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Bill is trying to learn the new medical
line his company’s selling, and having a hard time.
All those hard to pronounce medical terms
are bothering him.
His little boy isn’t feeling well, and
he goes off to work worrying about that, too.
At work, one of his clients says it’s
his 17th “throwrug” today, rather than anniversary. Bill thinks he must have heard him wrong.
His morning gets worse, and he begins
hearing all sorts of words used in strange ways, in everyone’s conversations.
He goes home for lunch, and while checking
on his son, his wife calls up the stairs that “lunch” is ready, but she doesn’t
call it lunch. He stands up, wondering
if he’s going insane.
He goes back to work for the afternoon,
but things are rapidly getting worse. He can’t understand a word anyone is saying. Even his own name has been changed.
Bill runs out, and drives home. When he gets there, his wife tries to tell
him their son is deathly ill.
They rush him to the hospital, but his
wife has to explain, because the nurse can’t understand what Bill’s saying.
Their son is going to be okay, but spends
the night in the hospital. Bill and
his wife have dinner, and although he can’t understand her and she can’t understand
him, they still love one another and are glad their child is safe.
After dinner, Bill goes up to his son’s
room and begins studying children’s books, trying to re-learn the language
he’s somehow lost.
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. . A question trembles in the silence: Why did this remarkable thing
happen to this perfectly ordinary man? It may not matter why the world
shifted so drastically for him. Existence is slippery at the best of
times. What does matter is that Bill Lowery isn't ordinary. He's one
of us. A man determined to prevail in the world that was, and the world
that is, or the world that will be. In the Twilight Zone.
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Last
revised:
Saturday, November 24, 2001
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the Website Owner: Marta Dawes