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Reality Test
“There is no such thing as reality, this, what we see…” Anna gestured around the place she called home, “is not real… Shut up and listen .” She silenced Henry, a finger pressed firmly against his lips, as he moved to interrupt her.
“When you look around, what do you see? And I don’t mean describe the place. I mean what do you feel? What does this place show you?”
Henry sighed in exasperation at his sister. Taking a breath he looked around, seeing Anna’s home through his eyes. It was messy. Pot plants in random places. Reprinted images and quotes tacked to the walls, mismatched furniture. It wasn’t the kind of place he’d live.
“So?” Anna asked as she watched him take inventory of the place.
“It’s a dump .” Henry replied with a nonchalant shrug. Anna only smiled.
“See, that’s your reality. This…” she said as she looked around her home, “is perfection... to me. This is my reality.”
Henry gazed at her with cynical confusion. He wasn’t getting it.
“Fine, imagine you’re standing in the neighbour’s yard. It looks different, it feels different. They like their manicured gardens and dinner parties. He reads the paper religiously and she reads gossip magazines. Those things are important to them, their reality. Things I find irrelevant. We aren’t living in the same reality.” She continued.
“You’re not even on the same planet , Ann” Henry mumbled. This wasn’t getting them anywhere.
“People in third world countries, living in poverty, having to fight for their lives every day… this, right here, is not their reality. Some of them would’ve never seen a TV. You try telling them this is reality. They’ll think you’re mad, and you are, because there is no, one reality. Everyone’s reality is different. And so reality doesn’t exist, because no one’s coincides with anyone else’s. Sure they overlap, but no two people look at anything in exactly the same way.”
“You need to watch less sci-fi and lay off the philosophy, Ann. We’re all living on the same world.”
Anna eyed her brother with disdain as she reached behind her grabbing the torch she’d left there for this purpose. She knew she’d lose this battle, but she’d had to try. She hadn’t failed just yet. She could still stop him from having her committed. It was why he was here. In one swift movement she hit in just below the temple with the torch, and he crumpled to the ground. Lifting him under his shoulders she dragged him through the open door and down the stairs to the cellar. No one was taking her reality away from her. Just because it didn’t fit his didn’t mean it was wrong.
We’re all living on the same world, he’d said. Well not anymore. He could join the people living under the world.
After chaining him behind the wine racks, she switched of the light, closing and locking the door behind her. He wanted to believe there was only one reality? She’d teach him about reality… the hard way.
Indie Adams 2012
“When you look around, what do you see? And I don’t mean describe the place. I mean what do you feel? What does this place show you?”
Henry sighed in exasperation at his sister. Taking a breath he looked around, seeing Anna’s home through his eyes. It was messy. Pot plants in random places. Reprinted images and quotes tacked to the walls, mismatched furniture. It wasn’t the kind of place he’d live.
“So?” Anna asked as she watched him take inventory of the place.
“It’s a dump .” Henry replied with a nonchalant shrug. Anna only smiled.
“See, that’s your reality. This…” she said as she looked around her home, “is perfection... to me. This is my reality.”
Henry gazed at her with cynical confusion. He wasn’t getting it.
“Fine, imagine you’re standing in the neighbour’s yard. It looks different, it feels different. They like their manicured gardens and dinner parties. He reads the paper religiously and she reads gossip magazines. Those things are important to them, their reality. Things I find irrelevant. We aren’t living in the same reality.” She continued.
“You’re not even on the same planet , Ann” Henry mumbled. This wasn’t getting them anywhere.
“People in third world countries, living in poverty, having to fight for their lives every day… this, right here, is not their reality. Some of them would’ve never seen a TV. You try telling them this is reality. They’ll think you’re mad, and you are, because there is no, one reality. Everyone’s reality is different. And so reality doesn’t exist, because no one’s coincides with anyone else’s. Sure they overlap, but no two people look at anything in exactly the same way.”
“You need to watch less sci-fi and lay off the philosophy, Ann. We’re all living on the same world.”
Anna eyed her brother with disdain as she reached behind her grabbing the torch she’d left there for this purpose. She knew she’d lose this battle, but she’d had to try. She hadn’t failed just yet. She could still stop him from having her committed. It was why he was here. In one swift movement she hit in just below the temple with the torch, and he crumpled to the ground. Lifting him under his shoulders she dragged him through the open door and down the stairs to the cellar. No one was taking her reality away from her. Just because it didn’t fit his didn’t mean it was wrong.
We’re all living on the same world, he’d said. Well not anymore. He could join the people living under the world.
After chaining him behind the wine racks, she switched of the light, closing and locking the door behind her. He wanted to believe there was only one reality? She’d teach him about reality… the hard way.
Indie Adams 2012
Published 20th Feb 2012
| Edited 21st Feb 2012
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Anonymous
21st Feb 2012 9:51am
This is an extremely interesting short story. I like the discussion of personal reality and how the reality of the story abruptly changes when Anna shows her true nature, committing sudden violence against her brother. There's something darkly funny about that grotesque turn of events. So far, however, it feels like the bare bones, and not a complete work. I'd love to see you flesh this out over several pages, developing the setting and characters more while exploring the philosophy hinted at here in greater detail. Thanks for the read.
21st Feb 2012 10:07am
Thanks Jack, I originally wrote this to adhere to a word limit, though I was reading through it just now, and it does feel incomplete to me.
Thank you for your constructive crit x)
I always like more than a "it's great" or a "I just don't get it"
Thank you for your constructive crit x)
I always like more than a "it's great" or a "I just don't get it"
22nd Feb 2012 00:55am
very cool, enjoyable read........
our brains can only produce illusions around what our senses perceive, & due to myriad factors including physical heredity(brain function in p'ticlr), memory, ego-agenda, conditioning, just to name a few, the stimulus of whatever Reality 'really' is individually reformed by everyone, yet our egos tell us that what our brain is producing is The Reality....any wonder that We[e] are the most vicious intra(&inter)species killers on earth.
7 Billion Realities illuding that they know The Reality...thus we operate in a state of collective Delusion that nearly all Deny (to thee Death)-------
there, ain't ye glad eye eXplained that? Ha!
bless ye, dear (de'spite Reality)!
our brains can only produce illusions around what our senses perceive, & due to myriad factors including physical heredity(brain function in p'ticlr), memory, ego-agenda, conditioning, just to name a few, the stimulus of whatever Reality 'really' is individually reformed by everyone, yet our egos tell us that what our brain is producing is The Reality....any wonder that We[e] are the most vicious intra(&inter)species killers on earth.
7 Billion Realities illuding that they know The Reality...thus we operate in a state of collective Delusion that nearly all Deny (to thee Death)-------
there, ain't ye glad eye eXplained that? Ha!
bless ye, dear (de'spite Reality)!
