Mesmerized
In lieu of upcoming finals and such, I wanted to post an old story that pertains to my current feelings about them. Enjoy!
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Isn’t it rude to stare? I wondered.
My class had to analyze this psychiatric malady.
Simply put, it was a man staring at an ordinary 8” by 11” piece of paper. As the psychiatrists-in-the-making and I stared through the window, our professor wore a grandiose grin. He wrote notes on the clipboard he carried. Rather than taking notes on the psychiatric patient, it seemed he was taking notes of our reactions.
The man on the other side of the window appeared simple. He wore light blue robes and sported a sharp, crew cut and piercings on both his ears. His body sat firmly motionless on a wooden chair, the type found in any “classic” or under-funded academy. His eyes were probably the spectacle; they merely shifted up and down to follow a paper hung on a string. It was certainly eccentric.
“Elevate the string,” the professor ordered. Another individual with a light blue coat appeared beside the professor. The woman (as far as I could tell through the shadows on the robe) flicked on what looked like a light switch.
On the other side of the window, I saw that the string elevated sluggishly. The man rose rapidly from the chair, knocking down the chair he had sat on. The string continued to elevate. The man did not seem distressed, but rather, through a swift movement, calmly pulled on the string to force the paper to stop elevating. I was slightly impressed to see that he did not lose focus of the paper throughout this demonstration.
My eyes almost resembled his as I viewed this happening through the window. My curiosity was growling in my ear, so I retreated beside the professor in hope that I could mitigate it.
“Sir, why exactly does he seem so fixated on that paper?” I asked. The professor chuckled.
“He received an A in my class.”
