a short-short story...i'm rather proud of it, actually.

of course that's a dangerous thing to say on YWS, as there are always those who are willing to ruin others people's self-esteem.

anyways...enjoy!

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I read the New York Times in my kitchen. I had a piece of jellied toast and a mug of coffee with cream.

I crunched, sipped, and read away the bright Sunday morning.

But as I read I found some words foreign to me, as if they were of a different language. At first I thought it was just a word or two I didn't recognize.

It persisted. Every paragraph became harder and harder to read. I squinted, I sounded out the words, but neither worked. Trying to puzzle out the definition by context became hopeless, as more and more words lost their meaning.

Finally I was shaking my head in disbelief at a page of completely incomprehensible lines.

“Jess?” I called to my wife. “Hey Jess! Can you come here real quick?”

I heard her voice yell something, but I understood only “...that?” The rest seemed like jabber, as if she was making up words.

“What? I can't understand you! Come here!”

There was no response. Finally I heard her footsteps as she descended down the stairs.

She stood in the doorway, a quizzical look about her face.

I stood and held up the newspaper, pointing to it. “I can't read this. Is it just me or something?”

She appeared completely flabbergasted. I saw her mouth move, more sounds leave her mouth, none of it understandable.

She held up her index finger, signaling for a minute. I understood that, at least. She left and I sat back down, folded the newspaper and returned to my coffee.

She came back a few minutes later with my rather large neighbor, Pete.

I frowned at them. “What's he doing here? And what's going on? Why couldn't I understand what you said?”

Her face showed concern, but I had no idea why. She looked at Pete and I heard more meaningless sounds come from her moving lips.

Pete also appeared concerned. I stood up and gave him a questioning look.

His response too was lost on me.

“What are you two—what the hell—what's going on?”

He said something to Jess in a low voice and took a step forward. More jabber, but I heard urgency in his tone. Jess left the room quickly.

I grabbed him by the shoulders, shouting “What's going on? Do you understand me!”

He wrenched my hands off of his shoulders and pinned me easily against the wall.

“What the hell! Get off me! GET OFF ME! DO YOU UNDERSTAND?”

After several minutes of trying desperately to convey a message, any message, across to him, and a concerned Jess standing with the phone in her hand, biting her lip, the doorbell rang and she ran to the front door to answer.

The next thing I knew a man with a gun entered the room and gave some order to Pete. He stepped back from me quickly. The man shot, and a dart pierced my left thigh painfully.

“Ah!” I fell to my knees clutching my leg. More men entered the room. Paramedics, I think.

My body went numb, my vision went dark, and I fell dumbly to the side, still trying to communicate. What came out was a slurred mumble barely understandable to me.

The next thing I remember is waking up in a moving ambulance with a straight jacket on and two guards armed with tranquilizers on the bench across from me.

I attempted to sit up, but the jacket stopped me and I flopped back onto the hard, metal bench. I tried to talk to them, ask them what was going on, but my lips were still numb from the tranquilizer. They rolled their eyes at each other apprehensively.

The ambulance stopped. The guards stood up and the doors were opened from outside. They heaved me up and half carried me out.

My feet hit the pavement of a parking lot. The sun had already set, and the area was in twilight.

They walked me towards a large, white building. My legs were uncooperative and the straight jacket made walking even harder.

The building had words on the front. I tried reading it.

Meaningless lines.

But I knew what it was; an asylum.

As my escorts tossed me carelessly in a cell, I thought, Has the whole world gone mad?

I called out all night for someone to take me out of the cell, but there was never an answer.

Why couldn't anybody understand me?