War had a remarkable way of transforming a human being. It brought man at the confluence of who he was and what he wanted to achieve. It was as much a conflict of the spirit as it was a conflict of armies. Each side pushed and pulled against the other, leveraging its weight and power to outmanoeuvre and defeat the other.
Theo Sagonar was born and lived much of his life on the outskirts of Auzlensea. Although the Vultucan capital was the seat of the political power of the fascist regime and the symbol of its wealth, very little of it seemed to trickle to the people who lived at the edges of the city.
Theo and his family lived near a landfill. They worked long ours to sort trash, getting very little in return. His parents could not afford his education, so he joined them, rummaging through the garbage. He was always angry. He was angry at the world for his affliction. He was angry that he could not go to school. He was angry that he could not run around and play like the other kids.
He was angry that he would sometimes go to bed hungry only to wake up to a stale loaf of bread his mom had found in a brown plastic bag, probably discarded by the wealthy and selfish people of the fancy suburbs. He was angry that he was always reminded of who he was and what he would never be everyday.
“You’ll never do no’in!” Sam would yell through the gap where his upper incisors ought to have been. Theo tried to ignore the taunts for the sake of his parents. Without an outlet to vent his anger, he would snap at the smallest provocation and his parents would bear the worst of it.
“I don’t wanna eat this stanking bread no more”, he yelled as he held the hard lump of bread in his hand, agonising over its edibility. He threw it on the ground and stood up, breathing heavily and puffing his cheeks.
“Where you off to?” His mother asked him.
“Far away!”
“You won’t talk to your mom that way, boy! Say sorry” his father commanded.
He looked at them and merely stormed off. He walked through the labyrinth created by the mountains of rubbish. He stomped his feet and mumbled profanities at life, at everyone, at the soil, at the sky, at his parents and at God. His parents sat in silence. Although Theo had been disrespectful, he was not wrong. They sat in silence a knot jn their stomach, blocking any food from entering as tears muffled their speech, clouded their vision and stifled their breathing.
Theo found himself crying. He sat on the ground and clenched his teeth and scratched the earth with his nails. The tears and snot streamed down his cheeks. He tried to stifle the whimpering of his sobbing, but to no avail. In the bitterness of his heart, his body struggled to relieve itself except to make loud embarrassing noises, declaring what words could not describe: I am in pain.