Story: Midnight at Perry's

It was 10 PM, and Devon had just set out the last of the coffee pots at Perry’s Convenience Store. He glanced up at the cameras he’d installed and tested out the new doorbell he had created for the store. Looked good. His solder work could have been better, but the bell worked perfectly just the same. He didn’t mind working the late shift. Barely anyone came in, with the exception of the occasional truck driver or student getting snacks before an all-nighter. Just then, Devon’s bell rang as two girls walked in. He quickly finished setting out the last pot of coffee before they approached. As they poured themselves drinks, he shuffled back behind the register.

“I can’t believe we waited until the last minute to study for calc,” the brunette one complained.

They came up to the counter, and he realized that they were regulars. Never had they actually exchanged words though. He felt them staring as he simply calculated the sum, including tax, in his head, promptly giving them change. He hadn’t looked at the register computer since he had started working there a couple of months ago.

“Maybe should be doing our calc homework,” The blonde one said. Apparently they had noticed his swift calculation.

He laughed. “I’ve been done with homework since I graduated high school.”

“Are you not a student?” the blonde asked. “We’ve always assumed you were.”

“Nope, just work here.”

“With your talent you should be studying engineering,” the brunette told him.

“Nah, I prefer to just learn and build things on my own, it’s more me. I’m not one for institutions.”

The blonde girl introduced herself. “By the way, I’m Beth, and this is Sabrina. We see you in here a lot.”

“Good to meet you both. Good luck with your studies.”

Beth turned back to look at him on their way out. “You should consider going back to school. You’d be good at it.”

“Thanks.” They left, but thought little of what they said. His parents had already expected him to study engineering the day he had shown them his first robot. Since then, he’d made it a hobby to take apart his family’s electronics and put them back together but with new improvements. They’d expressed their disappointment in his going against the norm. Sometimes his parents would stop in, pretending to say hi, and once they’d left he would look down and see a pamphlet from the nearby community college. Every time, he would throw it away. And now tonight when the girls came into Perry’s. He had to tell them the same thing he told everyone over and over again. He didn’t need the acceptance that a university education brought. To him, learning was spending his hours off comparing his schematics for automated doors with others on the internet. Learning was the joy of going to the library by himself, looking through a new subject he’d never seen before. Learning wasn’t turning in homework. It wasn’t pulling all-nighters. It was watching the sunrise and knowing which chemicals were responsible for the brilliant colors and looking down at his phone and knowing that electromagnetic waves were all around him even if he couldn’t see them. He didn’t need a university to tell him that.

A/N

I based this off of a story from Ganesha Goes to Lunch. Guha was an unconventional man who had a lot of tatoos and lived in the forest. Instead of worshiping statues of gods like the nearby townspeople did, Guha worshiped the forest. He believed the best representation of God was in a tree, since it was alive and gave air and food to those around it. The townspeople would always place statues near the tree to try and get him to change, but he never stopped worshiping the way he believed was right. I wanted to capture the same kind of feeling, except instead of the topic being God, I chose knowledge. Devon is also an outcast, since he chose not to go to college like all the other young people around him. His parents, like the townspeople, constantly try to get him to go to college and change his ways, but it never works. They don't realize that Devon is truly happy in his freedom to learn what he pleases. He sees learning not as an institutionalized thing, but as a personal pursuit. 

Bibliography: Kapur, Kamla K.. Ganesha goes to Lunch.

Image: Wikipedia