God Bless the Damned Children

YOUTH ACTIVITIES DEPARTMENT

Sitting in Borders. Fleshing out a new screenplay. A horror movie about forgotten evil crawling from the earth. Released by greed and ignorance. A new dark age for mankind.

There’s a kid across from me. Looks about 16. Black shoes. Black pants. Black shirt. Black trench coat lying over a chair.

He seems like prospective audience for the movie I’m writing.

He’s reading intently. So intently, his eyes seem determined to burn holes through the pages.

I strain to see the title of his book. What do 16-year-old kids who dress in black read while sitting in Borders? If I'm writing a horror movie, I want to know what this young man is reading, because maybe it's what I should be writing.

And not just reading, but reading on Sunday. That’s what day it is. This young fellow could be surfing or playing video games. He could be smoking a doob on the railroad tracks. He could be masturbating to internet porn.

We didn’t have internet porn when I was a kid. The search for porn was like an Arthurian quest.

But this fine young gentleman is in Borders reading.

Reading hardcore. Moving his lips as he scans the pages.

Let me guess. Manga? That's what the young folks like nowadays. I learn forward, cock my head to the side, squint my eyes.

He's reading the Satanic Bible.

Whoa.

Pay attention, Hollywood. The Satanic Bible is your next feature. Starring Ed Norton as Satan and Scarlett Johansen as his nude living altar.

Heck, I didn’t even know that Satanic Bible book was still around.

I remember when I was his age. I dressed in black and read that book too.

Well, not quite read it. More like flipped through and went, eh?

I study the young man in detail. His face is acned. His mouth has no visible teeth. He could be from the fish race people in a Lovecraft story.

I wonder if his appearance has any correlation with his literary choices.

Yep. It’s good to know your audience.

About 30 minutes after writing this piece, a strange yet in retrospect completely predictable thing occurred. The young reader was confronted by a freshly-churched Christian, and for the next hour went round and round with her on topics of salvation, damnation, reincarnation, and the utter hypocrasy of the Bible.

Besides learning that the young man was most definitely going to hell for reading that book, I also learned that he was actually 23 years old and in the military.

Go figure...