Volunteers Day: A Short Story

The words hung ominously as they glowed in bright cyan neon in the center of the translucent blackboard. Disease, famine, pollution, genocide, hatred, fear, cruelty, contamination, scandal, deception, war, greed, intimidation, vengeance, manipulate, propaganda, exclusion, extinction, lawlessness, overpopulation, conflict, envy, terrorism, limited resources, poverty, weapons of mass destruction, cancer, collateral damage… Each of these representations of obsolete terminology and departed phrases were all part of the list Matthew Belich had compiled as he stood before the transparent board at the head of his classroom. That was not long after he had finished addressing his class, informing them of their new assignment, one that would be due …show more content…
So you will have all of next week while we’re in school to work on it and then all of the two week recess leading up to Volunteers’ Day. “Now be gone from my domain, have fun during your weekend recess, and may you all be blessed by God and the volunteers.” As the class filed out of the room, Belich faced the whiteboard once more pretending to examine the words he wrote. But, he was really trying to hide his smirk as he listened in on the all too familiar gripes and groans that came from his students as they protested over the assignment. This is so unfair, and I freaking new he’d give us a homework assignment for over the Volunteers’ Day recess, were just a few of the muttered remarks he thought he heard as he then also began to gather his things from his desk, eager to leave the school grounds of his own accord and spend the evening with his wife Melissa. They had planned on dinner and conversation discussing the upcoming holiday recess which would begin at the end of the next school week. His family’s had owned a cottage retreat on Lake St. Clara and fourteen days of drinking wine while watching sunsets over the water sounded like