Notes From an Amateur Writer #28
GIVE ME LIBERTY (OR GIVE ME ROCK AND ROLL)
This Blog series is an exercise in creative writing. Sometimes expressed in short story forms, sometimes as a journal, or just my thoughts written down. This is my attempt to help coalesce my writing ideas and knowledge into usable form. It is a nursery of sorts for the stories that are on their way, or yet to be written.
Time For a Checkup
I had a three monthly checkup at the hospital today. It's part of my routine. I wonder sometimes about the number of hours I have spent in hospitals. And the number of needles I have received. I have no idea. I never kept a record. It would be in the hundreds. I still flinch at the experience. But it has become all so robotic. So routine.
There's a television in the waiting room. The happy smiley people are back. They're on TV. They're telling me things I don't want to know. Explaining things I don't care about. Filling my head with useless information. But they're happy smiley people, so I listen.
I'm mesmerised. I can't take my eyes off of them. Bright lights, big smiles. What are they saying? Something about terrorism. Breaking news alerts. Be afraid. I am afraid. I invite fear to take up residence within my brain because the happy smiley people tell me to. Now my brain cells are dying too. Welcome to hospital.
Trickle Down Economics
I pick up a magazine. It's glossy and full of pretty pictures. Pictures of happy smiley people. They're everywhere. They are like society's cancer. Spreading out and invading the world. Invading my world.
"Leave me alone," I tell them, "I don't need your cancer. I have my own thank you very much."
But they are happy smiley people and they look so perfect. Maybe if I read about their lives then perfection will creep into my life. Like a drip. Like trickle down economics. Maybe then I will qualify for the Z-list of happy smiley people. I practice my smile. People look at me with sympathy in their eyes. Or is that pity?
They think I'm dying. Code blue is announced. Nurses rush to me.
"What is wrong?" they ask me. I show them my smile. My forced, confused person smile. They talk amongst themselves. I can overhear them. I can hear the head nurse.
"I think he is too far gone," she says. "Did you see that smile? He'll never be a happy smiley person."
They wish me all the best and leave. I overhear something about a priest and last rites. Is my attempt at becoming a happy smiley person that bad? Am I doomed? Hospitals make me sicker, why do I come here?
The magazines tell me the secrets of the happy smiley people. About affairs, and heartbreaks, and financial shenanigans. Has the television been lying to me? Are those smiles painted on? Their lives seem worse than mine. Oh those poor happy smiley people. Someone should start a charity for them. Their lives are a mess.
I look back to the television. I know their secrets now, but still I watch. Mesmerised by those big wide smiles. Those perfect shiny teeth. Like soldiers all in a row, awaiting orders. Orders from the happy smiley people.
Rock and Roll
I want to grab the TV. I want to throw it out the window, rock and roll style. I want it to smash into smaller television pieces on the pavement below. And let the happy smiley people dissolve into the earth. Let them fade away. But I can't. Hospital TVs are bolted to the wall. "Rock and roll is dead," I tell the doctor. She just looks at me with sympathetic eyes. Or is that pity?
"Anything I need to know?" the doctor asks me.
"Give me liberty or give me happy smiley people," I say. The doctor writes me a script. I can't read it. I smile, the best happy smiley people smile I can muster. The doctor looks at me with pity. Or is that dismay?
All images used with permission, and sourced from Unsplash.com.
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@naquoya
Short Fiction:
Bang Bang You're Dead
I Have No Name and I Must Scream
The Last Book Store
The Judge
The Man In The Mirror
The End of the World [Part 1] [Part 2]
The Locked Room
The Gods of Love and War [Part 1] [Part 2] [Part 3]
Notes From an Amateur Writer blog series:
Notes From an Amateur Writer #1 - The Search For Inspiration
Notes From an Amateur Writer #2 - A Call to Action: Interacting With the World Outside of Me
Notes From an Amateur Writer #3 - Facing the Challenge
Notes From an Amateur Writer #4 - The Soundtrack to Grief and Loss
Notes From an Amateur Writer #5 - Music as a Catalyst for Imagination: Jimi Hendrix's Little Wing
Notes From an Amateur Writer #6 - The Stories All Around Us
Notes From an Amateur Writer #7 - Introducing Nomad [A Cyberpunk Mystery in the Making]
Notes From an Amateur Writer #8 - The House at the Edge of the World
Notes From an Amateur Writer #9 - Making Peace With My Kindle
Notes From an Amateur Writer #10 - Learning the Craft of Story Structure
Notes From an Amateur Writer #11 - Adults Sit at the Big Table, Children Sit at the Small Table
Notes From an Amateur Writer #12 - The Time I Won a Lego Competition
Notes From an Amateur Writer #13 - Learning to Fly
Notes From an Amateur Writer #14 - The Tucker 48: Face to Face With a Million Dollar Vehicle
Notes From an Amateur Writer #15 - When the Levee Breaks: A Story in Song and Words
Notes From an Amateur Writer #16 - Monty Python, Keanu Reeves, and My Case of Invisibility
Notes From an Amateur Writer #17 - Dancing With My Muse
Notes From an Amateur Writer #18 - Facing the Challenge Part 2
Notes From an Amateur Writer #19 - Telling Stories
Notes From an Amateur Writer #20 - Life Is Like a Box of Crazy
Notes From an Amateur Writer #21 - Writing Myself Out of Existence
Notes From an Amateur Writer #22 - The Finish Line Becomes the Next Starting Line
Notes #23 - It Is Sometimes An Appropriate Response To Reality To Go Insane
Notes #24 - The Happy Smiley People Ad Agency
Notes #25 - Some Days Are Full of Blah
Notes #26 - Stop and Smell the Future
Notes #27 - The Narrator and I