Writing for Fun
November 2019
Foregone Conclusion - Maureen Rampersaud
Luke lay on the dew-soaked grass, looking sideways at the spider spinning it's web. The sunlight was starting to shimmer through the canopy of the trees above him, he liked this time of day, before everyone got up. He enjoyed the time and space to study things that interested him, without his brother calling him a weirdo and his parents trying to force him to be normal. He hated that. He didn't want to go to stupid adolescent parties, where they all got drunk and fell over. What a waste of energy! Luke preferred his own company, studying nature and thinking about what he saw.
It was a foregone conclusion that he became a scientist, where he worked happily, alone, on projects that excited him. Christmas dinner at his parents' house was predictably awful. His mother announced, 'Your brother has some wonderful news!'
'Oh yes?' Luke replied, trying to sound interested.
'Yes! He and Ann are having another baby, isn't that nice?'
'Mmm'
Dad banged his fist on the table.
'Mmm … is that all you can say?... no congratulations! You can't even look your brother in the eye. When the hell are you going to amount to something? What have you achieved in your sorry life?'
Luke finished chewing, looked at his plate and said, 'I'm close to a cure for some cancers, I've found a viable alternative to fossil fuels and I'm just about to publish a paper on a way to treat infection without antibiotics.'
After a stunned silence, his mother wailed, ‘But when are you getting married?’