Addiction

[Joat116]

OOC: I've recently started on a rather ambitious writing project and found that I've gotten a bit rusty. So while I devise characters and plot line and such for that project I'm putting together a few short stories to warm up. Brutal critism is appreciated (though as far as grammar and such, keep in mind I through this together in an hour. I didn't do any editing to it.) as I really need to get it together before starting on the big one. So here goes.

 

 

 

 

"It's odd what we can't see sometimes. Things that are right under our noses for our entire lives that never even trigger an alarm. As open minded as we all may thing we are, we mindlessly accept so much. I was walking out of the store the other day and I thought to myself, is my car really so much dirtier than everyone else’s or am I just looking harder at mine than theirs? Then you start to notice things. You notice everyone's car but yours kind of fades into your peripheral vision unless you really try consciously to look at them. It got me thinking about what else I'm just accepting. I guess that's how it started." Greg looked up at the doctor. "Listen Doc, I'm really not crazy. I know what I'm doing. I know you're just trying to protect me. I know my family is trying to protect me. But I'm begging you," Greg nodded to the IV drip, "don't put that thing in me. I don't need it anymore. I'm off of it ya see?"

 

"It's for your own good Greg. You'll die if we don't help you." The doctor said with his patented calming smile. "Besides, if what you say is true then can't you just do it again?"

 

"I don't know Doc. It's like quitting cocaine and cigarettes and alcohol and every addiction and bad habit you've ever had at once. I don't know how I'd manage to get the will up to do it again, much less the means to try after you've kept me in this crazy house. Stopping feels like you're dying Doc. You and everyone else knows that. Could I make the pill again? Sure, it's easy enough. But no one is going to let me alone long enough to get it out of my system again. Not after this. Maybe I am crazy. But if I'm not... This could save countless lives Doc. It could progress mankind like no other discovery since the computer. We'd finally be FREE Doc. Free of what's held us back since the beginning of time. You've got to find out. You've got to let me find out."

 

"I'm sorry Greg, I don't need to find out. You're half dead now, and I can't let you do what you want knowing what would happen to you. I'm sorry." The Doctor reached out for the IV.

 

"Please Doc," Greg said on the edge of tears, "Please don't put that back in me. God, please. You don't know what it's like to be off it. Please, I think better, I feel better. Please, I know the withdrawal symptoms look bad, but I'm over the worse of it now, just let me finish. I'm begging you."

 

"I'm sorry Greg, you'll feel better in the morning I assure you." The Doctor snapped the IV into place and started the drip.

 

"No Doc...Please..." Greg's eyes glassed over as a sigh escaped his mouth.

 

The Doctor watched for a moment as Greg slid into a catatonic state. Smiling gently he quietly left the room. Greg was left alone with the quiet drip-drip of the IV feeding the drug into his veins.

 

"How's he going to be Doctor?" A worried woman, perhaps his wife, asked as soon as the Doctor emerged from the room.

 

"Oh he'll be fine. We started him on an IV. He should be as good as gold by morning. You're really going to need to get him some specialized mental treatment though. He's incredibly deep in his delusion. When I hooked him up to the IV he reacted exactly as if I really was giving him a strong tranquilizer."

 

"I just can't understand why this happened. He's always been such a stable intelligent man. Then one day he just goes crazy? I don't understand what caused it." She said ringing her hands.

 

"I'm really not qualified to say, sometimes these things just seem to happen. I'm going to transfer him over to Bellridge in the morning. They're more adapted to this sort of thing. I'm sure they can figure it out." The Doctor sighed, "I'm sure everything will be fine."

 

"I just don't understand. I don't understand. It's going to kill the kids knowing their father is in a mental hospital." She looked at The Doctor pleadingly, "Is there anything we can do to have him come home tomorrow?"

 

"No. No, I'm afraid not. He's too dangerous to himself now. He needs help." The Doctor took her arm, "You need to go home. He'll be fine and you need some rest. Tomorrow will be busy."

 

"Yes, of course Doctor. Thank you, by the way. You've been so kind through all this."

 

He smiled his calming-everything-will-be-ok smile. "Don't worry, things will be better tomorrow." He escorted her to the door and watched her go. "They get weirder every day." he muttered under his breath as he took the next chart off the wall. "What I wouldn't give for a good old fashioned stabbing."

 

..............

 

She arrived home late. The kids had already been in bed when she left. She'd made sure of that. She couldn't worry the kids, but what was she going to tell them? Oh god, what a mess.

 

She wandered into his study and ran her hand over his things. What had he done in here that had driven him over the edge? Her eyes fell on some hastily scribbled notes.

 

"The evidence is unmistakable" she read, "What we have thought all this time to be necessary to life is nothing more than the single most addictive substance on earth. The parallels to more conventional addictions is unmistakable. Points as follows.

 

A) A psychological "need" for the substance, A.K.A. thirst exactly parallels other drugs addictions.

Withdrawal symptoms when the drug is not administered grow progressively worse until the body eventually shuts down causing inevitable death.

C) In the event that the body tries to get rid of the substance through sweat or excretion the desire for more grows more intense the more that is lost. Sweat seems to require heat as a catalyst. Excretion seems in most cases a zero sum gain.

D) Addiction, like other addictions, is clearly passed on from parent to child during pregnancy.

E) Experimentation impossible until a way is devised to wean full grown adult off of substance."

 

Her eyes passed to another paper atop the pile on his desk.

 

"The pill succeeded in weaning adult rat off water. Rat experienced extreme withdrawal symptoms during first week but thereafter recovered. Seems in perfectly good health without water as of day twenty. Next step human experimentation. I shall have to use myself as a test subject."

 

A noise in the corner caught her attention. A Rat in a dirty rat cage. It hadn't been cleaned for days. She'd have to take care of it in the morning. Just one more thing to worry about. God, why was this happening to her family.

 

In the morning Greg was taken to Bellridge. One month to the day later he was released free of his delusion. He went about his life as normal and his family settled back into place. The rat remained in the cage. No one cleaned up after it or gave it water. It didn't seem to care.

 

Fifty Years Later

 

"I can't hold him doctor! He's too strong!"

"Damn it nurse! Just hold his leg still!"

A pressure. A hiss of a stickpac releasing into the muscle. A sigh of contentment as the tranquilizer took effect.

"I'll never know what drives them." The nurse muttered, "Who'd consciously try and destroy their body like this?"

"Remember nurse, we were all once like this. Although knowing what we know now I don't know why any pick up the water habit again. Still, we got a long way having our entire populace drinking that stuff every day."

The nurse laughed, "A long way for a drug addict maybe. We've come so much farther now."

"Perhaps so, get him the standard treatment. No water for two weeks, treat withdrawal as it occurs."

"Yes Doctor."

 

 

 

-Joat

[Tanuchan]

It's a great short story, Joat! It has a feeling that reminds me of some great science-fiction short stories... not knowing what the 'addicion' is, and finding it later on, is a twist you deal with *very* well.

 

Really liked it!

 

*hugs*

 

~Tanny

[Gyrfalcon]

Good story, Joat.

 

Just goes to show how quickly an idea can go from 'crazily out there' to 'widely accepted', eh? Take computers, fifty years ago they were operated by punch cards and took up the equvilent of a small warehouse in space. Noone would believe there would ever be a need for the every day person to have one. Now look at us, and how we couldn't see getting by without computers.

 

Otherwise, should have stuck buying off your weenie award in the title so you could have gotten rid of that. *grins*

[Knight]

As I told you in IRC the other day, Joat, EXCELLENT story. I enjoyed it thoroughly..