The Paper God Rebellion - Chapter 2 (Day 4)

Isaac was kneeling uncomfortably next to Jonas and Micah, smashing his bottles in unusual silence.  Unusual because Isaac was rarely silent.  Jonas and Micah wore stony glares as, they too, seemed far too focused on the act of smashing bottles with their mallets.

“Hey guys,” She said.  “What’s going on?”  Neither Jonas or Micah said anything.  She could see Isaac rolling his eyes.  Pointing to the sulking boys, he said, “Don’t mind them, they’re just having a lover’s spat.” 

“Well, then,” Lilia said moving over toward Isaac.  “I’m going to work near you.  Let’s give them their privacy.”  Micah let out an audible sigh. 

“Whatever, it’s no big deal.  We just don’t see eye to eye,” Micah said.  “You can’t convince everyone.”  He stood up and handed Lilia a bag of crushed glass, and started to trade it for hers, but paused.  “Actually,” he said.  “Do you want to take my spot?”  I’ll help Oriana with the mold and bring over a couple more bags for you guys.”  He stretched out his legs and jogged over to where Oriana was setting up the mold.  Lilia took a seat next to Isaac and Jonas. 

“So really, what were you guys talking about?” she asked Jonas after Micah had dropped off a few more bags of broken glass. Jonas was taking a break and was sitting cross-legged, his thin frame slouched, and he was intently watching his mallet twirl on its head. 

“He’s just an emotional kid,” he said after a while.  Isaac scoffed. 

“Yeah, not an old bitter man, like you,” he said laughing.  “Seriously, how does everyone not go crazy after this?”  Jonas shrugged.

“I think it helps to come back for one last year, a year to return to normalcy,” He stopped twirling the mallet and looked at Lilia and Isaac. “And mostly, it’s just a head game.  If you can just separate what you’re doing from what’s actually happening outside the context of the situation—it makes it easier.” 

“What do you mean?” Isaac asked.  “Like don’t look at the situation outside of ‘just following orders’?  That’s pretty bad too.”  But Jonas shook his head.

“No, not like that.  Just try not to focus on the fact that you are actively participating in taking someone’s life.  Someone will no longer exist because of the five or six pounds of pressure that you put on a trigger.  Someone will never see their loved ones again.  And try not to think about the fact that just beyond that target you have your sight set on is a person, blindfolded, waiting for you to pull that trigger.  ” 

Lilia and Isaac exchanged looks.  “Okay, we already feel guilty, and this isn’t exactly helpful...” Lilia started, but Jonas interrupted her. 

“No what I mean, is don’t focus on that type of stuff.”  Jonas interjected.  “Instead focus on the fact you’re participating in something that will stop a repeat offender.  Focus on the fact that violent crime rate is down, which means more people can live in less fear and go home to their loved ones.  Focus on the fact that even if the law has its flaws, it has a chilling effect on violent crimes.  People now think twice about it before committing a violent crime, and in that instant, you have made a difference.” 

Something that Micah said yesterday was still bothering Lilia.  “Doesn’t bother you that you never actually knew which specific criminal was being killed?” She asked.  “I mean, what to stop corruption in the system where we might be killing these unknown figures that might not on the List?” 

Jonas looked at her questioningly.  “Who’s your teacher for Humanities?” he asked. 

“Livingston,” she answered.  That seemed to satisfy his curiosity.    

“Then don’t worry about it.  He’ll probably cover that topic in class.”  He said.  At that moment Oriana yelled from across the warehouse.

“Hey guys,” she yelled.  “Get your lazy asses over here.  We need more of the crushed glass.”  Micah jogged over to help pick up the bags and they made their way over to the molds which were in front of the old kiln. 

“How hot does that thing get?” Lilia asked Isaac. 

“Hot.”  He answered.  “This stuff probably needs it heated to around a thousand degrees Fahrenheit,” he said.    “So I’m guessing, yeah.  Hot.”   Jonas nodded. 

“Yeah, around fifteen hundred degrees Fahrenheit is about right,” he said. 

There were ten separate moldings on the floor, each roughly three feet long by about a foot wide.  “How big is this thing going to be?” Lilia asked Oriana.  She shrugged. 

“I don’t know,” She answered.  “I want to make sure I have enough pieces in case any of them break.  We’ll be using Isaac’s blow torch—” she nudged Isaac, “—to stick everything together and fuse some of the remaining broken glass on.”  She began filling the molds with the crushed glass that sparkled in the afternoon sun.  “I’m sure it’ll evolve anyways.” 

