DAY 3

Luke’s voice could be overheard from the other room where Mark was fooling around with another adventure for Molly and Peter.

The last act where Luke’s character does a monologue is particularly interesting. Especially when you can’t see the person saying it, Mark thought quietly

If I could live life all over again, would I have done anything I differently? I suppose not. Even if had loads to complain about, life was pretty fulfilling for me, because I lived it as though there was no tomorrow, and I lived it exactly how I wanted to. Well, almost…

I assumed the jerk persona, so people wouldn’t get too close to me, and neither would be able to get close to them, because who in their right mind would want to get close to a jerk?

I failed to realise that every one of us has the tendency to not use the mind when dealing with daily lives… we just do it, and then live to regret the decisions for eternity. Or else, we stand by it till the very end until it breaks us into a tiny little million pieces, and nothing could put it back together again. There’s a Humpty Dumpty incident waiting to happen all over again to all of us.

I was being only human. Hey, wait… what’s that supposed to mean? I am human, and nothing else. Does that make me make mistakes?

It’s a clichéd reality if you look at it… the tough exterior protecting the fragile insides. Anatomically we’re built that way. Then we try to subconsciously build our emotional selves the same way too.

I built my jerk exterior to protect myself and others, but I failed. Not only did I fail protecting others, I also failed to protect myself. I let someone come too close.

There was a deep secret which only I knew. I kept till the very end. Till the minute the tumour decided to block my artery. Right up till the oxygenated blood had nowhere else to flow. I dragged the person with me to the depths of despair. Now I’ve hurt someone whom I allowed to get near enough me.

I am no more the annoying jerk they worked with. I am no more the irritating pain in the ass. I am just me, someone who lost their life to cancer, someone who didn’t want to share the pain. The tough exterior is shattered. I’m sorry. I really am.

Anyone who came across the monologue considered it to be relatively interesting. With a title like MADNESS IN THE OFFICE, you’d expect a comedy of sorts… The dialogue expresses the wackiness of the people who work in that particular office. There’s banter, presumptions and the depthless sarcasm. The dialogue wasn’t all that great, but there was just something about the play. A kind of hidden charm.

The beginning was obviously hilarious. If anyone had mentioned that someone dies at the end, no one would have believed it. A twist in the story, so prudently kept hidden that the effect in the end was magnified by a thousand times.

“So, what’s Peter doing today?”

Startled, Mark looked up from his work. Luke was standing by the door. He looked normal again without the bandanna. The mismatched socks stood out horribly, on his feet, clashing with each other.

“You’re here… rehearsed already?”

“Um… everything compiled neatly in the head, for the moment. I’m bored… entertain me!”

Luke grabs a chair and sits on it without ceremony.

“I could sing that song, if you like….”

“No, you’re not… don’t even think about it. It’ll rain again, and I’m already feeling icy cold. C’mon, tell me what is Peter up to…”

“Ok… let’s see. Molly solves the crime this time around. Peter has a nasty cold, and is not allowed out of the house. But he creeps out in the middle of the night anyway, and then he gets eaten by the lions that escaped from the zoo which they visited that morning. Obviously Peter dies, and Molly and Peter are no more. Molly tries recruiting some new partners, but they’re all morons so she bakes poisoned cookies and kills them. And then she eats them”

“Alive?”

“No she kills them, and then she eats them in a gulp, like a hungry wolf. Their mommies and daddies go around looking for them, and since Molly’s such a great mystery solver, they ask her assistance, and she pretends to be all so sweet and understanding and sympathetic… but it’s all a big fat lie”

“And then?”

“I don’t know”

Both of them start laughing hysterically at the thought of Molly eating her friends. Luke had once shown Mark and the other ex-housemate an old school photograph, and one of the girls there was Molly. Luke had a crush on her way back when they were still kids.

Could Molly be the kind of person who would resort to cannibalism?