{"id":774,"date":"2019-08-07T18:50:00","date_gmt":"2019-08-07T17:50:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/?p=774"},"modified":"2024-10-16T13:17:09","modified_gmt":"2024-10-16T12:17:09","slug":"flash-fiction-the-fall-of-everything","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/2019\/08\/07\/flash-fiction-the-fall-of-everything\/","title":{"rendered":"The Fall of Everything"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAbout the only place you\u2019re going to find a smile in this world,\u201d said Paul. \u201cOn the giant, decapitated head of a fucking fairground clown.\u201d He slumped back onto the pile of rubble behind and let out a groan of relief. They\u2019d been walking for days. \u201cLot I have to break down and explain for you in that sentence, Erin. You were too young at the time to cop what was going on.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The dark sky rumbled and the clouds overhead opened on cue, dumping down another torrent of rain, the water taking only seconds to begin pouring in through the shattered roof of the arcade.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cFun. Humour. Comedy. That was the first to go. People, well for the most part anyhow, got afraid to laugh at anyone else\u2019s expense. And the best jokes are always at the expense of someone. You\u2019d supress the laugh until you looked around first and checked the coast was clear for anyone who could have been offended, make sure you weren\u2019t sitting near anyone fat, skinny, wearing glasses, or clothes intended for the opposite sex to the one they were born with, before you let rip. At the very least, you waited until a couple of other people were laughing first. Heaven forbid anyone should be offended.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

\u201cBut the snowflakes, as they were jokingly referred to in the early days \u2013 oh, the irony \u2013  were in the ascendancy then, desperate to neuter anything that anyone could take umbrage with. The stand-ups sailing close to the wind, making jokes about race, sexual persuasion, politicians, especially the snowflakes themselves: they were taken out and shot first. Metaphorically\u2026 to begin with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThen, ultimately, because so many tight-asses have no sense of humour to begin with and find something as frivolous and unimportant as comedy itself offensive in its own right, it became outlawed.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul laughed. A tear welled on his eyelid and rolled down his cheek. \u201cFirst time I\u2019ve done that in a long time, Erin,\u201d he said. \u201cLaughed. Or cried. I know, for the longest time, all I wanted to do was the latter, as everything went: nothing could be too scary, too intelligent, too fast, too\u2026 anything<\/em>. Everything was being dumbed down, having the sharp edges rounded on an unprecedented, biblical scale. Ha. Me even saying \u2018dumbed down\u2019 would have gotten me locked up for a couple of years, back when there were prisons.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSounds ridiculous, doesn\u2019t it? Rules. Laws. Given the number of people disposed towards bending and breaking them, they became offensive in their own right.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBefore we knew where we were, ownership was forbidden lest it offend. How could I buy a car and risk hurting the feelings of my neighbour who couldn\u2019t afford one? How could I live in a house, even one I\u2019d been paying a mortgage on for years, when so many others felt marginalised, upset, at not enjoying that privilege?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe snowflakes took everything from us. Everything. Everything we owned, anything that belonged to us, until we were left with nothing. It was the only way, in their short-sighted eyes, to make everyone the same.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cOnly made sense then, I suppose, they started looking at parents and children, and how some had more of them than others, or that some people had no children at all. Impossible to even that out in a way that wouldn\u2019t hurt someone\u2019s feelings.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Paul looked down at the photograph in his hands, unable to tell the difference between what were rain droplets and what were tears streaking down the now very creased face of the little girl in it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The picture may have faded over the years, but his memory had not. \u201cEven if everything had stayed the same, I doubt you would have remembered this place. It\u2019s where you had your third birthday party. The last time I remember being happy. All of us.\u201d He wiped away the water from the picture and laid it down at his feet, taking the item he\u2019d been saving for a rainy day from inside his jacket and switching off the safety.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI hope wherever you are, whoever you\u2019ve become, you\u2019re happy.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cAbout the only place you\u2019re going to find a smile in this world,\u201d said Paul. \u201cOn the giant, decapitated head of a fucking fairground clown.\u201d He slumped back onto the pile of rubble behind and let out a groan of relief. They\u2019d been walking for days. \u201cLot I have to break down and explain for […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-774","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-flash-fiction","category-short-stories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=774"}],"version-history":[{"count":15,"href":"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1362,"href":"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/774\/revisions\/1362"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=774"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=774"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/grahamwho.com\/grahamwrites\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=774"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}