(Story Two)
"Schizophrenia"
Alisa Brogliocelli was running late. She had simply overslept this morning, and although she completed each item of her preparation routine in half the time, she was still grabbing her car keys and sprinting out the front door a half hour later than usual. It was for this reason that while pulling hurriedly from the driveway of her home she caught sight of Larry Brighton passing her front lawn from the opposite side of the street.
Turning onto the street, Alisa “remotely” lowered the passenger window as she maneuvered alongside Larry, and she leaned over and addressed him warmly, with a simple, “Hi.”
“Hi,” Larry responded.
“Look, I’m running late but if you’re going to the college downtown, I have to go very near there on my way to work. You want a lift?”
The sight of Alisa even at a distance nearly melted Larry inside. To have her lean over in her car, her face a mere yard or so from his, her eyes, as Larry perceived them, bright and child-like, obliterated his ability for incisive, analytic thought. “Oh, no, thank you,” he answered mechanically, but in a pleasant tone, without even having considered accepting the offer.
“Okay. Bye,” Alisa intoned melodically, briefly waving the fingers of her right hand, fin-gers that seemed to Larry to emit sprin-kles of invisible magic dust, wafting on the scent of body fresh oils and emanating from the passenger window. In seconds she was gone, leaving Larry to re-collect his senses and wonder why he didn’t accept the invita-tion to spend twenty or so minutes with a god-dess.
ACT III
“Any questions about our discussion today on dysthymic disorder before we wrap up for today?” asked Dr. Norville in Larry’s morning psychology class. At first there was silence, then Melanie posed a question.
“Are you familiar with a condition called ‘S’ ‘A’ ‘D’? It was being discussed last week on a morning news program.”
"Yes, seasonal affective disorder," the professor answered. "I assume that you ask because you wonder if it falls under the heading of Mood Disorder, like dysthimia--."
(pp.126-127)
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