Day 04 - Prompt 18 - Play The Part

Prompt 18 - Play The Part (S&A, Geoffrey, 345 words, PG13) for ds_aprilfools Day the 4th



Geoffrey realizes belatedly that this is a discharge hearing. These lovely people, sitting at the long table in front of him, will decide if he's still a danger to himself and others or if he's sane enough to be released out into the world again, like rehabilitated wildlife. That is the real reason for their carefully worded questions and unnaturally hearty smiles.

He sits up straighter in his chair, running a hand through his unruly hair and tries out his best impression of a sane person. He smiles, careful not to show any teeth, meeting the eyes of each committee member, all the while thinking loudly to himself, I am not crazy, I am not crazy. He's an actor, a good one at that. He should be able to pull this off.

It was time to play the part of a sane man, one that hadn't shattered into a million broken pieces. Time to be the normal Geoffrey, instead of the man who sometimes found himself huddled in a corner talking to his imaginary friends.

Geoffrey sighs and tries to look attentive as the committee discusses his case among themselves in whispers.

He and his counselor had talked about many things since his unexpected arrival here, like his artistic tendency towards melodrama and his foolish leap into Ophelia's grave. The counselor, Mr. Parameswariah, had mumbled something about wish-fulfillment and Oedipus complexes before prescribing a course of sedatives and anti-psychotics.

Geoffrey rather liked his pills. They were colorful and pleasingly round.

He wasn't sure if he was ready to deal with the real world, but he knew he was tired of his life here at the institution. Mr. Parameswariah was positive that it was time for Geoffrey to move on.

Maybe he was right. Geoffrey could find a small theater somewhere and spend the rest of his life directing mediocre, part-time actors in endless, watered down versions of Romeo and Juliet, maybe the occasional Othello or King Lear thrown in to keep him from going insane. Again.



My prompt table.