DysFUNCTIOpia Read online

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  At 7:28 pm, Barón arrived at the gate of his house. Noticing that the security patrol cars were ready to arrest anyone not in their homes in two minutes, he opened desperately the gate, ran towards the house door, took out the key, opened the door, and jumped inside the house slamming the door right behind him. He stood by the door trying to catch his breath for having run several blocks in just a few minutes and realized that it was almost time for dinner with his dad. Noticing that his dad was not in the living room yet, he dashed towards his room to rip the pamphlet in a million pieces and throw it in his room’s waste basket—he was going to burn its content later. Then, he went to the bathroom to take a quick shower to washout the sweat. When he finished his shower, he put the same TRS quickly, walked to the living room, and sat at the table to wait for his dad.

  Barón’s dad came in with a pot of soup and breads. He put the pot at the center of the table and smiled at Barón. He went back to the kitchen and brought all the utensils necessary. Barón waited patiently at the table trying to show good manners. Finally, Barón’s dad sets the table and sat down directly opposite to Barón.

  It was customary for Barón and his dad to sit at the dinner table and not look at each other in the eye. The eyes of Barón’s dad seemed to be always staring at the walls during dinner with pensive expression on his face and occasionally looking at his plate to make sure he was taking the right portions of food each time—It was the price he had to pay for using his functio- goggles for several hours every day at one of the many factories that produced functio- goggles.

  He was a man of few words and did not like to show his emotions. At the dinner table, he often asked predictable questions, whose answers engaged his son in a simple exchange of factual information, and shifted the attention away from him; he was more comfortable letting Barón do most of the talking. Furthermore, he liked to keep the conversations simple enough so that his emotions were not shown at all, something that he had been doing since Barón’s mother passed away a few months after Barón was born. Since then, his dad had been a responsible father to Barón, but lacked emotional expression when he communicated, something that was a surplus in Barón’s conversations.

  Barón was lifting his spoon to taste the low sodium chicken noodle soup when he felt a strong and mysterious desire to hear his dad talk. It was like a voice speaking softly in his ear telling him to try to communicate with his father. Without questioning that ethereal voice which Barón reckoned was just his imagination, just a few seconds after hearing that mysterious call to engage in a meaningful talk with his father, Barón began to challenge himself to find out a topic of conversation that would make his dad express more than just the facts. After sipping one half his bowl of soup without saying anything to one another, with the feeling of “divine revelation”, Barón thought about bringing the year of the asteroid as a topic of conversation, determined to change the pattern of social communication that had pervaded for so many years between him and his father. Given that he had to do an extra credit assignment about the year of the asteroid for Mr. Hegel’s class and that he was immensely interested in understanding USA history after the year 2026, he thought that it would be practical asking his father what he remembered from that year, not to mention that it would be also a great excuse. In this frame of mind, with a shy tone of voice, Barón asked, “What can you tell me about the year 2026?” Immediately, his father’s typical pensive expression changed to one of astonishment and puzzlement.

  “Why do you want to know about it?”

  “It is for school. I was learning about it. I figure that your memories will mean to me more than anything else.”

  “Why do you want to make school meaningful? If you can practice your knowledge, it is not necessary to make it meaningful.”

  “It is important for me to make things meaningful! I am surrounded by functiomatons and I want to be a poet! I do not want to work for a functiomaton company.”

  “Why not? They offer a great government financial packet.”

  “Ok…if you do not want to talk about the year of the asteroid then I will not insist.”

  “Fine. What do you want to know about it?”

  “I do not want to know the history about it. I learn history in school. I want to know how you felt.”

  “I… cannot describe how I felt. Nobody talks about how they feel about things anymore. It is an impractical conversation.”

  “You cannot say even one word about how you felt? Do you need help? Do you need a list of words to describe feelings? Here are some words you could try: Anxious, fearful, depressed…”

  “Ok. I will try for the sake of your school education. Perhaps it will enhance your score in your next school report.”

  “I am already a top student. I just wanted to understand the year of the asteroid further for my own sake.”

  “Fine… I was working in a computer assembly factory in Orange County. It was around 10:28 am when I noticed many of the workers walking away from the main factory room towards the cafeteria where the T.V. was. I heard the president say the words that are now famous… I got the feeling that it was not real…I go outside and I see a tiny star looking thing on the sky…so, I believed it. I was in panic…”

  Barón’s father kept talking about his recollection of the year of the asteroid. For the first time, Barón noticed that his father actually felt something. He was a human being capable of reciting poetry. For the first time his dad seemed like someone that could understand Barón’s plight. However, while his dad was talking, trying to be realistic, Barón thought that so many years of being thwarted emotionally by his father unintentionally, could not be compensated by one successful conversation. As a result, erroneously, Barón implied that it was already too late to try to fix their father-son relation and it would be better to resign himself from any further attempts; the thought that his relation with his father was irreparable left Barón feeling guilty, not being aware that the mysterious call that he heard earlier, which motivated him to try to communicated with his father, was his own “poetry” beginning to take form.

  The plates were empty, the bread basket was depleted, and the silence began to become uncomfortable after Barón’s dad had finished talking redundantly about the same things over and over. The unusually long chat left both of them no being sure what to do next, knowing that both of them had to return to their everyday activities even though they gazed into an uncharted territory for several minutes. They had to do something besides staring at their empty metallic plates.

  Barón’s dad made the first move; he gave Barón a smile and said, “I will pick up the dishes.” He quickly reached for all the plates and utensils and put them on a tray. He dashed to the kitchen and said good night to Barón with simple nods.