[FF] Bored Old Man

[radicell]

I’m Robert Tippet, of Lincoln, Nebraska.

 

Sitting in the swivel chair of my “new” one-story abode, I ponder the events of last week. What happened last week? I ask myself. It was a question that any old man, relaxing and bored out of his mind, would ask himself. And that’s what I am, that’s me, Robert Tippet. An old, retired librarian living in Lincoln, Nebraska.

 

I spin in the chair, eager to get some of my old vibes back in me. Suddenly, I face a desk, and a photo of two women interrupts my thoughts. Slightly annoyed, I reach forward and knock the photo over. They’re not my wife and daughter, I convince myself, they’re not my family, Robert Tippet never had a family, and I’m Robert Tippet. They’re not my wife and daughter, and I didn’t hide that photograph when the Federal Officer…

 

Stop, I tell myself. Perhaps I really should’ve given the photo to the Officer during the transport. Well at least my family’s safe, I think inside my head. Of course they’re safe, that was the deal!

 

I was doing it again. I, Robert Tippet, was thinking the thoughts of some other person. I stand up and exercise my muscles. The air in the house was stuffy and uncomfortable, so I decided to go for a jog.

 

“Morning, Mr. Tippet!” a fellow jogger yells. She passes me and continues jogging, while I stand in place, confused. How did she know that my name was Mr. Tippet? I wonder. Of course, Robert Tippet had lived here all his life, so people were bound to know him. Yet I knew that wasn’t true. Robert Tippet had just started existing yesterday. It must be the government. They must have brainwashed the Lincoln townsfolk into thinking that Robert Tippet existed before yesterday. That filthy, corrupt government, lying to its own people.

 

I was supposed to change all that. I was supposed to crumble the government, and my organization was supposed to be its replacement. And it was all ruined by that son of a –

 

“Mr. Tippet, is everything alright?”

 

I smiled warmly and nodded. “Yes, young lady. Just blanked out there for a second.” Without another word, I turned and continued jogging. What was I thinking back there? I’m not a rebel. I don’t own an organization. And I certainly wasn’t planning to bomb the country. Robert Tippet’s a patriot – I’m a patriot. I’m just a bored old man, a retired librarian living in a cheap house in Lincoln, Nebraska.

 

I stopped again, and sighed. This wasn’t going to work. In the distance, the sun was rising over the horizon, brightening up the town and empowering another day in our lives. Putting the past behind me is more difficult than I thought it’d be.

 

Be grateful, I tell myself, you could be dead by now for what you’ve done. Your wife, your daughter… their throats could’ve been cut by now, but no, you landed a deal with the government. You had the information they wanted, and now, everyone’s safe. The family’s safe and protected, nobody’s going to come looking for me either, since I’m dead. It’s time to put it all behind me, and become the bored old man that Robert Tippet is. It’s time to wake up each morning, watching the sunrise and not thinking about a target to kill, or an incoming shipment of weapons, or an African nation to exploit, but instead, to embrace the light of my new beginning.

 

**

 

Well, I'm looking to improve in non-fan-fiction writing, so advice is welcomed.

 

[Eminence]

Interesting piece. The repetition gave me a quite specific alzheimers vibe of some sort, as though this was a character struggling with his identity and struggling to remember just who he was, therefore constantly reminding himself of his name and all the repetition that goes along with it.

 

I'm not so sure about the corrupt undercurrent running through it; the whole mention of Africa at the end seemed like quite a cheap twist to subvert our expectations of the story occuring somewhere in the Western World.

[radicell]

Thanks for replying, Eminence. I do think I could've made some parts clearer, especially when the character alludes to having a corrupt past, as you mentioned. When I re-read it I do find it a wee bit confusing, as if I didn't give the reader enough cues to comfortably understand what happened.

 

I guess that's something I can work on in these sorts of pieces.