The Knob

I pressed play and sat as slightly coarse sound of a vinyl record filled the room. Compared to available technology quality was laughable at best, but it wasn't about the music for me. I don't know if that was true or not yet turning various knobs to get what I wanted felt great and precise. Lows, mids, highs; frequencies tuned exactly as I wanted.

You just couldn't replicate it on the touchboard.

There was a controversy couple years back involving classical rock album re-release. Sound producer claimed that they improved album quality tenfold. But there was a problem with it. During enhancement process, they lost one of the drum tracks. Fans were furious. Some turned their back on the newest tech worried they'll lose something precious. Some turned towards vinyl records. Me - I couldn't care less.

I just liked tuning, I guess.

I leaned back with a warm cup in my hands and I waited for relaxation to come. It didn't. Instead came buzzing feeling in my pocket. Phone - precisely. Irritated I slid my hand inside and pushed the side button. Colorful image appeared on media screen mounted on the wall.

An invitation: "Mr Adam Darcy's Retirement Dinner" read the message.

What?

Adam Darcy shouldn't be retiring anytime soon. He was barely older than me and I'd be damned if they would let me retire before half the century had pass. Teachers retired somewhat earlier but not that early.

I called my daughter. She came shortly after disgruntled about being disrupted. She was holding a phone in her hand which continuously erupted colorful lights. Most likely a video.

I wasn't happy with the response, so I waited. I waited either for her to provide more details or, at least, the video to end.

She seemed to recognized my discontent, stopped the video, and - finally - focused her eyes on me.

She sighted.

I was perplexed. No wonder Adam threw kid out. I remembered Elijah Venx.

A terrorist from teenage years.

Organized huge event in his hometown. A lot of kids came. But he rigged the place and once everyone was busy parting he put his plan in motion. First were explosives. Some were killed immediately, tens - heavily injured. Once panic broke, he started shooting fleeing, and then finish the injured ones with a knife. Toll was high. Tried to shoot himself in the end, but police succeeded in incapacitating him.

Trial took months. Defense tried to tone down the sentence on the base that he was violently picked upon by his sister's friends. Claimed that it was, albeit wicked, justified act of revenge. They gained nothing - Venx got chair. Luckily for him capital punishment was dismissed shortly after the trial. Not luckily enough though, as one victim's father was able to put his hands on him and mauled him into a pulp. Poor guy. Lost both his kids to Venx.

I still could recall photo that was used all over the news. Elijah Venx, apprehended, grinning towards camera through a blood smeared on his face. Hardly an example.

Just a t-shirt. I wasn't surprised she doesn't know. Classes were overloaded already without teachers having to highlight every single psycho on a rampage.

I addressed media screen: "Elijah Venx. Summarize biography. Skip dates.". Words, narrated, came quickly after.

A symbol? Wrongly convicted? That was odd, to say at least. People were complaining more and more frequently about the quality of results. Looked exactly like this. I decided to fill in correction report later. I added this to my TODO list and RSVPed invitation.

It was a good dinner party. Not many people and surprisingly good food, school board definitely didn't spare expanse on this one. It was especially peculiar that with formal part over school officials left. Case must've caused a lot of stink. They could've at least left music on. Place, already almost empty with dozen people on the premises and at least four times as many empty chairs felt eerie and desolated in silence. Adam Darcy was alone at the buffet table, filling his plate with colorful delicacies. I approached him and we shook hands in silence.

We talked. It was obvious that he isn't happy about the outcome, but seemed to be at peace. Light topics: plans for the future, homework, pollution, traffic. But I was very curious. I felt that the the temperature was just right.

Silence. I allowed it to melt before pushing further.

Adam opened his mouth like he wanted to say something but then changed his mind in the split second.

He picked up his plate from the table and once again started picking food pieces from the buffet. After picking few bites he continued, seemingly to himself.

Darcy stopped for a second and put a piece from plate into his mouth. He chewed in silence, breathing slowly with his eyes gained a glassy glare.

He stopped. His voice started breaking. He took couple deep breaths visibly trying to calm himself as my phone buzzed in the pocket. Our talk was getting awkward. I decided to take it out hoping for something, not sure what. Escape hatch, maybe? I looked at Adam who seemed to be immersed in his thoughts and decided to check notification. It was a response to the correction report.

I cursed through the teeth.

Darcy was looking at me. He couldn't possibly know the contents of the message, and yet for some reason I felt that he knew.

He smiled sourly.

…almost like turning the knob.