Stupid people

It was not that Eugene was afraid or anything, not at all, he actually loved danger and to put himself up to impossible tasks that no one had ever done before. But this was madness wasn’t it? The crowd cheered him on, their voices echoing through the city, bouncing from window to wall, from car to bus. Odd things can happen when you are under the pressure from an entire group. Well odd things happen when stupid people get together and set out to do something. This is stupid.

“Come on, give me a break” shouted Eugene out to the mass standing below him. “Do I really have to do this, why me? come on!” he continued.

“EUGENE, EUGENE, EUGENE, EUGENE” the gathering of stupid people had in just a couple of minutes gone from five, to twenty, to one hundred to thousands. “Apparently they travel in packs” Eugene thought to himself in all the commotion.

It wasn’t fair. Not fair at all. He was minding his own business, taking a stroll on the rooftop just to get some fresh air, trying to get away from the smog on the streets below. Stepped on to the ledge and someone from below him started screaming and jeering. “JUMPER, WE HAVE A JUMPER!”. People in groups can do odd things to your mind, or rather, stupid people in groups can do odd things to your perfectly healthy mind.

Eugene stretched out his arms, flapping them around a bit, jumping up and down while doing some sort of bird noise. The crowd went ballistic, started to cheer him on even more. “It’s the oddest thing, why would they want me to jump? They don’t even know me!” Eugene said to himself. “They don’t even know me, and still they want me dead”.

“Do not fret oh little one! Thou shalt not jumpeth!”, a voice said

“Who are you, and how do you know that I SHALT NOT JUMPETH!”, Eugene replied

“It’s rather simple to be honest, you are not as stupid as these people cheering you on are”, the voice continued

“How do you know? Maybe I want to jump, are you calling me a coward?”, Eugene whispered.

“Well, that’s the thing, if you jump you are a coward. If you stay up here you are the brave one. But you do what you have to do, see if I care”, continued the voice

“What do you mean?”, Eugene said

“To be cheered on by thousands of people and decide not to do what they want and thus suffer their rage and disappointment is much more courageous, much, much more courageous than to do as they say. Especially when they want you to kill yourself.”, the voice calmly continued.

“Ah”, Eugene was thinking, “And who are you”.

“Are you sure you want to know?” echoed the voice.

“Yes, yes I am sure”, said Eugene

“I am, Death, I’ve been at your side for quite some time now”, death said.

“That’s from the seventh seal right?”, Eugene replied

“Well, yes, but what does it matter, I am death anyway and hey, it’s a good movie”, death said and continued in a whisper “sometimes I don’t feel like being original”.

“Hey, wait a minute. If you are death, why would you want me to live?”, Eugene turned around, facing death he continued, “Or are you pulling my leg? As I understand it you know how I’m going to die. And if you want me to stay up here, that might lead to my death. And if that is the case, my only way of survival is to jump?”, Eugene said.

The crowd stopped the cheering the moment Eugene stepped off the ledge to face death. They started to spread out again, to their jobs, families and duties. Forgetting all about Eugene and the fact that they tried to kill him, taking an innocent mans life for some entertainment.

Eugene looked around. Nobody was there. He was standing alone on a rooftop, looking at the sky. What a wonderful day this could be! He took one step and plummeted to the ground. No cheering. No stupid people. Only one stupid man, falling to the ground.

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *