You’ve slept too long in silence,” Mama said
Remember Mama said
"Crazy boy, you'll only wind up
With strange notions in your head"
Hear it, hear it, ticking, ticking *
With ink on the new degree still fresh, the young psychiatrist, on first day of residency, was getting an initial walk through of the hospital ward.
“ An extremely quiet child, they called him on his school report; this patient has almost totally withdrawn from the world around him, exhibiting a constant rocking and muttering”, said the supervising doctor.
Tick Tock, Tick Tock…
“Opposite, we have one of our oldest patients, with an almost textbook case of self aggrandizement, who quite simply believes himself to be God Almighty."
“Thou Shalt Have No Other Gods Before Me!”, shouted the sonorous voice from within the cell.
"Next we have an interesting counterpoint, despite the gender reversal, this woman believes herself to be Jesus Christ, and the frequent interaction between these last two is fascinating."
“Father, why have you forsaken me?”, pleaded the tear stained face within.
"The other cases here are generally less interesting, the usual assortment of paranoia, schizophrenia, self abuse, most of whom are gradually responding to standard treatments and are expected soon to be released, if heavily medicated of course."
So it came to pass, not unexpectedly, that the young doctor would spend many hours documenting the deeply embedded psychosis of the first three, especially the rumbling pronouncements of the second, and the biblical pleading of the third.
Tick Tock, Tick Tock…
Until, one day, from the room of the quiet boy, the constant voicing of ‘tick tock’ was replaced by a shrill sound mimicking a ringing alarm bell.
“So be it!” thundered the Voice of God
And overhead, without much fuss, one by one, the stars disappeared.
* The opening introduction and part of the second line from 'Ticking', written by Elton John & Bernie Taupin, off the album 'Caribou' - 1974, which I would have been introduced to about a year later.
Well read science fiction fans may recognize the final line, stolen outright from Arthur C. Clarke's 1953 short story 'The Nine Billion Names of God'. Still considered one of the very best SF short stories of all time, and itself proof that a complex idea can be fully realized in brief. Clarke's original story runs only four and a half pages.
A tale involving the blending of these two core ideas has been stuck in my head for a good long while. One of those formless short stories that has never been realized. It might be fair to mention the childhood impact of the classic Rod Serling 'Twilight Zone', which always was the mood I had envisioned. Fleshed out in the future?
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