Forbidden to watch
By
Alessandro Ghebreigziabiher
Once again, in an hopefully distant future...
The alarms start to sound, that is, to scream and rattle with unspeakable rage.
Who dared?
Who could get to that?
The crowd is packed around, joined in amazement and head bent over the personal, sovereign monitor.
"Madam," the agent in charge says, staring at the woman framed on his screen, "your son is under arrest."
The mother of the guilty one is incredulous, more than frightened.
"Excuse me," she addressed the diligent official portrayed in the video of her mobile phone. "But, I must tell you that..."
"He violated it..." people around murmur in a chorus, almost chanting, gradually approach to gain definition for the unexpected image. "The sacred rule... he violated it..."
"Like everyone, you know perfectly that outside no one can look up from their phone."
"Of course," she tries to explain, "I know it well, I know the sacred rule, but my child..."
"Of course," the city clerk interrupts her again, "now you’ll bring out the usual story of the little kid, who is young and innocent, poor him... but did you see what these budding offenders used to upload today?"
Suddenly the audience marks with a common negative thumb the woman’s answer.
Because if it’s popular to get on the winner’s car, these days it’s just as easy tearing it to pieces finding it going through the canonical street in the opposite direction.
"Look, sir, there's a misunderstanding, I didn’t mean..."
"Are you without a bit of decency?" the diligent guardian of the status quo apostrophizes her. "You should be a guide for your son, instead of making him falling into the vortex of sin..."
"Shame..." echoes the crowd as above. "In the vortex of sin..."
"What sin?" The woman still tries to be heard. "You didn’t understand..."
"Shut up!" The guardian of the granted livery exclaims. "I begin to think I'll have to arrest you too, along with the criminal you’re raising..."
"Arrest her!" The populace whispers in full, ecstatic enthusiasm.
"My son is not a criminal!" The woman yells back overwhelmingly overpowering the din.
"Why not?" The mad policeman replies. "He violated the sacred rule, we have all seen it, we see it even now, the scene is viral on every screen. The child has moved his head away from the monitor and is looking around."
"Sinner!" The numerous witnesses of the serious transgression rant.
"But you don’t understand", the mother exclaims with renewed vigor. "My son is blind..."
A very pleasant silence falls inexorable in that moment.
"Oops..." the policeman mortified says. "So he's looking at nothing..."
"You're wrong," the woman corrects him.
We are doing that...