freedom

by

Prayer

by Miles Rost

A position of submission. A position of subjugation.

Kneeling for prayer did not come easy for Brighton Avanzari. A former subject of a middle eastern king, he grew up despising kneeling. If he didn’t kneel he was flogged. That’s how it was, especially with a maniacal king.

When he was able to leave and to go to another country to study, he grasped the opportunity with his life. He knew that studying in a foreign country would give him the opportunity to shake off the chains of his country’s monarchist obsession.

What he experienced in his studies broke him.

Brighton was treated like a pawn by members of the university student union, the administration, and others. He quit studying with a four credit course to go before getting his bachelor’s in literature. He was tired, and he didn’t like what he was doing. He didn’t have much to go on as a foreigner in the country, and he was pressured to be a part of so much that he finally rejected everyone and started studies of his own.

He would work during the day, repairing vehicles at a garage in Sacramento. He would travel home to a small apartment in a nearby town, riding his bike. He sat in his apartment and read all of the major works of literature, sometimes spending hours upon end pouring over the details and inhaling it’s scent.

One day, just for fun, he picked up a Bible that was given to him. He started reading in the New Testament, and looked. He read about prayer, about being on your knees. At this he got mad and threw it at the wall. For a few minutes, Brighton went berserk. He sat down after his “hulkout” and started to breathe. He analyzed what happened and thought about it.

He realized that the only way to deal with his anger was to actually do what he despised.

He took the first step, and he put one knee down. It took all the strength that he had not to recoil and remove. Now, the tough part came. He started to put his other knee down.

Prayer can happen anywhere…

He felt this thought go through his head, and stopped for a moment.

Don’t fear. Your previous king was a tyrant. This king, the King of Kings, is not.

Brighton’s heart started to soften ever so slightly, as he continued to put his knee down. When it touched the floor, he bowed his head.

You kneel not in subjugation, but in honor. Pray, and know that you will be heard.

For the first time since he left the kingdom, he was able to kneel and pray. And for the first time since he was a child, he knew what it felt to truly pray to his Lord.

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Don’t Box Me In

by Miles Rost

Rodolfo Dominguez flipped his welding helmet up and turned off the torch. He looked down at his work and smiled.

“I said that one day I’d show them just what I’m made of. It’s just about that time. Just one day more.”

For many years, Rodolfo was considered the odd man out. In high school, he was ridiculed for having a large brain and large girth to go with it. Even after becoming a member of the auto club, he was still made fun of. He took it in stride, making jokes about himself like Gabriel Iglesias did. But he felt that even though he could roll with the punches, he had to prove his mettle. He had to show them that he wasn’t just a fluffy guy. That he was also made of more than that.

He had spent most of the fall and the winter of his junior year of high school in his garage, working and tinkering on a project that he merely called “The Devon Project”. No one outside of his house knew what it was about. No one asked, but here he was, almost finished on the project and just about ready to demo it for the rest of the school. And it was going to be at the annual carnival and exhibition for his high school.

He went to sleep that night, and instead of dreaming triumphant dreams, he had terrible nightmares. Nightmares of failures, of becoming the butt of all jokes, and not surviving the rest of high school. He woke up feeling very nervous, in a pool of sweat and worry. After putting on his glasses and rolling out of bed, at 5AM, he went out to the garage and proceeded to spend his morning with car wax in his hands.

He went to school that morning, and had to deal with certain taunts about his weight and other things. He looked at them, smiled, and said, “Don’t worry about my feelings. Wait for this afternoon, and we’ll have a good laugh about it.” The other kids laughed, seemingly at him, but inside wondered what he would actually do.

At the proper time, the carnival and exhibition was open for business. School was out, with students, teachers, and parents milling around the sprawling high school campus. On one side of the massive high school lawn, were a bunch of cars. Members of the auto club and others brought out their vehicles to show off, and to win contests.

Rodolfo had gone home just before the carnival started, and as he opened the garage door, he pushed his surprise out of the small shed-like building. The sun glistened on the newly painted black exterior, glinting off the chrome and the steel. He turned the key, and the engine started and purred like a kitten who had too much love in it’s heart. The fluffy guy, the man everyone called “Round Rodolfo”, would be making splashes at the carnival this year.

