Social Conventions

Social conventions

By William Wilsmore

Copyright William Wilsmore 2013

Published by Smashwords

Based on a true story

Chapter 1 – The scorn of the Irish

Johnny always did see the world a little differently.

But then again even he didn’t deserve this. What kind of punishment was this! It was inhumane, excessively cruel and certainly unusual.

For we are young and

This would scar him for life and here we were voyeurs, peering at this atrocity, doing nothing to prevent it. I heard when I was young for evil to triumph all good men do nothing well evil was certainly triumphant today and I didn’t see many good men around.

What is a good man I thought to myself, letting my mind wonder even as what amounted to torture was occurring no more than ten meters from me. Am I a good man? Was a good man a hero who saved children? Who was selfless and always stuck up for the little guy and human rights? Or was it just someone who has morals? Someone who has his own understanding of what is right and wrong and sticks to that? It really is important to the question is evil triumphant? Is the majority opinion all that matters? Or is it individual ethics? If it was the majority, this judge, jury and executioner could not be called a good man, he was sick, how could he believe this punishment was fit for any crime? Or was that just my thinking? Am I projecting my ethics on him?

I started to feel dizzy as I allowed myself to ponder deeper. How did Webster write the dictionary? I cannot even settle on a definition for the word good. If it was up to me the word good would have a ten page definition and end up with several meanings, by the time I was on to M or N I would be up to my neck in pages and pages of words without meaning perhaps driving me to madness.

Whistling...chanting and wooing echoed around the room

I was wrong, I was the only one who saw the malevolent torturey of this punishment, the majority is voicing its approval, does that mean I am evil? Or that I was not a good man? Surely the majority is good.

Anger began to build up inside me as I began to view myself in a completely different light. I am a monster I thought, totally misguided with no justifiable sense of right and wrong. More than that I pushed my beliefs on others and criticized the majority. I was my own judge and jury, but not man enough, or powerful enough to be the executioner. This guy was man enough, and he has the guts to be an executioner. Maybe good was triumphant today.

I looked scathingly at the victim. You menus to society I felt. We’ll deal with you.

I joined my good men clapping and chanting.

Woooo, yeah!!

Johnny sat down at the back of the room with a rye smile on his face.

Now will there be being anyone else wanting to be a smart ass?

Mr. Cleary was a real hard ass. Make a wrong step and you’ll end up doing thirty pushups in front of class. If you do something really wrong, or you’re just not capable of that kind of physical exhaustion he’ll make you sing the national anthem.

Now we’ll be getting back to our lesson

I couldn’t believe I was sitting there getting taught by a bumbling geriatric Irish fool who couldn’t speak English, but was nevertheless teaching us it.

Hawareya Lad, having a wee daydream in me class room

huh? I said stunned and a little confused by his sentence hawareya? Wha? English please I thought we are in English class!

Speak up there laddy! Be having a grand nap there?

ummmmm no sir, no wee daydream, just thinking hard about something you said that was true, hawareya? Hawareya? What does that mean? is it some ancient Irish term? And if so what place did it have in an English class?"

"Are ye mocking me boyo!?’

No, no of course not, I’m not be mocking ye What the hell was wrong with me!?!? It just came out, accents must be contagious, I am not this stupid, really!! What possessed me to say that?

The room shouted with laughter and for a brief second I felt tremendous power. Comedians must feel like gods I thought making their puppets dance at will. This feeling would not last however as I looked at Mr. Cleary’s old wrinkled face turn from its cheerful elderly ignorant look into a blood hungry gargoyle face ready to yell fire for my execution.

We be having another fair rendition of our anthem tomorrow we will me wee lads

The laughter grew louder and I saw Johnny was happily joining in. I re-contemplated my assessment of evil again now from the perspective of the victim. I hated everyone in that classroom, they had no morals! Look how readily they turn on their own and support the tyrant Mr. Cleary; even Johnny who knew what travesties he was capable of. The bastards! I thought, couldn’t they see the sorrow in my eyes, were they incapable of sympathy? They were clearly evil, and good men were certainly the minority.

The bell rang releasing me from Mr. Cleary’s wrath and I headed for the door, as I and my school mates left I began to be surrounded.

Wow man I can’t believe you had the guts to do that, that was hilarious Sammy stated in an excited tone.

Sammy was part of the cool crowd, the jocks that I yearned to be a part of. Inadvertently it seemed I had struck a chord that would bring me closer to doing so.

