Glorious Future

I see Luther. He is sitting on his coach, mindlessly scrolling through his phone. His fingers are seemingly possessed by a ghost because he does not move them. Instead he’s deep inside his own thoughts, laughing, crying, succeeding, failing.

But suddenly an anonymous phone call pulls him back from fairyland into reality. In the same moment, nervousness is filling his stomach as he asks himself who is calling him. He thinks about not even answering … He takes a deep breath and then clicks “Accept”.

“Hello??”

“Hi sweety, I wanted to call you to remind you of your appointment.”

…

Stupid, as if he would ever forget. Luther is a structured person. He of course has scheduled the event and set up multiple reminders so that he wouldn’t forget it. But his mother of course knows nothing, and his father didn’t even bother to be on the call.

…

I do apologize as I do sometimes have limited insight into what Luther does. Our relationship is complicated.

I plead with him often to take control of his life but I’m not sure whether there is any hope for him left.

When he talks to his parents or friends, it is tiring for me. Nothing but empty platitudes and I can feel how he’s trying to be something he is not.

…

He’s back from his parents. With anger he slams the door behind him. It is very unusual for him, usually his conversations are very tame (which is one of the reasons they are so boring)

But this time, …, this time I can really feel the passion. I’m not sure what happened but I can feel determination in him.

Today is the day you can change everything I tell him. It works, I can feel the energy he has. We gotta get it out, I tell him. So he goes outside and just runs and runs. He wants to sit down at a pub but he has too much energy, I tell him. Instead he just gets liquor from the 24/7 store.

It is amazing the different opportunities that now stand before us.

…

Next day, together, we quit his job. He puts his phone and all things connected to his previous life in a box and stuffs it into the most abandoned corner of his apartment.

It is my job to motivate me, I tell him that it’s great. He will come back to his friends & family when he is successful but right now he has to focus on the here & now.

…

Many days pass without much happening. No job, no money, no friends. The energy in Luther slowly fades away along with me.

…

One late evening however, he was partly drunk, stumbled onto a production stage. They are currently producing breaking news. I honestly have no idea how he did it, but they actually offered him a job that very night.

Some of the most stressful months of Luther's life then started. He worked everyday officially from 9-5 but unofficially he would get there at 7 and leave at most of the time at 8 or 9.

…

He’s currently rearranging some chairs and production equipment.

“They are laughing at you.” I tell him.

Anxiously Luther looks around, he always has that nervous look in his eyes. Constantly trying to be aware of the situation. But suddenly out of nowhere someone touched his shoulder.

It was Huxley, the current moderator of the News Segment. Huxley and Luther have a complicated relationship. Huxley is very incompetent but he has made connections to other people in the company. Even though everybody hates him, he still gets to moderate. Something which Luther and I actually want to do but can’t because of this stupid bourgeois fuck up.

Huxley sees Luther as someone from a lower class. He hates the fact that people like that get to work in entertainment and taint the image of the entire industry.

Shouting from across the room. Luther’s employer calls him into his office. He has a mischievous smile on his lips but quickly readjusts his expression to the stern face he normally wears.

…

I’m not entirely sure what they talked about. He came out: angry. He thinks about the proposal his employer made to him. “Incredible!” I think to myself. His employer made Luther a deal: Make Huxley disappear and Luther can take his job. I try to talk to Luther to convince him, but suddenly I’m out of range again.

Reduced to a passenger seat, I can only vaguely hear his thoughts and emotions but can’t interact with him again.

…

The first time in many weeks, he comes back home early. As he sits down on his coach, he feels an emptiness in his stomach and mind again. From the very back of the cobwebbed storage room of his apartment, he pulls back a cardboard box. Inside: his old phone. He quickly glances at the stream of messages to him. But then he thinks back to the grey memories of his friends and family. He feels the flame in his heart beginning to spike again. He turns back, this time throwing his phone out the window. I’m back again.

I tell him that we need to develop a plan for how we’re gonna get to Huxley and that we have to do it fast. We need to use your fire, I told him. Otherwise it will be too late.

At that moment Luther decides to shut one part of his brain off. He stops thinking about possibilities & consequences. His mind becomes singular, poisoned with one purpose. He knows that at this time Huxley will probably come back drunk from the bar he usually visits at this time, now is his only chance he thinks to himself.

As he walks along the dark corridors of the city, following Huxley, his mind becomes even more singular. There are no thoughts, there is no Luther. There is only one goal. Suddenly at a sharp corner, into an alleyway he jumps at Huxley and sticks his knife into Huxley’s chest. Euphoria rushes inside Luther’s mind. He cannot help but smile and be consumed by the nerve wrecking stream of currents running through his mind. The world around him feels small in comparison to the vastness of the thoughts inside Luther’s head.

He stabs Huxley again in the head then he runs and runs. He doesn’t know where and why.

…

The next day he wakes up 2 hours before his alarm. I tell him that today is our day.

We arrive together at the set and the people are already waiting for us. Congrats they tell us. I tell him that this is only the beginning.

A few weeks later …

In the dark, Luther goes home and two shadows sit on his doorstep. As he approaches closer, he notices his parents there.

After a boring conversation, they make up a time and place to meet.

…

Right before meeting his parents again, Luther felt proud about his life.

But as he sits there Luther feels empty. He listens to them talk.

Their voices start to fade into the background. Even though they try to hide it, in their eyes I can feel their concern for Luther. I can feel how through their eyes they beg him to just return back to his normal family, trust in them and their friends.

Luther hears their surface level conversations. He nods. Occasionally smiles. But he doesn’t listen. In his mind a thought forms: I will never go back to this.

I tell him: Trust me and we will achieve greatness.

Seconds seem to turn into hours as Luther thinks through the gravity of making this decision.

I trust you, he answers me.

As I leave, Luther looks back one time but I force him to look forward. To the glorious future that awaits us.