He drove his vehicle to the high school, and pulled in through the parking lot and onto the lawn. People looked at his vehicle, a newly restored 1972 Oldsmobile 442, with a pitch black exterior, Shelby-Cobra emblems all over it, and a hearty engine that made others pale in comparison. He slow-rode his way past the other gawkers.

“Is that Round Rodolfo?” one person asked, in disbelief.

“Wow! How did he get a car like that?” another guy asked.

“Is he still single?” one young lady asked her friend, who looked at her with a look that read “Are you insane, girl?”

Rodolfo did a quick rev and jet, then pulled into the end spot. He got out of his vehicle, turned around, and looked at it. By now, a good crowd had gathered.

“Hey, Rodolfo. Is this yours?” one of the auto club members asked him.

“Yeah, paid for it with my own wages. This is my baby.”

“Looks cool, sir. You got style, man.”

Rodolfo got a compliment, for the first time in a good long time. And boy, it felt good. No longer was he boxed in. He was soon to be known as “Rockin’ Rodolfo”, and would be known for one of the prettiest vehicles in the whole school.

by

Radioactive

by Miles Rost

“Radioactive”

A clear idyllic day was brought to the city. The loveliness of the sky’s vibrant blue hue shone down upon the people. The sun pounded on the concrete jungle of the city. It even shined down on one conspicuous man who walked down the street towards the center of the city.

He was walking with a purpose, yet still slowly. He looked to be about middle age, wearing a dark suit, red tie, and covered in a brown trenchcoat. He wore a scowl on his face like that of someone who just sucked on 15 lemons. Each step he took weighed heavy on the slowly decaying sidewalk, like he was forcing himself to keep moving even though he didn’t want to.

He walked to a place they called “The Four Walls”. These were the four buildings in downtown where four major interests lay. On the northwest corner was the local school district’s headquarters, in a 15 story gray stone building. Across the street to the east was “The Morton Building”, a hodgepodge of left and right wing social interest groups and lobbying firms. On the south side of the street were two tall buildings: The one south of the school district building was the Charles Building, where the grain exchange was located. And, on the other corner was the headquarters of “Laughsalot”, a major web corporation that had hundreds of millions of users.

He took a moment to survey the buildings, and reached under his trenchcoat. He pulled out a sledgehammer, and with a mighty yell, he swung it hard against the closest building to him, which was the Morton Building. He slammed it repeatedly and screamed out loud something unintelligible. After about 10 swings or so, he stalked across the street and slammed the sledgehammer into the school district’s headquarters. Grunting and breathing hard, he hammered the rocky faceplate of the building. With what was like a bloodcurdling scream, he smashed one of the windows on the corner of the building. He proceeded to repeat this with the grain exchange and Laughsalot’s respected building.

By this time, he attracted a large ground of bystanders who just watched as he proceeded to let loose a littany of curse words and angry feelings. He ran to the middle of the street with his sledgehammer, and knelt in the middle of the intersection. He took some seconds to breathe and he looked to be meditating a slight bit, with his knee bent and his hands on the end of the sledgehammer.

He suddenly stood up and dropped the sledgehammer. He reached his hand back behind his trenchcoat and pulled out a long stick with cloth at the end. He unfurled the cloth on the stick, and proceeded to wave a giant Gadsden flag in the middle of the intersection. As he did this, he screamed to the people around him. They couldn’t understand what he was saying.

Just as he was making a second revolution around the intersection, a car blasted through the intersection and clipped him. He went tumbling on the side of the car and slammed into the pavement. The car sped away in a wail of screaming tires, and the man was left behind. A small group of people quickly ran over to the man, and tried to help him. One man looked over him, trying to stabilize the man’s neck.

“Are you going to be okay?” he asked.

The dying man looked up at him and slowly smiled.

“Welcome….to the new age,” the man replied, raspy and with the sound of fluid building up in his lungs, “Fight against…idiots…”

“What?”

“Don’t….let them….take your freedom to disagree…”

The man then coughed, and the life bled away from him.