Good to the Last Drop?
May 10, 2016 Leave a comment
That Terry thought he was a vampire didn’t seem to faze Teresa. It did faze his parents and friends.
…
A mother tugged a small boy through the outside door. A teenage girl came out the inner door, crossed the room and left behind the mother and son. A therapist stuck his head out of the inner door and looked around the room and saw his next client, a thirteen year-old boy. “Hi, come on in.” The boy dutifully followed the therapist. A fiftyish woman came in the outside door and proceeded over to the glass window to check in with the clinic’s receptionist. Terry no longer paid attention to the ebb and flow of people in the clinic’s lobby. Waiting for psychologist Teresa to claim him, Terry sat in the lobby as he had ninety-nine times before and always dressed in black.
“Hi, Terry, come on in.”
Carrying his dog-eared Virtual Gamer magazine Terry shuffled through the held door.
At the beginning Teresa was made aware of his parent’s concerns, their disbelief. When Terry had started to cut his arms and stomach to collect and consume his own fluids, they called N.B. Clinic. They hoped for some reparative therapy that would bring back their child from the “grave.” So, Terry’s parents sat down with Teresa.
They wanted to know what triggered Terry’s transformation: “Was it us? And what makes Terry sleep walk every night? And why did he only want play outside at night?”
Terry’s parents related how they would wake in the middle of the night, every night now, to find that Terry had left the house. He would roam the neighborhood in his black pajamas hissing. It had to be more than simple parasomnia.
When they did find Terry his face would be covered in blood and the remains of dead cats and dogs were scattered about. The sight and smell of blood gagged them. Terrified by Terry’s manifestation, Terry’ parents wanted to do anything to bring their son back to from this state. He used to play so gently with his stuffed animals.
But after ninety-nine sessions, Terry’s parents were now told to accept their son’s “vampirism”. As Teresa had explained it on the phone, vampirism was becoming an accepted behavior and that Terry’s self-image and his dignity depended on his being a vampire. “It is something that he cannot control and it makes him feel human. Besides,” she said, “it’s likely genetic – Terry’s need for plasma. He believes that has the ability to extract some kind of energy from living things to strengthen him. I see this kind of thing all the time at N.B. Clinic.”
“I wish my parents would accept me the way I am.”
“They are trying, Terry. I met with them recently. Give them time.”
“I wish everyone would accept me the way I am. I was born this way, you know, and it’s not what they think. I know who I am now. You can see that. Why can’t others?”
“Well, Terry, the world is not always friendly to minorities. But there are social justice warriors who are advocating for you right now. They are making a difference. Still, there are so many fundamentalists who reject the notion of nocturnal plasma-sucking activities that it is an uphill fight. Give it time.”
Teresa continued, “But you need to be secure in yourself, Terry. Last week I gave you information about a local Vampire Community support meeting. Did you go?”
“Yeah, it was alright. I got to be myself without having to hide my feelings. A lot of the kids said they came out of their coffins to their parents. I just wish my parents and friends… I just wish the whole world was a safe place for me and my friends.”
“You and I both wish that Terry.”
© Sally Paradise, 2016, All Rights Reserved
…
“And what we must not do, what we must never do, is turn on our neighbors, our family members, our fellow Americans for something that they cannot control and deny what makes them human,” Attorney General Loretta Lynch
“This is about the dignity and the respect that we accord our fellow citizens and the laws that we as a people and as a country have enacted to protect them, indeed, to protect all of us,” Lynch said
The Life of the Party
September 17, 2017 Leave a comment
The office of the Director of Behavioral Management Services (BMS), Social Sciences Division, Administration Building No. 1 of 20, Government Dept. of Social Services,
Godwin Ave., Washington D.C.:
A knock on the door.
A voice from inside, “Come in.”
“Life Coach Tidd reporting sir.”
“How did it go today, Tidd? Have a seat.”
“Thank you, sir.” Tidd takes a seat.
