Life is the Grandest Illusion

LIFE IS THE GRANDEST ILLUSION
An original story in the style of The Twilight Zone


PROLOGUE:
	Modesto, California. A quiet, peaceful town inhabited by quiet, peaceful citizens. Yet, everything may not be as it seems. The sereneness may be an illusion, caused by the temporary inability to detect the truth beyond the transparent cover lying before them. But, perhaps I’m complicating things by getting too far ahead of myself. In short; Modesto, California? Just another city in the ever-growing realm we know as The Twilight Zone.

ACT 1:
	It was the beginning of another beautiful Monday morning in Modesto. 34 year old, Curtis Freeden wasn’t surprised. It was always this way. And it wasn’t just the weather. It was everything. The grass was always 3 inches high. The river was always flowing right. His hair was always the same length, no matter how long it had been since he had it cut. As it seemed, he was the only one in the town to detect the constantness of the world. It should have worried him, and it did. But overall, he was content with the way things were.
	As he drove to his job as a counselor at Peaceful Breeze High in nearby Ripon, California, Curtis began to notice his vision becoming intermittently blurry and static-filled. Eventually, the distortion stopped, yet a new oddity arose. Curtis began hearing various unexplainable noises; tap-tap-tappa-tap-thud. This somewhat creeped Curtis out. He considered going to see a doctor, but ultimately decided against it. He continued on with his day.
	It was 12:34 PM. Curtis was in his office counseling one of his regular patients, Jay Sherwood. Jay appeared in that office with the frequency of the moon. Curtis even once considered the possibility of him having no conscience, even though he knew assuming so went against all of his training. Jay was a lost cause if there ever was one, and everybody knew it. Though, out of all of Curtis’s unachieved triumphs, Jay was the one he was the proudest of. Curtis knew of his home life, regularly and brutally abused by his family until recently when Child Protective Services stepped in. They required that he be sent to a foster home. Curtis, who had become sort of like a second father to the boy, offered to take him in. Child Protective Services objected. During their meeting, Curtis began experiencing excruciatingly painful headaches. He managed out the words required to tell Jay to go back to class through the pain. As Jay closed the door, Curtis blacked out and collapsed onto the floor.

ACT 2:

	“He’s awake!” screamed a familiar voice. At least, the voice was familiar. When Curtis fully regained consciousness, he found his surroundings; a sterile, white environmment, to be incredibly familiar. He even recognized the crowd of people bunched around him. Yet, no matter how familiar they were, he didn’t know exactly where he was or who he was with. “Wh-where am I?” he asked to no one in particular. A woman who looked to be around 50 or 60 years old started crying. A young nurse patted her on the back and loudly whispered to her. “Now, now, Mrs. Freeden. We talked about what to do if it came to this.” The woman choked out a response through her tears “I know, but nothing can prepare you for when it actually happens.” Curtis was confused. He decided to speak up. “Wait, did you say Mrs. Freeden?” The nurse nodded. “But- but, that’s my name.” The nurse nodded once more and spoke. “Well, yes it is, Mr. Freeden. You’re her son.”
	“But how can that be? I’ve never seen her in my life.”
	“That’s because you’ve spent your entire life in a coma.”
	“Is that even possible?”
	“Well, yes. I won’t get into the technicalities of it all, but it’s entirely too possible.”

	Curtis was confused at that statement, as I’m sure you are, but he decided to accept it for what it was. Over the course of the next few years, Curtis settled into his real life. His real life where he wasn’t a counselor. Where Jay existed, but was dead due to extreme abuse. His real life that sucked. Curtis continuously tries to go back to his coma world, where everything was perfect. Where everything terrible was represented by an equal but opposite positive thing. But this world never truly existed. Scientists have theorized that even if Curtis does find a way to return, it will never be truly the same now that he knows that that world is a lie. That it only exists in his mind.
	What we see life as is subjective. As we see in Curtis’s story, the life you know is not always the same as your life. Sometimes our dreams are better than our real life. But we have to live with it anyways. For life isn’t what you make it, it is what it is. And that’s the way it will always be in….
The Twilight Zone