Recently I was trying to write a VERY short story for a class I am taking. I couldn’t come up with anything. So I typed “Story Ideas” into Google and after sifting through what seemed like hundreds of web pages I found David Freidman’s websitewith some very interesting story ideas. The page said free for the taking so I took one. This is the finished product. I hope David likes it.
The old doctor raised himself up on unsteady legs. He hated this duty but society said it must be done. He opened the door of the office and called in his next patient. He offered the man a seat and sat back down at his desk to look over the file. Two men stood just inside the door.
After a quick glance at the file and accompanying chart, he looked up into the prisoner’s anxious face. “So you’ve been acquitted of all charges and you’d like to go home now.” He said this with a calm and friendly smile. After so many of these he was quite numb.
“Yes sir.” The prisoner said this with as much respect as he could muster. He feared they would change their minds and keep him if he didn’t obey.
“We will need to run some tests first; you’ve been here for a long time. We need to make sure you’re healthy and such before we release you.” He reached for his stethoscope and sphygmomanometer. “Would you mind, please, removing your shirt?”
With his stethoscope pressed against the prisoner’s chest, he could hear the anxiety of his impending release. With a deeply furrowed brow, he told the prisoner “Your heart beat is a little more rapid than I’m comfortable with. Lie down on the examination table please. I just want to check it on the machine.”
The prisoner reluctantly moved to the exam table. The doctor hooked him up to an old-fashioned machine. It had some kind of graph paper with spindly metal fingers pressing gently against the paper which jutted out from one end and at the other there was only a large red switch.
After the Doctor had finished he smiled gently at the young man then patted his head in a kindly, fatherly gesture. “It’ll all be over in a minute son, not to worry.”
He then stepped back and flipped the red switch. It was over in an instant. The young prisoner was dead. The doctor checked his pulse to make sure then waved the guards over. “He never suspected he was about to be executed. Good job boys. He never suffered.”
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