Television and Acid

Jake and I were getting along well that night. We’d had a lull earlier in the year when the new computer’d come in, and before that, that summer, when he started making friends and they started taking up all his time.

But things were different now; with papers to write and shit to do that he just didn’t care for. But seriously now, why the hell did anyone think that the lives of such uninteresting people were ever worth caring about? Who decided that this ‘reading thing was actually ‘entertaining,’ anyway? The pictures didn’t move; they didn’t even make any sounds. I could do the kid better, and he knew that.

Some days, in the afternoon, his friends’d be over and they’d talk out loud about how much they hated it all. It was a sort of punishment, he explained. As he put it, “the heroes of our generation have never existed, so we’re stuck here reading about the failures of generations past,” or something like that. I was never one for politics and complications. I just broadcast them.

So tonight, like every Thursday night so far, Jake was on the couch, zoning out, having a good time, switching through all my channels. Dad just got a new cable package, you see. Three hundred channels with so little variation between any of them that it covered every detail of everything you could possibly want. I’ve never felt so alive, or so used. Maybe there were two pages left in that essay but they weren’t getting written now, that was for sure. The computer in the next room was collecting dust while I was alive and kicking, and he knew it.

The phone rang. It was the usual slackers, so Jake didn’t bother to pick up. He left me on and went to the kitchen to make a sandwich. He wanted to hear the news now, so I played it for him. CNN, FOX, something called the BBC that he liked to watch but that I always thought was boring most of the time. I had it all and I could play it for him.

“… Scientists predict that at the current rate, by 2046 most of coastal China will be under water, a potential barrier to the country’s rate of economic growth. On Friday, Beijing announced that the country would be expanding its submarine fleet.”

“Three hundred channels and not one of them had a good thing to say,” I heard him say under his breath. To be honest, I was a little taken. That’s alright though, I knew he’d come back.

When he got back there was a message on his phone, so he put it on speaker phone and threw it on the other side of the couch.

“Jake, what’s up, it’s Eddie. We’re going to Mitchell’s place tonight. Davey picked up that hash, too, if you want in, I don’t think he’s charging much. Just call me later, or Davey ...” The rest I didn’t hear.

I saw Jake sit there and think a little. He didn’t look too happy. Dad probably wouldn’t be back for a while, because he tended to stay out late these days. And these guys who just called him were around the house a lot anyways, and he didn’t seem to like them much. But that was fine, wasn’t it? Come on Jake, forget those guys. They don’t care about you; you’re tired of what they got and what I got just keeps on coming. We’ll have a great time. You and me, just like old times, yeah? But I saw him put on his shoes and step outside with the phone pressed to his ear. I didn’t see him for a day after that.