The Story - 3

This goes backwards.

I ain't crazy like Keel there. He thinks the Pied Piper of Hamlyn is gonna' come and whoop someone's ass. I like to think this world is kinder. That this world is gentler. That it's beautiful. That there's innocence in the bud that blooms into an orchid. That the blue of the sky is the ink with which God paints his painting. That there is a God. That He smiles upon those who ask of him. That She stretches forward and pulls them out of their pain. That It cradles the child who asks It of a wish with the innocence, unremarkable and incomprehensible to our minds; the sophisticated citizens of a society of concrete and steel, calculators and super-computers, fords and ferraris, princes and paupers, dollars and dimes.

I am an unremarkable man. And like others before me, I have come here to be rehabilitated. I am here to regain my sanity. I am here because I need Psychological Treatment. By now, you must know that I am in an Asylum. An asylum for the mentally unstable, the emotionally tormented, the insane.

I checked my prescription. They give me Sertraline. I checked it up. It's an antidepressant. Why would I need one? I am not depressed. Of all people, I know that the world isn't as bad as it seems. Just that a few things are out of order.

But that's okay, right? I mean it's like an escalator. It's out of order, but that isn't stopping anyone from getting upstairs. That's the best thing about an escalator, isn't it?

No, no. I didn't think of it. Some smart guy did. I am a simple man. I think simply. I like the calm this place brings me. Alright, I do admit that the occasional scream or suicide attempt is a little unsettling.

By the way, I saw you talking to Keel there. Did you know, he tried to commit suicide. Poor chap rants about the Hamlyn thing all day long. Thinks everyone's responsible for what's happening. But that's not true now, is it? I mean it's not logical to me. Why would everyone try to hurt everyone else? That way, isn't everyone going to get hurt?

I see you are baffled by my simplicity. I am sorry for not being as insightful as some of the others around here. But I am a man of principles. Could you pass a smoke please. Thanks. I enjoy cigarettes. No, no, don't worry. Docs are okay with it. Even this is an antidepressant, isn't it?

So, where was I? Oh yeah, the world. No, it's not that bad. I lived a happy life. Nothing really bothered me much. One day I realized, that bothered me. So I shifted to the country. I sold everything I owned. Gave all the money to a Charity organization which was revealed to be a fraud. They trafficked girls. They were supposed to protect them. Innocent little girls, little buds, torn from their fields and thrown in with the thorns.

But I moved on. No point crying over spilt milk, I say. Then came the war. All of them. So, a few planes popped into a few buildings. "So what?" I said. "Happens all the time, doesn't it?" Not this time it didn't. They killed bearded men while killing their own. They liberated women in burkhas by fire bombing their villages. Little girls and boys died under tonnes of debris. But fair enough, you can't have your cake and eat it too.

Do you know why Keel's here?

He fought in the war and lost his mind. He couldn't understand why he had to fire missiles at a small settlement of farmers. He told me they found four dead children and two corpses of women, in burkhas of course. He can't sleep at night. Says the dead children scream out for him. Ahh... the pain, I can almost feel it.

Could you light another one? Thanks buddy. But I think it's best you'd exclude that from your report.

So now comes the big question, right? Why am I here? Why am I in this cell? Why am I wearing a strait jacket? Why have they chained me? Why why why why why???

I don't know. I guess I'd have served a life sentence for blowing up the Charity building with it's President still in it. What? of course I knew- for God's sake I tied him up to the water cooler.

But when they found out I killed the rapist with the warden's ballpoint pen in the Prison playground, they decided to send me to a cell, not this one.

When I didn't eat for 32 days, that's more than a month by the way, they decided to shift me to a hospital, but it was for the sane. After they diagnosed I needed a shrink, and not a surgeon, they send me here. But I was classified as dangerous, so the jacket.

Yeah, I'd like another smoke. Thanks for it though. My hands hurt sometimes. But that's okay.

So, why the cell? Well, I talked a lot to Keel, you must have figured that by now. He needed someone to talk to. So I talked some sense into him. Told him cyanide was for cowards. Told him to put himself on fire. Would help him understand their pain. The shrink thought I was too talkative.

But you know I am not, right? I mean I only talk to the point. But who cares what the shrink thinks, they've passed their judgment, right? They got the degree, not me. So let them decide...

Yes, the chains. You see the cell can physically hold me, but not my vision. I mean I can see through the slit. The new restrainer, the one who feeds me, well he did bad things to the little child who is afraid of everything. She has all kinds of phobias. So what did I do? Well I impaired the restrainer, of course when he came to feed me? How? My God, isn't He in the details.

Ha ha.

I crushed his balls.


So do I have any regrets? Yeah, a few. For starters, you're out of cigarettes. That's a let down. Another one would be that the guys around here don't feed me very well anymore. But that's okay.

So you're leaving? Wait, there's one more.

I miss Lucy. She was my darling. She died in an accident, a drunk ass hole crushed her.

Who's Lucy?

My pet kitten, who else. Hell that's the reason I drove over him with a bulldozer. But that's not important now, is it?