Charlie and the Teenage Angst

Not sure what to call this -- reflection? fanfiction? Anyway, this short piece of prose was inspired by a line of dialogue in the movie Charlie Bartlett, which both Eka and I have high opinions of after watching.

Yet untitled, and probably a little mushy. =P Fanfiction-ish in the sense that references are made without explanation, so it may be difficult to understand if you haven't watched the movie (well, if you haven't but can still understand, I'd be delighted to know). It also means spoilers.

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The boy is everything he is not, even back in those years -- sweet talk and refined manners and prim looks that scream at school bullies to get him.

He sees no malice, though, and that is why he hasn't been quite as stern as someone in his position should be. He knows this species: teenagers vying to be recognized as adults, taking charge of things in all the wrong ways, while in truth their stubbornness and cynical perspectives speak louder of how immature their minds still are.

This kid would've been no different if not for his actual capacity to stir troubles at such a scale.

That may have been his mistake, to leave alone a misguided aspiration that ends up robbing him of his job and family and the life he's been trying to piece back together.

Yes, he is game enough to admit his part in this wreck, and that, strangely, is one point where he can connect perfectly with the kid -- they make mistakes; but all their mistakes, they make in earnest.

Yet, seated in the makeshift theatre, he has to admit that the kid fixes his mistakes a little better than he does. It may be an advantage of youth to be so fixated on a dream -- when one road crumbles, he grabs his dream and moves on.

Roads are for destinations, not the other way round. For him who has spent years following a road to a dream that lands him somewhere he no longer wants to be, it might as well be that all this mess has gotten him out of it.

The curtain closes on the smiling face of his daughter, looking straight at him. He assumes it means the worst part is over.

Their relationship might have been fine before this boy came along, and a total disaster after; but without that episode, it might never be as good as it will be from now on.

That may have been his saving grace, to not kill a clumsy flame that later goes on to rekindle the meaning of all that's important in his life.

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