Hope; the new beginning

I held my young son close as we huddled together underneath what was once a bustling highway a few years ago. Now it serves as a glimpse for what the rest of our country holds for any curios veiwers. A desolate waste land, collapsed under economic and infastructural neglegance caused by the new regime that took power in the aftermath coup... or civil war I honestly don’t remember anymore. The news here isn’t actual news anymore, hasn’t been for some time. It just repeats the same broadcast about our neighboring countries over and over the same trash ridden, hollow and deserted city streets. Something about how our country is the only one standing and everyone else was eradicated in a nuclear war. Still didn’t explain why the rest of us were living in this dump of a homeland. Street rats such as me and my son.. Which is pretty much the entire population now don’t hear much about what the government does. I hear pretty consistently that the new dictator was once a poor man like me and my son now. I also heard that he lives in an estate the size of what was once the state of New Jersey. It wouldn’t bother me too much if he had just used his power to help the little guys like us... like he once may have been, maybe he feels like this country owes him, or that he needs to avenge the years he lost to poverty, I don’t know.

The place used to thrive with excitement and color and enthusiasm, everyone had a purpose. I used to be a banker myself in the financial district in my home city. So many people looking forward to the future, with such hope. I think that’s what we’re missing now. Me and my son only see a few dozen people a day trying to take shelter from the cold, but even if we could gather up numbers and overthrow the facade of a government, then what, no one could ever reverse what our world’s become. I hate this feeling of hopelessness but it’s reality, and it’s indisputable. I have to try and stay optimistic for my young son but everyday I see the despair captivate his soul. The only we have among the decaying building, cloudy skys and stale air is my wife’s Heart shaped locket, with her picture inside of it. It’s the only thing that’s worth looking at around. This may sound ridiculous but it almost restores hope in me and my son, almost. I just enjoy holding it from time to time. It’s burgundy red with gold steaks on both sides complete with a cheap gold chain, I gave it to her on I think I our second or third date. It starting to fade now, the gold streaks are chipping away, but it still looks better than anything else around here, and it preserves my wife picture. Pure beauty, that’s really scarce these days. When I look at it, it helps me think towards tomorrow. It gives a slight optimistic look on how I’ll feed my son and raise him in this absolute hell hole. So much to think it about, it can be pretty overwhelming sometime, but I just take a quick look at my wife and the anxiety is eased for a minute... just a minute.

“Why is the sky always so cloudy?” My son asked. I didn’t look back at him I just stared at the sky and told him

“I’ll bet if we could fly up there somehow, we’d be able to break the clouds and expose that deep blue sky”.

I noticed his despair ridden expression let up and morphed into a curious, gaze towards the sky.

“How can we fly up there?”

“Plane.. or maybe even a helicopter”

“Where can we find those?”

“There’s an old airfield about 20 miles away from here I used to live near when I was a kid”.

My son perked up like a dog, his face had sparked with a sense of hope again.

“Can we go?!”

“I don’t know, I’ve got a lot of work to do-“ he laughed and punched my arm at my sarcasm. I can’t explain the feeling it gave me to see my son laugh. It was as if my soul were put at ease and the rest of this desolate waste land disappeared. We started off for the airfield after a full days work we found tons of plane parts and even plenty of fuel. We’ve been building our own plane and plane on breaking those clouds very soon. If we hadn’t had my wife to gaurs our souls from falling into that lifeless abyss that we call our country, we probably never would’ve made it this far in life. Soon the three of us will caress the skys together, and hopefully give some much needed hope to the lost souls on ground down below, and maybe...

Just maybe....

Nah.