138. Violence

When C.W. appears as a teenager, I cringe. They, teenagers, are generally going through either a state of rebelliousness or poor judgment, and these are his natural states. In other words, double jeopardy. So when I heard a young boy’s voice emit a cry of “Take that you dirty mother,” (actually a little more graphic) I braced for the worst.

“What in the world are you doing?” He was hunched over my laptop computer with a set of external controls, going at some game with a fury

“Die creep,” he yelled into the screen. Explosions sounded, followed by cries of agony. “Yeah, scream, you bas…”

“C.W.” I said. “My wife is in the house.”

“There, take that!” he said, ignoring me.

I walked over and closed the laptop. He looked at me with green eyes, spittle oozing from his lips. “Don’t ever try to do that again,” he said, glaring.

“Shall I get my spray bottle?” I keep one on hand to calm him when he gets like this. He can’t stand to have water sprayed on him.

“Big Dope,” he said, calming noticeably.

“Mind explaining?”

“Explaining what?”

“What on earth you are doing?”

“Relaxing.”

“With this?” I said, holding up a DVD holder entitled “Revenge of the Nazi Ninjas.”

“I have some work to do so I was just having some fun first.”

“Wouldn’t it make more sense to do the work first and then relax?”

He looked at me with a sullen face, his eyes sunk deep into their sockets. “I’m going to movies after I finish the work. Wanna come? It’s this new Bruce Willis thing. Man, I bet he blows up a thousand cars. Body count out the stratosphere.”

“I don’t think so.”

“Then me and Tommie Castleberry are going to shoot some sparrows.”

“Have you lost your mind?”

“What if I have? There’s plenty of medication for that. Just dope me up and leave me be. Ain't that what you adults do?”

I sighed. “Isn’t there something more productive you could do?”

“Yeah, smarty pants. And I’m gonna.”

“Smarty pants?”

“In case you don’t know, there’s this new show coming on the History Channel. We plan to watch it, me and Tommie and some more guys.”

“That sounds better,” I said. “Maybe.”

It is very important in curbing violence to require
young people to particpate in group ceremonies. - C.W.

“Yeah,” he said. “It’s got lots of cool stuff … whole families getting zapped by lightening when the dad screws up, armies wiped out, dead babies floating around after a flood, men getting whipped then hung. Neato.”

“Neato?”

“Now if you will excuse me, I need to finish what I was working on.”

“Which is?”

“A special report to the Falloonian Elders about violence among your species.”