Displacement Story

  Richard was not your average man. Sure he may look normal on the surface, but beyond his appearance was a life  he longed to escape. He had married Isabel 20 years ago, after discovering she was pregnant with his son. She's no longer in the picture now, for reasons which his heart can't bear to dwell on. But what had come from that relationship was his son Alex, the pride and joy of his life. 

    Richard grew up in a small town up in Northern Montana called Conrad. He wasn't very social, but excelled in school. His intelligence seemed far above the rest of his peers, and for this reason he didn't seem to fit in. While all the other high school students were going out on dates and going to prom, he was inside doing homework or coming up with the next great theory. For this reason, he longed to leave Conrad and make something of himself. So after High school, he got a full ride scholarship to MSU, a huge town compared to Conrad, and studied to be an architect. After completing his masters, he met Isabel (the first woman who had ever given him a chance), and they soon became pregnant. They married and his son Alex was born nine months later. Isabel left soon after because she couldn't deal with Richards ego and sense of superiority to everyone, and so Richard was left to raise his son alone.

    Richard moved on with his life and began an extremely successful architecture business. He had a huge influence in the city of Bozeman, and soon everyone recognized his architecture. They admired his work, but no one knew about the man behind the buildings. Soon Richard was one of the wealthiest people in the valley. When his son Alex graduated high school, he was eerily similar to his father. Incredibly smart and used to getting everything he wanted, he dreamed of leaving Bozeman and moving onto bigger and better things. His father warned him not to have too big of an ego, after all- not everywhere was as safe as Bozeman. Yet despite his fathers advice, Alex believed he could do anything, and decided to travel the world and escape from Bozeman, seeking thrill and adventure. Richard was sad to see his son go, and warned him against thinking he was invincible. 

     Yet despite this, Alex soon left Bozeman thinking he could do anything. He began by going on a skiing adventure. Although he didn't have much experience skiing, he went on the most dangerous area of the hill, believing that he could do anything. His friend's advised against pushing his limits, but he did it anyway. While on the way down the hill, Alex's friends saw a danger of avalanche sign and veered the other way. Alex, however, wanting to impress, heading straight for the danger area. His friends watched him as he soared down the mountain, and all seemed well until suddenly a huge mass of snow engulfed him- he had triggered an avalanche. His friends were far enough away the all they could do was watch the horror play out. Alex's last thoughts were of his father, and his advice about not pushing his limits. This is all he remembered as his mind went black.

    The funeral was held a week later. Richard was empty inside, his only joy in life stolen from him. He knew he had passed his ego onto his son and that it was a curse than possibly caused his death. All he could do was stare at the hole in the ground as his son was lowered into it.He thought that a life can be full of success and wealth and ego, but none of this can cause pure happiness. He pondered life's questions as he mourned his son.