Free Fiction Friday

Here's an excerpt from my work in progress

The Scattering of Ashes (excerpt)

a novella by Michael Yoder

copyright 2021 Michael Yoder

"Good evening, everyone!" he greeted us, emphatically. "I'm Joe, and I welcome you to the Introduction Session to the Changemakers. I know we're going to have a great evening, so get ready to start a journey you'll never forget!"

I was already feeling a little weird. He was too perky.

I don't like perky.

"So," Joe continued. "Where are you in life right now? Are you happy and everything's fine? Are you feeling depressed about your current situation? Are you just wondering if there isn't something else out there that could take me to a better place? Well, I'll start by telling you that only a few years ago I was sitting in one of these seats, just like you, and my life was shit.

"Pardon, me. I do tend to use some colorful language. Anyway, my life was going nowhere. I mean, I had a great job, married with two beautiful kids, a loving wife, and yet it kept nagging at me that there had to be something more. In my introduction session I learned that in fact there was a lot more to life than what I was experiencing. Let me demonstrate."

Joe grabbed a towel from his pile.

"Now, this is common for everyone. We're born. And there's nothing there! Nothing! We're all completely open to the potential for growth. In fact, we want growth, we crave it. But we're dependent on our mother and father."

He put the towel over his head.

The audience giggled.

"And just like that, we're dependent and we have to do things to get what we need. Food, shelter, we depend on our parents for that. Then we start to grow up. Two years old now."

He put another towel over his head.

"We want to branch out, to test the world, but we're held back. Now sometimes for our own good. We don't want to burn our hand on the stove, but we need to start to explore on our own, but we can't. Then soon enough school comes along."

This time Joe put a blanket on his head.

"School. We learn what we're told to learn. Times tables and the alphabet and how to write and make words and we're indoctrinated into this system that crushes our independence and moulds us into what we're 'supposed' to be. We do this for twelve long years!"

He pulled on more blankets and towels, In the audience I noticed that some people were leaning in to listen and others were sitting with folded arms and others were smiling or stifling a giggle. Clearly, Joe was putting on a show to make his point.

"Then," he continued. "Some of us go to college or university and that same system continues to tell us what to think and how to think."

Again, more towels.

"Or, we go straight to work. We have duties now, we have a boss to please."

More towels and he started to bend under the weight. Each time he spoke he kept adding more and more towels now.

"We get married. We have kids, We have a house or condo and a mortgage, and more work, and more money has to come in. Until we finally realize that none of this makes sense."

He suddenly sloughed all the towels and blankets into a heap behind him.

"That, my friends is where change can enter. When we get to that place where it's all too much to bear anymore. Personally, my wife and I were close to divorce, I was that despondent over where my life was. Then I came to Changemakers and found the very thing I was looking for that was missing from my life. Everything changed! My relationship changed. I changed my work and I've never been happier."