Page 177 - Mobile Magic

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A silent head shake was answer enough. ‘Well, I was. Clean-cut, polite and hard working. Topped the state, went and did law. I wanted to go into politics like my famous father.’ He laughed bitterly. Saffron was shocked, she had never seen her father like this before. He was always so calm and good humoured!
‘Well ... all that fell apart; all the things I thought I wanted and respected. When my brother, Chas, was slaughtered in Vietnam, I just didn’t want them any more. I hated my family, the government - everything!’
‘But did you actually finish Uni?’ asked his daughter trying to get back to the point. She knew about Uncle Chas, (the name was a shortening of Charles), the slick, handsome, older brother whom Tom had idolised.
‘Not really, but I was there for ten years, on and off. I ditched the career shit, just did stuff for its own sake. I wanted to learn about interesting things, like Gastronomy, (the philosophy of food) ... that was my favourite. I kept changing courses. They let me ‘cause I always got good marks. But at the end I was so far into anarchy, I let my anger totally rule me. After they sent Chas off to die, nothing seemed to matter any more.’
When her father paused, wondering whether to keep talking, Saffron hugged him and willed him to keep going. The house was silent. Usually, they would still be asleep at this time. At last, the thing that she had never been told but had always felt, was spoken.
‘I fell apart. I ended up doing stuff that was far too extreme. I never hurt people, but in this society property is far more