They bounced around the room as the strange sounds came from the speakers. This all seemed so meaningless, but that was the point. That which is unattainable and unnecessary was beautiful. It didn't matter you were chasing a carrot on a stick when you loved to run.
Sonny thought he could catch the carrot. He used to spend hours in the listening room intent on understanding the sounds coming from the machine. The sounds seemed to be saying something in a language foreign to his human mind. When he couldn't handle the intensity required to focus on this he would fiddle with the knobs on the machine. One day he was able to find some other sounds. They were the sounds of his language. This made him think that there was hope that he would understand this thing that made his fellow villagers feel so free. He learned his machine well; but still pondered at why. He grew accustomed to asking questions, running faster at the carrot. He began to realize that he might not catch the carrot, but the wind sure felt good across his face the faster he went.
"Sac For Wo jex Sey co rit". This was word the tribe said before playing the music machine. It came from Sonny's father's father. He had been just as intent on listening to the machine as Sonny was, or so he had heard. His grandfather had died before he was born and not much was spoken of him. Everyweek they would take a moment to vacate their minds by sitting together in silence. They would finish with the uttering of "Sac For Wo jex Sey co rit" and proceed to turn on the noise machine and dance around in pleasure. This celebration was performed in honor of the grandfather, but as the sounds from the speakers produced no human words, the honoring of the grandfather contained no human words.
Father believed in Unity of the tribe. All for one and one for all. There was not many people in the tribe; everyone knew everyone else. After years of living together like this, the people learned that the happiness of the individual depended on the condition of the world they lived in. They had come to a comfortable balance. They did not fear the unknown since they did not thirst for the unknown. They had what they had.
Sonny used to move rocks with his father. He didn't necessarily like to move rocks but it gave him time to think. Think about where he came from. One day his father surprised him. "Your grandfather was a very inquisitive man". This surprised him since his father never spoke about his father. "He was much like you spending time and more time listening to that machine. He said it talked to him and he was trying to figure out what it said. As I grew older he grew more passionate about having me hear what he heard. Day after day he would sit with me and we would recite these sounds. I could not hear what he heard, maybe because I did not want to hear it. He said these words could teach us and take us to great places. I was thinking about great places of my own. After your grandfather was gone, the sounds seemed to change and we listened to them in different ways. But you seem to listen in the old way. It may seem that i had been holding back this knowledge from you. I just don't want to push it onto you as it was onto me. I think it was neccessary for you to find it yourself. But still, I find it funny how I wanted to be shown less about that machine and you want to be shown more. Maybe i treated you how I wanted to be treated, instead of how you wanted to be treated. Ha, i tried so hard not to do what my father did and ended up acting just like him."