Yeah! Well someone needed to do something, how can we be taught English by someone who cannot even speak it I announced proudly like superman giving a speech to his adoring public. I would stand up against evil, and stick up for the little guy, I was a modern day hero! I was making a conscious effort to sound like my actions were some sort of well thought out rebellion against an unfair system instead of an error by some stupid daydreaming student.

I proceeded to my locker hailed as a hero for those few minutes among my classmates. Although a part of me knew this would not last, for a moment I felt incredible, like all that I touched would turn to gold, and that my opinion would now matter all around the school. I would be a teenage prophet standing up against all that is wrong in the school and was capable of making real change. No longer would we be taught gym by an overweight hypocrite, no longer would IT class be the equivalent of IT support for a mobile phone network, and no longer would an elderly Irishman pretend to have mastered the English language. I would change all this and lead the masses to rise up against these injustices.

Don’t yee be forgetting laddy to practice that singing voice Mr. Cleary stated in a jovial tone as he left the class room.

Laughter and smiles once again engulfed the faces of my classmates and I felt my power disappearing. It had vanished as fast as it had come and I now sort comfort in the form of conversation with more well known friends, friends who clearly respected my opinions and did not simply pretend to like Sammy.

Dave wait up I shouted jogging to my best friend Dave who had walked ahead perhaps threatened by my flittering popularity.

Dave was a good guy, full of energy. He was a little excitable and always very loud and opinionated which at high school can leave you a little alienated or king of the geeks but in the real world makes you a really popular guy, the life of the party if you will. He was never afraid to speak his mind, or be seen as different as most of us were, but this wasn’t seen as bravery by many, instead it was seen as odd.

I caught up with him and in a slightly puffed out voice began to talk.

Do you believe that Mr. Cleary? There’s no way I am singing tomorrow! They can make me do pushups but I’m not singing I yelled in the loudest voice I was capable of at school, it was sort of like a mouse trying to make a god of himself, passionate, loud, but afraid to cause a scene, unlike Dave would have been.

I know man, and you didn’t do anything, you just said the same word he did, it is ridiculous!! I could hear his excitement building as he went through his sentence, he began calm, but as he continued his words were made with more emphasis, by the time he got to ridiculous he was going red illustrating my previous point well. He wasn’t angry, he was just passionate, but unlike me he was not controlled, he didn’t care and it was odd! The other student’s eyes wondered towards our general area I began to feel self-conscious.

This was a normal feeling with Dave, he didn’t seem to care how loud he was or abide by normal social educate, he would be as loud and obnoxious as he wanted when he wanted and was never embarrassed, even when most of those around him who cared deeply about these things were.

Let’s go find Al I suggested trying to appear nonchalant about his action’s appearance to others, while at the same time escaping public ridicule by association.

We wondered off away from public scrutiny in search of our friend.

Al was an enigma, friends with seemingly all and almost painfully friendly. Somehow he had managed to achieve the seemingly impossible by transcending group dynamics, becoming a close friend to not only me and Dave but the cool kids as well. He was liked universally and I always held him in awe, wondering how he had achieved this feet, and how I could mimic it. I was not by any stretch as friendly as him, and was almost cruel in my scathing observations of people’s actions. I am a nice guy but I found being a little cruel helps get laughs and nobody really took what I said literally, still Al would never make a quip to the detriment of anyone, he was like a nice guy from a Disney movie, but genuine with a perm that would make Starsky from Starsky and Hutch jealous. That’s exactly the type of quip I would make. I wouldn’t keep it inside either I would mention it to him every time I saw him. He of course ravenously denied ever having had a perm but I knew better, at least I convinced myself I did.

Al! I shouted across the oval to grab his attention as I ran over to see him

Doug my good man how are you today he said extending his hand to shake

Mr. Cleary just gave me singing duty

He had some unnatural obsession with my handshake and always commented on it whenever I saw him. He would always say ‘Doug my good man that is a truly spectacular handshake, wonderful, incredible, amazing, and glorious.’ It was weird, like some sort of unhealthy obsession or fetish. Whenever he saw me his eyes would light up, and he would extend his hand, it wouldn’t matter if I was across a crowded room, he would cross it ready to receive his most prized gift.

Doug may I say that is the best handshake I have ever had. It is extraordinary that handshake, powerful, manly. He said as if he had just taken a drug fix.

Whatcha doing tonight? Me, Dave and Tam are going to go bowling,

That sounds awesome my good man, but unfortunately I must decline, I have four parties and a dinner to go to tonight, but next time

This was a typical response by Al, he always had several engagements on a given night. When he did actually accept an invitation he would inevitably show up three or four hours late but would act like it was perfectly normal. This happened in all but one occasion for memory when I threatened to shave his precious perm if he showed up late, he not only showed