“It went well I believe. This morning I coached client Xym to continue his lifestyle. He was questioning whether his former church would accept him. I told him, ‘No matter, this government accepts you as you are. You are free to be yourself. If you are not yourself you will be unhappy. And our mission at Behavioral Management Life Coach Services is to pursue happiness with you, the client. Happy clients are the best advertisement tax dollars can buy.’ Xym seemed relieved.
My ten o’clock client, a youth pastor, I once again had to remind him of our Uniform Behavior Code which must be presented weekly to the youth. He was more than a little hesitant…”
“Remind him, Tidd, about our Universal Morals Seminars. Sounds like he needs a refresher course. We must teach our youth to be nice, pleasant, respectful. We teach them self-improvement and doing one’s best, and feeling good about oneself…and all that. We must form our youth while we can, before any thoughts of You Know Who enters the picture.
Let me remind you, Tidd, that our core mission is to generate self-happiness. We want our clients to feel good about themselves. You Know Who is not particularly interested in our daily problems. That is why we are here, Tidd. We are here for them. We are inclusive and You Know Who is not. We listen, we coach, we improve the life process for each and every one of our clients. And we do it for free!”
“Sir, this youth pastor asked me if I knew about grace. I said of course I did. I watch Will and Grace.”
“Excellent response, Tidd. Keep redirecting his thinking. We must deconstruct any inherited meaning so that we can construct what the people want constructed today, here and now. And besides, it makes no sense for this youth pastor to get all mucked up with some ancient spiritual mumbo jumbo when our Moral Code is so…so relevant and compassionate. Religion is values. But we are a values organization based on settled social science. Keep in mind that we Life Coaches are precursors to our clients in the discovery of truth. No savior from on high delivers like we do. ”
“So true, Sir. Sir, I also talked to Anna, you know the one, the feminist. I encouraged her to go ahead and write her article laying out the case for women in the work place to be promoted every two years. I told her that she is a wondrously talented person who has been sinfully suppressed by males running a patriarchal system and that the feminine had been imposed upon her by superior forces and reinforced by a culture of romance in art and literature. You should have seen her swoon.”
“Good work, Tidd. You remind me of myself when I life coached in the field.”
“Thank you, Sir.”
“Tidd, I am going to promote you. But before I do I want you to attend the “Cultivate the Imperial Self” training course. It is mandatory for all level three Life Coaches. The training will give you a chance to brush up on yourself. You will also learn how to do consciousness raising and how to cultivate indignation and righteous resentment and to have both directed at metanarratives. In other words, there will no longer be one voice. Also, as part of the training you will learn how to make your clients suspicious of any written word and how to liberate language from the shackles of dictated meaning. And, critical to our mission, you will learn how to build consensus among our clients. Consensus building insures our client’s happiness. The more “Likes” the better, and all that.
Before the end of the week, Tidd, let me know if any of your clients want individual rights. As you know they must fill out an application first and then I will talk to the Department of Rights. They usually issue guaranteed SCOTUS honored rights in a matter of five business days. It sounds like your client Anna needs a right to be promoted every two years. Let me know about that one. Janet, the head of our Rights on Demand Department -Rodd – will ram it through for you. Get my gist, Tidd?”
“Yes, sir, and quite funny at that, if I may say so. Thank you, sir.”
‘In any case, individual rights are the wellspring of our organization. Without them where would we be? Hand them out freely. But remember to tell them what equality says, “No rights without their duties.”
“Yes, sir. And, before I go, here is my list of follow-up appointments.”
“You are coming to the dinner tonight, Tidd, aren’t you?”
“Oh, yes, I wouldn’t miss it for the world.”
“Good. See you there.”
Later that night:
“Life Coach F.E. Tidd we are awarding you the 2017 Pat ‘Em on the Head Kick ‘Em in the Ass Achievement Medal for Life Coaching Excellence.
© Jennifer A. Johnson, 2017, All Rights Reserved
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Filed under Political Commentary, Short Story, social justice, social science Tagged with behavioral science, politics, Satire, short story, social justice, social science