCallister (best color ereader TXT) 📕

to hear that," the man said, accepting his drink. He took a sip. "Bad things happen to us you know. It' the world we're in right now."

"Yeah?!" Jonathan questioned, bringing his head back up. He stared into the man's eyes. He knew instantly that this man had been through a lot in his day. Jonathan now noticed the scars on the man's face and knew that he had once fought.

"My name is Thomas," the man said. "I've lived here for eight five years."

"You were here before the business economy?" Jonathan exclaimed, now interested in talking to the man.

"Yes," the man replied. "That was a long time ago."

"A better time," Jonathan added in.

"What makes you so sure that it was so much better?"

"Well, first off, the corporations didn't have control of the economy. It was in charge of the government." Jonathan now knew that he was talking to someone who could out-do him in every single way.

"The government was in no way better than what we have now," Thomas said. "The government was constantly in debt, made bad decisions on behalf of the economy, and was extremely corrupt. No one trusted the government, nor did anyone really care what happened to it."

"Is that why Alexander stopped the government?"

"Alexander?" Thomas seemed surprised. "Alexander?!"

"You've never heard of Alexander?" Jonathan asked him.

"Of course I've heard of Alexander," Thomas responded, "the man that saved our society. The man that single handedly overturned our government and brought peace to everyone. Yeah I've heard of the guy. I've never really liked him though."

"Why not?" Jonathan questioned.

"Because it seems kind of fishy that one man could do all that."

"But he did, didn't he?" Jonathan seemed assure of himself.

"No he didn't," Thomas said after a little silence. "I'm sorry to break it to you, but Alexander never existed."

"What do you mean?!" Jonathan was now getting slightly angry at the old man.

"Don't you see?" Thomas explained. "Alexander is us. Alexander is inside us all." Jonathan was now blankly staring at Thomas. "We made Alexander because we don't like what is happening with society. We made this hero up to feel good, to feel as if there really is hope for our future. Everyone wants a hero, and everyone wants to be Alexander."

"But don't you think that everyone would know that Alexander is only made up?" Jonathan wanted to hold on to the idea that Alexander really was real. He thought of all the times he had heard the name, trying to remember if there was something he missed.

"Have you ever created a lie and believed in it so much that you yourself thought it was real?" Thomas continued. "That's what we did. We wanted Alexander to be real so much that we made Him real just by believing in the idea. We have forgotten what is fact and what is fiction. If you go to the library right now, you'll find tons of books about Alexander in the non-fiction section. But long ago, when they were first written, they were in the fiction section. We have been blinded with this mythology so much that we have forgotten that is only a children's story."

"No!" Thomas got up. "I won't believe it." He ran out of the bar and into the street. He continued to run down the street and into an alley way where he tripped on something. Jonathan cried. He knew that Thomas was telling the truth, that there really was no such man as Alexander. He knew that society was in such a way that a lie could very easily become the truth, accepted truth. He was mad at society for being that way. He wished that the truth was truth, and that lies were dismissed and forgotten. He marveled at society for creating such an idea that people would take things into their own hands because of it. He wished he didn't live here, that he was somewhere else where roommates weren't killed and jobs weren't lost. He thought of Mr. Z and how he was a very nice boss in this world. He thought of Kari, how she would go to work every day and enjoy it. He thought of the man he shot tonight, how he wouldn't have died because of a lie, because of a made-up idea. That man didn't have to die, he could have lived. How could he have accepted such a ridiculous idea that there was a savior and that there was something to hope for?

Jonathan thought how the man he had shot had died in vain because Alexander was not real. He wish he were home now with Mark, having a grand conversation about automobiles and finance. He wished he wasn't lying on the ground with a gun in his coat pocket. He knew that he would never get the idea Alexander out of his head. Imprint

Publication Date: 08-07-2009

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