Inktober 2025 - 31 - Award

A woman in an evening gown comes down the stairs to the living room, still adjusting one of her earrings.

"Honey? Why aren't you dressed?!"

Her husband, as illustrated by the matching wedding bands they wear, is indeed still in casual clothing, reading a book on the sofa.

"I told you: I'm not going."

"What you haven't told me is why not."

She sits on the arm rest besides him, crossing her arms and nudging him in the shoulder with her elbow. He sighs and lays down is book on his lap.

"Because I didn't do what I did for a reward. Giving me one just negates the whole thing."

"It is precisely because you didn't do it for a reward that you deserve one," she reasons.

"Saving all those people was its own reward. Anything more than that is over the top."

"How about you don't think about it just from your own perspective? How about you consider how it could embolden people to do the right thing as well? How it could give people who have lost faith in humanity a glimmer of hope?"

"If people need me to be given a medal to understand that what I did was a good thing, then we're really too far gone as a species to deserve to escape extinction."

"Look, as much as it saddens me to say it, there are always going to be bad people in this world. Shouldn't we celebrate the good ones when we get the chance?"

"Then let them throw me a parade, instead of asking me to parade for them."

It's her turn to sigh. She considers her grumpy spouse for a moment.

"Be honest: do you feel guilty about what you did?"

"No, I don't! Why would you even think that?"

"Because you haven't given me any reason I think is valid for not wanting to go to the ceremony."

"Tell you what: you go instead of me. You tell them all the good things you've just told me, you convey that message. This way, we both win."

"This isn't about winning."

"Exactly. Because you know what? Nobody actually ever does. When we came out of that train, some people turned to me as soon as they were told what I had done, and yelled at me. They were not grateful for what I had done. And they were among the people whose lives I had just saved! Yet, they were still unsatisfied. I can't even imagine how many of the people that were not directly impacted think the same, or worse. And it's not some award – that has been historically granted to just as many good as bad people – that is going to change their mind."

"You could give it back its grandeur," she suggests, optimistic.

"Which is what people who already think I did a good thing will believe. For the people who think I'm the bad guy? I'm just in the group that tarnishes it. I'm just not playing that game."