Aldous loved his new name. And he loved that other people judged him for using such a pompous sounding name that was so obviously a rip off of the writer Aldous Huxley. But he was in college and it was easy for him to adopt a new persona in a new city. Even though he had lived much of his life as a ward of the state, Aldous had worked extremely hard to ensure that he would be able to attend the most premier university in the country. He chose Columbia University in the city of New York when he was just a freshman at highschool. Nothing ever deterred him from that goal; no amount of doubt from his peers or teachers would make him second guess his decision. He was so sure that he would make it to Columbia, that when it came time for him to apply for college, he only applied for the one despite the advice of his counselor. But Aldous figured that applying to other schools just empowered his critics and he decided that it was best for him to put all of his eggs in one basket. Luckily, he was accepted. He was a standout candidate for the school. He milked his personal story; he told about the difficulties being born into severe poverty to a single mother that had no idea how to raise him, and he told the story of being taken in by a murderous foster mother, and he played up the dangers that he faced while he was in her home. Unbeknownst to Aldous, he had written a story about being the victim of inept women, a topic that could have been viewed as sexist if read by the wrong person. Much of the tension in Aldous’s life to that point had involved women that he felt had failed him in some way and it had changed the way he viewed women. To the point that he started college, Aldous had never had a girlfriend, or any real friend for that matter, and even though he found women to be immensely attractive, he generally avoided the distraction. Aldous assumed that entertaining females would only take time away from his pursuits and he avoided time with any girl who was interested in more than his penis. Aldous was not a virgin when he started college, but he had never experienced romantic feelings for any female.
But college is a time for changing and growing and Aldous would meet a woman and fall very much in love with her despite his unwillingness to become involved in her life.
It was just after election day when he met her. Aldous did not consider the election of a US president to be all that significant. Sure it could be argued that the president represents the ideology of the majority of the American public, but a majority is only one more than half, and in some instances, the majority doesn’t even have to be more than 50 percent. The American president to Aldous is nothing more than a scapegoat for the natural ebbs and flows of the economy and international conflict.
As all of the fervor over the election died down, Aldous noticed that there were at least some who were still touting many of the conspiracy theories that had dogged the election. His roommate had never stopped with his theories of a massive underground cabal who shaped American politics and had hand picked the next president.
“There’s no free will, you get that don’t you?” His roommate asked.
“I don’t get that.” Aldous said. “I have the freest of wills known to man or beast.” And he sincerely believed that.
“So did your candidate win?”
“My candidate?” Aldous said chuckling. “I didn’t have a candidate. I didn’t vote. It’s ludicrous to think that anyone running for office will be able to do anything that will undermine my goals of achieving real prosperity. So it really doesn’t matter who is in office.”
His roommate was befuddled. “What if there was a racist candidate who had the support of a racist or apathetic congress? What if there was a candidate who wanted to do away with student debt? What if there was a candidate who opposed equal rights for homosexuals? Those things could directly affect you.”
Aldous laughed loudly. “You think I’m gay?”
His roommate looked confused. “Aren’t you?”
“No I’m not. And even if I were, I would have equal protections under the laws of America. And to your other points, blatant racism at the highest political level is impossible to legislate. And even if student debt is wiped out directly for students, it would just show up as a tax somewhere else. No candidate has the magic wand that will make professors work for free or to make book publishers give away free books. This is my point, I’m not ruling out your conspiracy about the secret cabal. Maybe it does exist and there are puppet masters making decisions, but even if they do exist, they have a vested interest in maintaining a status quo, the illusion of the American dream that allows someone to go from nothing to something. Even if they only allow for a small percentage to make that leap, I know that I am one of the lucky ones.”
His roommate was confounded and had nothing to say in response.
“Even the conspiracies work out in my favor.” Aldous said and left their room for his work study job at the black box theater.
At the theater, Aldous mostly did light janitorial work cleaning up after graduate acting students, and he managed the schedule of the theater. He had seen a few performances there since he started at the school and he was mostly unimpressed by the work. He thought that actors were a feckless breed who were self obsessed and fame hungry. He liked the job, though, because it was easy and it was there that he met his first love.
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