veto

John's father left him two things when he died. The first, his last words "our world is our perspective, our world is our understanding, our world is our own". The second was an old glass globe with a green light in the centre. What is life but the act of doing and remembering what you’ve done. Humans are interesting how they take pride in who they are and what they’ve done. John shows it through his trophy room. Containing the wall of photographs, the only way to keep his past alive, for if undocumented they are forgotten and all their invaluable lessons and memories with them. The bookshelf with more books on the shelf than dust mites. The east wall consists of the heads of John's hunted. Bear, Moose, Duck and Deer observing over the study in their afterlife. The one hunted not mounted on the wall is that of the eagle. John shot that down when taking his sons hunting for the first time. It’s beak harder than ever, it’s design naturally flawless. John fashioned a recreational toy out of its stuffed corpse with a modified fishing line. When swung around the momentum sends the bird soaring through the air. Kite-like the bird is controlled by the individual throwing the toy. John bestowed the gift to his twin sons Keven and Ansel. “Two birds, one stone” a saying John repeated when finding out he fathered twins and whilst bestowing the gift between the two.

Keven keeps the toy for himself and teases his younger twin Ansel for being too weak to grab it off him. John is busy for the day and they are left in the company of the help. When the gift was first bestowed, Keven broke Ansel's cheek with the eagle and claimed it an accident. Ansel wishes to play with the toy and often chases Keven to get it. The privileged young boys run through their mansion, Keven in the lead and Ansel limping behind. Past the Thomas Tompion Grandfather clock. Dirtying up the Oushak rug with their muddy horse riding boots. They run laps around the house until they stumble upon an unusual occurrence. The door to the trophy room is open. The call of the void entices through the breeze pushing and pulling the door in waves. The red oak door drowns out their collective peripherals, the boys walk to the light at the end of their tunnel vision. With the stuffed eagle orbiting laps around Johns son they enter the room. John's radio plays classical music faint in the corner, the rooms architecture was designed for acoustics. The music bounces off the walls and whispers in the ears.

The trophy room was out of bounds as long as the they can recall, consistently intriguing the twins. They have a faint memory of the room from years ago, potentially their first memory. An unkind memory. They knocked their grandfather's glass globe green light and cracked it. Their father was sour and spiteful, something happened inside him, something cracked inside his soul. Since then, John consistently finds his meticulously placed items on the ground or missing. The twins were in constant trouble. John soon took it out on the help when he would realise the shelves had been dusted without his knowledge, he went through dozens of staff.

Keven releases the eagle and sends it soaring through the room. Passing the open window riding the breeze, its wings tickle the nose of the moose high on the wall. It glides past a map of the globe, traveling the world. Ansel admires the pictures of his family hung high on the wall. War medals and a family crest. Doctorates and portraits of unfamiliar faces. Kevens attention goes through the window, out to the drive way. The drive way stretches far, shrouded with great trees parallel, raining leaves as gold as the sun. John's car is rolling over the gravel with haste. Keven reigns the eagle in reducing its orbit. With each reel closer Keven looses his competence to fly. The eagle dives beak first to the green glow from the glass globe and shatters it to pieces. The green light remains glowing after all these years.

"You're in trouble" Ansel mocks to Keven.

Keven offers the eagle in payment of his silence and cooperation. Ansel accepts. Keven sweeps the glass with his boot to the corner prior to running to greet their father. They wait impatient by the french double door in the main entrance. John is suspicious his sons are greeting him, Ansel limps to him - eagle in hand - and hugs him. John can only tell his sons apart because Ansel was born with one leg longer than the other resulting in a limp. He is suspicious Ansel has the eagle. He has told Keven off for not sharing to no avail beyond count. Out of the corner of his eye John sees the muddy footprints tracked through the house. He follows them as if hunting prey, the sound of classical music grows louder. The tracks lead him to the trophy room and he's greeted by the Bear, Moose, Duck and Deer looking over him.

In the centre of the room the green light floats perfect in the centre. The afternoon sunlight comes through the open window with the breeze. In the sun beams, dust orbits the green light floating in the centre of the room. John's trophies gravitate to the light, books, portraits, and memorabilia circle the room. The eagle leaves Ansel's hand and orbits toward the light. It soars through the debris, circling the light in twenty four laps before reaching the green light. In a flash it disappears, the string remains in hand. Ansel is pulled by the string gentle. He releases his grasp yet continues floating through the air. John reaches for his leg yet falls short, he reaches for the longer leg and grasps the ankle. John's feet lift off from the hardwood floor as he floats around the room. Weightless he drifts through each psychical memory of his life. A portrait of his father hovers before him. The tears in his eyes cry out and float along side him before he's engulfed in a green flash. The Bear, Moose, Duck and Deer remain, observing.