Rebellion (Carrot Ranch Flash Fiction Challenge)

Not every rebellion is violent or directed against society. Sometimes the most hard-fought battle is with ourselves. The "others" we rebel against may be those who see our future path differently from what we want to follow, or expect things of us that we do not care to provide.

False rebellion of boys against their father's example, pseudo-rebel teenage girls who battle their mother's fashion in black Gothic getup; these "normal" rebellions can mask the real fight against fitting into the neat round holes our families and neighbors have designed for us.

In this week's Carrot Ranch Flash Fiction Challenge, Charli Mills' prompt follows an introduction that has more to do with gun-battles and property rights:

January 6, 2015 prompt: In 99 words (no more, no less) write a rebellion. Is it one a character fights for or is it one another suppresses? Explore what makes a rebellion, pros or cons. Use past or current rebellions as inspiration or make up one of your own.

My focus is a little narrower. Rebellion begins in a single heart. Whether it expands into a brush-fire, or simply burns in its narrow hearth, has less to do with political conflict than with the particular tinder that feeds its flame.

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Rebellion

All his life, Karl fought his nature. 

Born with a keen eye and genes for long bones and plenty of muscle, he avoided sports and opted instead for dance classes. Blessed with a mind hungry for mathematics and science, he spent any free time writing poetry and crafting beautiful watercolors and pen-and-ink drawings of abstract forms. A charming extrovert, he traveled to places where he would be isolated by language and customs from those around him.

Happy in his rebellion, at peace with the world and himself, now he does as he pleases. His battle is over. Karl won!