The Illusions of Reality

It was on an early Wednesday morning. The air was dense with morning dew. The freshness of the grass and flowers could be smelled from miles away. Unfortunately, the clouds decided to pour their water droplets above the landscape, destroying the possibility of anyone staying long enough to enjoy the gift of nature. I shrugged at the unwelcoming weather as I sauntered along the path, obsidian umbrella at hand, continuing my daily stroll through the park before reaching the District Attorney’s Office. As I was nearing an enormous oak tree, I noticed a dark figure under the fanned-out branches. My eyes adjusted through the weather and were able to make out a man huddling and shivering in the shadows of the tree, a blanket wrapped all over him and a cardboard sign hanging from his neck: HELP WANTED. Before any further thought, a grubby man in his thirties ran straight into me, knocking over my umbrella. A sudden shot of coldness seeped into my skin, showing no mercy to every warmth in my body. The man, however, barely noticed me and kept on running with fear tainted in his eyes. The next moment I knew, two Doberman Pinschers rushed past me, chasing the man furiously. One of them, successfully, drenched my entire trench coat as it ran over a puddle of rainwater. What a series of unfortunate events on an early horrible day! I thought to myself. This day couldn’t get any worse. I grabbed my umbrella and hastily resumed the journey to my workplace. The day went by promptly. It was late in the afternoon and my mind seemed to linger on the unfortunate events which happened earlier during the day. The man with a sign hanging over his neck and the grubby man were chased by the dogs. Both of them intrigued and disgusted me at the same time. Many people during this current era don't have any occupations. The latest Industrial Revolution struck civilization over half a decade ago. Signs have been appearing over the years implying a change will happen sooner or later in society, but numerous people disregarded them causing millions of them to lose their jobs with no other way for them to earn any income. Technology inevitably advances, replacing millions of casual jobs with robots. They were way faster and more efficient than humans. Now, after five years, the effect has persisted in people’s minds. Instead of getting new occupations, people would rather sit by the curb with the HELP WANTED sign over their necks, begging and waiting for some fairy godmother or fairy godfather to sweep by giving them money. Either that or they would resort to stealing, just like in the case of the grubby man. A repeated series of beeping sounds brought me back to reality. I realized the sound came from my wristwatch, an alarm indicating that my work for the day was over. I sighed and packed all the necessary documents inside the briefcase. The sun glistened on the horizon about to make its final performance for the day before darkness filled in, creating shades of orange and red towards the surrounding buildings as I headed home. Along the sidewalk, a line of men and women, even children, sat in front of the buildings with the infamous sign HELP WANTED. Most of them were staring starry-eyed at passersby with cupped hands in front of them. Some were more aggressive and desperate than others. One of them dared to grab a passerby in front of me by the leg. Probably forcing some cents out of the passerby. The passerby shook it off and continued walking. Suddenly, someone jerked me by my right arm. It was one of them. A glossy-eyed man with unruly hair and an unshaven beard. The sign on his neck swayed from the abrupt movements. “Yo-you, give me money,” he crackled. “I-I need to eat.” “Apologies, sir,” I replied, trying my best to suppress my irritation. “But I won’t give you money. You should work for it yourself.” I attempted to pry his dirty hands away from me, but he only tightened his grip and his eyes were now filled with new determination. “Gi-give me money,” he once again said. “Release me this instance.” I snapped while forcefully pulling myself away from his grip. I was surprised he managed to maintain the strength of his grip. This only boiled up my anger, since the man should have realized his condition was his fault, and even so, a 'no' was a 'no'. “I-,” he began. “Get off me!” I yelled furiously as I seized his wrist and tore it away from my arm. I flung his hand away toward the ground. The unexpected force caused the man to lose his balance and thud into the rigid damp concrete.  Satisfied with the turn of events, I turned my gaze forwards and began to continue the walk to my humble abode. However, before I barely took a couple of steps, something held my ankle in place. I glanced down to see two arms, wrapping themselves around my right ankle. It was the man, desperately clinging to my ankle for his last attempt. That’s it, I thought to myself. All that was left of my self-control inside ceased to exist. Inflame with anger, I clutched the man’s jacket with both of my hands and started to use my entire weight to tear him off my ankle, but his arms didn’t even budge an inch. I raised my leg to kick the air out of his chest. Nevertheless, before I could do the unthinkable, a woman in her twenties came from nowhere and pushed me by my shoulders. “Stop it, you!” she exclaimed with all her might. The force refrained me from kicking the man and rather instinctively kept my whole body from falling. She squatted, grabbed the man’s arm, and whispered something to him. Probably some death threats. Amazingly, she managed to pry the man’s arms from my ankle without breaking any sweat. “What is wrong with you?” she snapped at me. Her eyebrows are lowered, closer together and her lips curled inwards. She appeared