I Am Your Voice

I am your voice.

The old man was unhappy.  He was unhappy about his health.

The old man was joyous.  Overjoyed he didn’t feel any worse.

“I am your voice.”  The old man recognized the sound, a honking drone, tinged with snarky bullshit class-struggle malarkey read from a teleprompter.

He had been busy for weeks growing a beard.  The young redhead said he was getting jowly, so he solved the problem.  Faced with a comment about the change, he declared, getting ready for the Christmas pageant.  Or, Hemingway look-alike contest.

Truth was, the old man found himself on the edge of a crux of a cusp of a crossroads.  The only thing he could change was himself.

I am your voice.

The beard was a glorious white, color that glows in the dark.  Lean as he was, liked to think he looked like a berobed Charlton Heston calling down the powers to split the sea, albino mane blowing in the wind.  Probably more Donald Sutherland.

The young redhead also said he had a big head.  I am your voice.  But beards are in style now, he tried to convince her.  Like you care, she smiled.  The old man, where trends go to die.

The pain grows daily, which is to be suspected when you take away the single medication supposed to be fighting that.

How much can his arthritis really hurt?  Look at this.

Hydroxychloroquine.  Adverse effects.

The most common adverse effects are a mild nausea and occasional stomach cramps with mild diarrhea. The most serious adverse effects affect the eye.

For short-term treatment of acute malaria, adverse effects can include abdominal cramps, diarrhea, heart problems, reduced appetite, headache, nausea and vomiting.

For prolonged treatment of lupus or arthritis, adverse effects include the acute symptoms, plus [!] altered eye pigmentation, acne, anemia, bleaching of hair, blisters in mouth and eyes, blood disorders, convulsions, vision difficulties, diminished reflexes, emotional changes, excessive coloring of the skin, hearing loss, hives, itching, liver problems or liver failure, loss of hair, muscle paralysis, weakness or atrophy, nightmares, psoriasis, reading difficulties, tinnitus, skin inflammation and scaling, skin rash, vertigo and weight loss. Hydroxychloroquine can worsen existing cases of both psoriasis and porphyria.

Luckily, he couldn’t spell those last two.

Nine months of misery.  Wondering how long to get weaned off this poison.  And then what?

I am your voice.

One of his young buddies had actually had the nerve, the freaking audacity, to say to his face, but, dude, you really are old.

Lucky this is Skype.

I thought we were two civilized men.

Do I look civilized to you?

Right about then, the old man decided to go dark, unplug, and live life Crazy Prospector full-time before he killed somebody.

Gonna change his name and live a life of quiet isolation.  Seek a state of grace.

Life is a communicable terminal disease.  Not the aging that’s a problem, it’s the changing.

Hell would have to find him first.

I am your voice.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6xEpIgFAPGQ