PENCIL SMUDGES
A mafia game about left-handedness
A mafia game about left-handedness
Storm cursed silently as she examined the silver blotch of pencil smudge on the side of her pinky. EVERYTHING around her seemed to be designed just to annoy her. The spiral notebooks etched lines onto her hand whenever she tried to write, those right-handed chairs at school were simply awkward to use, and not to mention the SCISSORS. Oh god. Using them was an absolute nightmare.
She let out a deep sigh. She remembered being looked down on as a child because she was different from her classmates, remembered being criticized by teachers for being “improper”. However, despite all this, being left handed was part of her identity, and she was NOT going to change it just to “fit in”.
Left handers had always been the bane of society - she had learnt that much in both her languages and history class. In Latin and Italian, left - sinistra - had the same meaning as sinister. Left meant malicious in Spanish. The French associated awkward with the left. The Anglo-Saxon word luft gradually became the word left in English - luft meant weak, or broken then.
This was wrong. REALLY wrong. Lefties were no doubt the minority, but there was NO way she would let society treat left-handed people like this again. She HAD to do something about this. And she couldn’t do this alone.
Turning towards her computer, she decided to seek help from [redacted], who had been her confidante for years. THEY would understand her. She was sure that they would help her.
[SD]: Hey
[??]: hey there.
[SD]: …
[??]: ...what’s wrong?
[SD]: Remember what you said about making a difference in the world
[??]: yeah…?
[SD]: It’s just that...now that I KNOW I want to make a difference, I feel powerless to do anything about it…
[SD]: I feel...absolutely useless.
[??]: you're not. trust me. you have already seen that the world is cruel, and now you yourself already have begun to make a change. it's the butterfly effect, kid. you can start a revolution just be realizing what was wrong with the world in the first place.
[SD]: I’ve just...had enough! My arm always has imprints from my notebook cutting into my skin, and my hand always has pencil smudges from the graphite. I can't use scissors properly and all the other kids look at me like I'm some sort of museum exhibit!
[??]: i understand how you feel. I’m left handed too, you know. you have my full support, kid.
[SD]: OMG really? I didn’t know you were a lefty too owo
[??] look, kid, I’ll be more than happy to help you. I’ve got a plan.
[SD]: TELL ME TELL ME TELL MEEEE
[??]: but I’m not sure if you have the guts to do it. :)
[SD]: Seriously who do you think I am
[SD]: If you think I’m going to chicken out then you dont know me
[??]: heh. You might not be so sure when you hear what I have in store for you.
[SD]: *raises an eyebrow* Really? We’ll see.
[??]: ……..
[??: can you handle a knife?
[REDACTEDREDACTEDREDACTEDSTORMDELETEDEVERYTHINGSTARTINGHERE]
A smile touched her cheeks as she considered what [REDACTED] had said.. Yes, this is it. The perfect plan to seek revenge among the righties who had treated them so badly. Never again shall the right handers treat us like this again! Never again will right-handed products line the racks in stores!
When the plan succeeds, and the left-handed triumph over all, they will finally, finally have their revenge after all the years of obvious bias and bigotry they have suffered.
But for now, she and her left-handed friends would have to pretend to blend in to gain the trust of the righties, before she can pick them off one by one.