to be like one of those helpless bunch with her baggy pants and oversized shirt, but her facial contours didn’t seem to look like one. However, she certainly doesn’t look like any proper and mannered lady in town. “What do you mean what is wrong with me?” I asked, with a hint of confusion in my tone. “Don’t you realize what you just did or what you could have done?” she asked, shocked by the confusion I displayed. “I’m just keeping some man in line,” I answered unnervingly. “He just needs something to eat for the day,” she replied, “and he doesn’t have the means to get that.” “Then he should get a job rather than doing nothing.” “How could he get a job when no one wants him or when he doesn’t have the means to get the job?” “What are you talking about?” I questioned, clearly bewildered. “The system has created job vacancies specifically for the cases of those helpless bunch.” “They don’t,” she stated. “They just make you think they do.” “That’s impossible,” I rejected. “How do you even know? You’re just some helpless girl who is going to say things just to get effortless help.” The woman kept her stance, not flinching for a second, and with full confidence said, “I can show you.” I hesitated. The last thing I wanted to do was to trust some random stranger living on the street frequently hanging signs over their necks, but curiosity got the better of me and the woman seemed to be certain of her proof. “Show me, then,” I said rather reluctantly. The woman began to walk towards the entrance of an alleyway. She gestured to me to follow her. I took a step towards her as curiosity got the best of me. I trudged over behind her as she led me deeper and deeper into the dark passageway. Minutes after minutes passed by, however, the woman seemed to show no sign of stopping anytime soon. The surrounding landscape began to change. The usual towering building of stores and skyscrapers was replaced with clay red roof tiles which overlapped each other. For a second, I thought I saw shadows following and watching us from inside the nearly-collapsing houses out of the corner of my eyes. I also began to wonder if the woman was simply tricking me into a trap. Probably murdering me and taking all I have left after bringing me somewhere where no one would find my corpse. I gulped at that scary possibility. Soon after, the woman abruptly stopped in her tracks, causing me to bump into her back. “Watch it,” she whispered as she lifted a layer of iron sheeting. I couldn’t think of the slightest reason for her to whisper or where I currently was. However, both of my queries were soon answered as I looked at the scene in front of me. We were on higher ground on some sort of cliff overlooking what I called the most inconceivable events of all time. I witnessed many torn and filthy-clothed people holding pick-axes and smashing them into the looming rock cliff in front of them. That was not the worst part. The worst part was that several men in black suits were holding whips and frequently whipping those grimy people, even when they didn't do anything wrong. I swore one of them even cackled in amusement as one of the workers collapsed to the ground due to the lashes. Billions of questions raced through my mind all at once, rendering me speechless. Fortunately, the woman seemed to notice my situation. “The system indeed opened up job vacancies for the helpless,” she explained, “but all of the jobs require them to sacrifice every single part of their humanity. All of them are desperate enough to sacrifice their being as humans for some pile of food. The worst part is they actually sign term and condition papers agreeing to be abused by those soulless jackals, so technically, their actions are legalized by the law.” “The system agrees with all of these?” I asked in disbelief. “The system should be the one who provides justice, not all of these.” “Believe me,” she replied. “They are the most corrupted ones here. This is just one of their so-called job vacancies for the helpless” “How could no one ever report these inhumane actions or even know about them?” I asked, anger lacing my tone. “Well, some people know about these 'jobs', but they don't care about these helpless people to do anything,” she replied. “And some people who don’t know about these just don’t bother to investigate the system further. All that matters is they get the benefits from the system.” The awful truth was beginning to dawn on me. Her explanation seemed to be some kind of slap to my entire existence on this Earth. I realized I had never cared about anyone before, except myself. I may have friends whom I fool around with and laugh with them, but in the end, I never truly cared for them. I only used them so I could experience some fun and alleviate the stress of life. I never really asked how they were or even considered if they had any problems in life. We all seemed happy during those times. We laughed, joked around, and smiled a lot around each other. No one seemed to have any problems, or so I thought. From that point onwards, I realized, the helpless bunch of people who sat on the sidewalk with signs over their necks weren’t the only ones who needed help. All of us require help. We should also be the ones who use those HELP WANTED signs over our necks. The helpless people had physical problems, but we had mental problems. Our problems may not be as evident as those helpless people on the sidewalk, but those problems existed inside of us and they were consuming every last part of us. At a glance, we are all decent people, but on a deeper inspection, all of us are rotten at the core. Men and women alike unknowingly succumb to their vices and demons. They distorted our morality and the concept of right and wrong. In the end, we are all monsters and we all need help.