After filling the molds and changing the percentage of colored glass and clear glass in the molds, They worked in pairs to place the molds into the kiln, which was surprisingly large.  There were five shelves on each side and one mold fit perfectly onto one shelf.  Oriana locked the kiln’s door and Jonas put the temperature on at five hundred degrees. 

“We’ll heat it up slowly,” He said.  “Otherwise the glass will expand too quickly.” 

“How long will that take?” Lilia asked. 

Jonas shrugged and looked at his watch. “Probably a couple of hours.”  Oriana looked at him. 

“Seriously?” She asked.  “I thought the entire process would take a couple of hours.  Can’t we do it any faster?” 

“It’s your project,” Jonas said.  “But I wouldn’t raise the heat by five hundred degrees more than once every forty-five minutes—and that’s probably pushing it.”  Oriana bit her lip.  Lilia looked at her watch, it was already getting late, another couple hours would take them into dinner time. 

“Ah, screw it,” Oriana said.  “Let’s just raise the temperature every forty-five minutes, that should be good enough.  I’d hate to keep you guys longer than what I said it would take.  If it shatters, it shatters.  I’ll just say I meant for it to do that all along.  Something about the fragility of life...”

Isaac grinned.  “It’s art, right?” he said.  “There’s no wrong in art.”    

“Actually,” Jonas said.  “I have to leave soon.  But I just want to make sure you’ll be okay?”  He asked Oriana. 

“Yeah, yeah,” she said giving him a push.  “Just leave me in my time of need.  Go on, get out of here.”

“I have total faith in you,” he said putting his hand over his heart as he walked toward the exit.  “You already got it, I didn’t help out much.  See you guys in class.” He gave a small wave to Micah and Lilia.  “Nice meeting you guys.  See you around.” 

“So I take it he’s in your mixed-media class?” Micah asked as they sat down in a semi-circle on canvass thrown on the cold concrete.  “He seems to like himself a lot.”  Oriana shook her head.  The afternoon light lit up the blue streaks in her hair

“Naw, go easy on him.  He’s a good guy,” she said.  Isaac nodded.

“Yeah, he’s pretty brilliant, even if he doesn’t smile, or laugh.  Or talk much.  Or do anything that normal humans do,” Isaac said.  “He first moved here with his family when he was six years old.”

“Then when he was twelve, his parents were killed, it was a home invasion, or something,” Oriana added.  “I guess he was in the house when his parents were shot.  It was on the news.”  Lilia now remembered why his face looked familiar.  She remembered seeing him on the news when it happened.  There were a series of home invasions where the homeowners were injured, but Jonas’s family was the only with any fatalities. 

“I remember that,” she said.  “Didn’t he have an older brother too?”  Oriana nodded. 

“Yeah, he took custody of Jonas since he was already eighteen at the time of the deaths.  He doesn’t talk about it, but all I remember is that the media were pretty vicious when covering the story, since he was the only survivor in the house.  His brother was away at college at the time.  I think” she said. 

“I can’t even imagine,” Micah shook his head.  “We were just talking about how idiotic this law is, but then started arguing about why I didn’t feel the same about the mandatory military service.”  He was quiet for a moment.  “I don’t know how he could have participated in Fourth Year and Humanities,” he said.  “That’s pretty tough shit to deal with.” 

Lilia nodded.  They were quiet for a few minutes.  Oriana went to turn up the kiln temperature.  Isaac reached into the cooler. 

“You guys want another one?” he asked holding up a bottle.  “There’s a couple more.”  Lilia shook her head. 

“Naw, I should probably get going.  If I stay any later, my mom is probably going to start worrying.”  She stood up and stretched her legs.  Nudging Micah, she asked, “Need a ride?”  He shook his head. 

“I’m going to just hang out here a little more,” he said.  “I’ll just catch a ride home with one of these guys,” he said pointing to Isaac and Oriana. 

“All right,” Lilia said.  “Well, I’ll see you guys tomorrow before class.  Let me know how it turns out.”  She started to walk towards the exit.  She turned around to wave goodbye, but her friends were already deep in what looked like a serious conversation.  Getting outside the warehouse, she realized how late it was.  The last rays of the afternoon sun stretched out the shadows of the trees. 

The worst part about the end of the day, she thought, is the fact that another day is right behind it.  The sooner the day ends, the faster another one comes.    Turning up the radio and tuning out the world, she drove home deep in her thoughts.