Atmosfear.

The truth is palpable. And, my condition is pitiable. Well,almost. I am trapped on an island. I have friends - they never fail to remind me of their existence, I have the approval of the fairer sex - I can enter their bodies at will, yet I have nothing. I'm not lonesome,no. As for boredom, there is none. If there was boredom, then it would be understandable, at least. I have always found comfort in the company of solitude. Life is too short to be willed away like this. If there is an all-encompassing Truth, then this Truth can be broached by understanding oneself. Or inasmuch as the mind can understand its own involuted self. There is much to be uncovered. There is much to be confused about. I can chip my fingernails on the subject, but I can rest happy knowing that my fellow man has taken the effort to solidify his investment in himself. As long as ignorance remains a point-of-view, there will be arguments, but no fruitful discussions. I prod myself continually, hoping to elicit some response to the sadness I find myself facing. I find none.

I never quite understand why society is so notoriously straitlaced in matters of sex. Aren't the biological implications of sexual happiness reason enough to be satisfied? When Society turns its cold, unappreciative eyes on sexuality with malevolence, I'm confused. Aren't bedrooms part of society's mainframe? As if semen is pus, and ovulation is liquid irony. Why do you shift so uneasily in your chairs when the talking heads on television tell you they had had oral sex done on them by other talking heads? It is a part of life. I may be young and bloodless, but I know that you cannot set limitations on what you deem as vulgar when you yourself extrapolate that vulgarity to your sex lives. That is why moral policing is stupid. People will derive pleasure from their own perversity. It's always too late when the youth come to terms with puberty. You can't put your finger on one thing and say,'This is it. I have found the Mother Lode'. I am seventeen. Pubescence brought about changes in me, yes. When I see those changes as having a personal quality, I understand. Because they are a extension of what principally constitutes my sexuality. When you force me to acknowledge what's right - contextually or otherwise - I will have a hard time swallowing your advice because for me, the parameters are different. I draw the line on the slate a little bit thicker than most others. So, all I can do is wait for morality to come to me, not the reverse.

I look up at the starry skies and I find peace in the colossal emptiness. Maybe, in the distance, I can sense the cores of white dwarves and red giants as they burn hydrogen to helium. The arrangement of atoms differs, the up-quark meets the down-quark. The conductors hands flail wildly as he falls from the stage, to land in a heap among the cellists. The crowd finds its feet. And there is an eerie silence as the conductor is carried away by the paramedics.

Cerelacker.

She rubs some ointment on my temples, motioning to the petrified intern to grab my ankles as she fastens my legs to the iron cot. I can feel leather on my skin, and it's not very comforting. Conviction, conviction. As she reaches across me for the needle, the bulge on her front brushes against my cheek. I pull away, disgusted.

Ah, she says. Puberty didn't quite teach you what to expect,did it?

I look at her and smile weakly. There are a million things I want to say to her right now, but all I can do is whimper and tug at the electrodes. Textbook irony, I think to myself. My mind is playing ball with itself. He'll be back. And this time he won't be happy. I choke on my saliva and grunt in a weak show of discomfiture.

The nurse says the doctor will soon be with us. Bless the bastard. He's a fuckin' queer. The way he snaps his fingers when he talks reminds me of Nino Valenti in The Godfather. These closet homosexuals have nothing better to do than watch nubile male bodies writhe in seamless agony, while they cheer as they get the closest thing to the replication of a gay orgasm. Anyway, I am not in the mood for satirical puns. The hospital gown makes me look like a cross between James Frey and Elizabeth Perkins.

He arrives, smiles to show his gleaming white teeth and gushes over his patient (me) and how good he has been. What a dandy. He signals to the attendant to flick the switch.

The waves hit me. Scooping out emotions from my brain like I'm a fat bowl of Häagen-Dazs. I can see spots of green and blue materialize in front of my eyes. That means I'm hallucinating.

Then, he comes.

He's sitting with one leg crossed over the other, like a caporegime. He's wearing a tux - not a very clean one though. Smiles at me oafishly. Freak,he says.

Fuck you.

Then, he starts to shake as the pain hits me. The veins in his wrist start to bulge, then burst, spraying me with his blood. I am shaking in my cot. Electricity courses through my neural pathways. My synapses start to fizzle. Random memories appear and disappear. Sentences from books I have read do their last tango. The depolarization begins. Dendrites snap. I scream. Silently. Because the electrons are stopping salival flow. Wordless, my mouth looks to my arms for expression of pain. I'm flailing about wildly, my thighs hitting the cold sides of the cot. I can see women I have slept with - he has slept with. I can see places he has visited. I can see people with whom he has talked. They are all looking at me with mild disinterest like I'm vermin. So that they can get the cricks out of their legs and stomp on me with their dirty boots. God help me. You poor thing, I can hear the nurse say. She holds a handkerchief to her mouth, dabbing away her lipstick in one fluid motion. I look at the attendant and he looks like the piss is filling his pants. My eyes roll back to the top of my head. Everything goes quiet. It's over.

I am looking through the eyes of someone else.