Characterization Short Story.

This was a piece I did recently to practice with my character development. I ended up having some fun with it too.




The darkness behind his eyes was overwhelmingly difficult to shake off. Harold couldn’t even remember falling asleep last night. To make matters worse, his whole body felt like he was gently rolling across the ocean, which could only mean that his Ambien really knocked him out and he was still feeling the effects. The strange thing was that as he continued to wake, he began to increasingly realize that he was sleeping on a very hard surface.
“Aw crap! I must have passed out after taking my medicine.” While Harold had lived in seclusion from the world most of his life, he found some comfort in talking out loud to himself.
“Rise and shine, Sunshine,” said an obnoxiously pleasant voice that was obviously not Harold’s.
Harold’s eyes had quickly snapped open, and he found himself blinded by the harsh rays of the sun beating down on him. His heart began to pound through his chest and his whole body seized up as his worst nightmare seemed to be coming true. He was outdoors.
“It’s just a dream! It’s just a dream!” Harold repeated it over and over as he closed his eyes once more in hopes that when he opened them again he would find himself in the comforts of his tiny isolated home.
“You got that right,” the overly obnoxious voice sounded again. “This is the dream! And you can thank me later!”
As Harold stayed motionless on the floor he had a sudden epiphany that the voice belonged to the all-to-pushy, so-called Psychiatrist, Dr. Thomas Radco. He had only ever spoken to the man on the phone and from behind the safety of his front door, with all seventeen deadbolts fiercely secured, but he knew instantly who was now hovering over him. Even without the fishbowl effect from each of the peepholes that he normally observed the man through, he recognized the disheveled long hair and the tropical hula shirts, which, made Harold cringe each time he saw them.
“Sorry we have to meet this way, but, man, is it great to finally talk to you face to face!” Dr. Radco smiled widely enough that Harold could see all of his pearly white teeth.
“You . . . you,” Harold stammered. Evidently all of the moisture had left his mouth in order to compensate for the pool of sweat he felt was about to drown in.
“I know, right now it seems a bit extreme, but trust me when I say this is the path to a better life.” Dr. Radco continued to show off all of his teeth, which left Harold wishing he didn’t have a phobia of human contact so he could punch the guy.
“A bit extreme?!” Harold’s breathing became increasingly difficult. “You kidnapped me!”
“‘Kidnapping’ sounds a touch harsh. Sure, I broke into your home, drugged you, and brought you out of your fortress of solitude, but you gave me no choice. After all, you came to me for help,” said Dr. Radco.
“I made one call! And that was a month ago. You might remember me hanging up on you after telling you never to call back.” Harold had freaked out when the doctor had suggested that he free himself of his social anxiety by walking outside. Naked. “Not to mention that I have a restraining order out on you after you came to my house every day since that phone call!”
“All of those sound like a cry for help to me.” Dr. Radco placed his hands proudly on his hips. “Trust me, I’m a doctor. I know a cry for help.”
“What?! Are you even a licensed Psychiatrist?”
Harold slowly stood up so he could find a cop or at least a way back home, and was increasingly aware that his body was still feeling woozy. The whole world seemed to be rocking back and forth. “Where the hell are we?”
“Now, don’t panic, but I knew this was the only way we could get some one-on-one time to really root out those behaviors that are preventing you from being happy.”
Harold blinked through the sun that now seemed to be burning his skin off. As he gazed around he felt an increase in panic as he recognized an unending color of blue that stretched through the horizon. “I’m on a boat!” His voice reached an octave it hadn’t pitched to since pre-puberty.
“Isn’t it great?” Dr. Radco held his arms high in the air like a magician revealing a trick. “And just at you, you seem to be getting more and more comfortable outside of your home.”
Harold’s breathing quickened and he felt the bile beginning to rise from his stomach.
“Harry, you gotta breathe!” Dr. Radco placed his hand on Harold’s shoulder and mimicked a breathing technique. “In through the nose, and out through the mouth.
Harold hated being called Harry, but was couldn’t decide if he was more panicked to be outside, or that he was now having physical contact with the delusional doctor.
“There you go.” Dr. Radco smiled again. “Let’s close our eyes and push the bad energy from our body.”
SMACK!
Dr. Radco found himself spinning in the air like a crazed trapeze artist and crashing down in the chilly waters. He struggled to get his head back above water and expel the copious amount of water he had breathed in. After he coughed up what seemed a lung-full of salt water, he heard the rumbling of the boat engine.
Harold had taken advantage of the psychopath’s eyes being closed and cracked an oar upside his head. As he drove off he heard the doctor screaming, “This is the first step to healing!”
Only a moron could imagine that this was a proper technique for behavior modification. However, maybe it was the cool breeze blowing through his hair or the vast ocean stretching out through the horizon, but Harold did feel a modicum of relief from his anxiety. He considered for a split second turning the boat around and retrieving the long haired pathetic excuse for a psychiatrist. He smiled proudly as he continued on to an unknown destination.