Pervading Interactive Stress Syndrome (PISS)
Part
2
All
I really wanted to do was release some tension and absolutely nothing was
working. For most of the week, I had tried consciously and subconsciously to relax
some and blow off a little steam, but because of direct interference from that
damned cloud, those things either didn't work or backfired completely, the way
throwing plates and glasses against the wall had. It (the cloud) had spent all
my free time nagging me, bugging me, abusing me, testing me, and generally
giving me grief ever since it had come on the scene.
Escape
was probably possible, but where and when?
Well,
du-uhhhh!, I thought to myself. Here I was so deeply
involved in trying to avoid the cloud that I hadn't even noticed that it wasn't
anywhere to be seen. With a few furtive glances about me, I quickly created a
door to my forest, the one I had made to resemble the woods outside my old home
in
Everything
was the way I'd left it, crisp and cool with fresh mountain air gently
caressing the treetops. I was directly next to my favorite spot: a tree that
had been half uprooted from the hillside and now jutted at an angle above the
ravine below. I edged my way out to a spot between two branches growing
parallel to each other and sat down with a relieved sigh.
I
realized now as I leaned against a tree branch that I had gotten progressively
more desperate to find a way to relax as of late. I had probably looked pretty
bad to those around me, more than likely. I was sure they had understood,
however, since the yellow cloud was certainly visible to everyone now. In fact,
it was rather odd that they hadn't mentioned its presence yet.
Speaking
of "it", I thought, where was it? Maybe the woods really
were a safe haven from the misty slavedriver.
"Don't
think you can just slack off here forever," came the voice I dreaded. I
looked up through the leaves to see the cloud darkening my sky like a
thunderhead.
"I'm
noo-oot," I whined irritably.
"Not
hiding from me or anything, are you?" it asked.
My face became the picture of childlike
innocence. "Noooo," I sang out with a
smile.
"Good,"
it said. "Then let's go study."
"Shit,"
I murmured, smile disappearing.
"What
was that?"
"No-thing."
Within
seconds, I was whisked back to my room without even moving. This was new, I
thought. It had had me whipped mentally all this time, but the cloud hadn't
ever been able to physically move me. It was feasible that it could probably do
other things by now...like hurt me.
"Ready?"
it asked pleasantly.
"Um...yes?"
I replied uncertainly.
"Then
let's start on those lesson plans for class..."
"So
she's a little stressed," said Jerry, whacking a paddle ball vigorously as
he spoke to Naomi. "Big deal."
He
really loved the freedom his subconscious mind afforded him, including the
ability to do things he couldn't normally do, like actually make the ball
return to the paddle continuously. He didn't, however, enjoy the extra company
and mental traffic he now had to deal with from his mind and Daina's. Naomi, who sat perched on air in front of him, was
a prime example. "This happens to humans," Jerry continued.
"I've been busy all week and I'm ready to take a break, too. She's
probably feeling the same way and is just letting off a little steam. She'll
get over it after she's done."
"If
I really thought she was gonna get over it and be
done, would I waste my time talkin' to your lame
ass?" Naomi said seriously.
"Cuss
word!" piped up Joshua, marking Naomi's fifteenth profanity.
"You
might," said Jerry, whacking the red rubber ball steadily. "You have
this thing for buggin' people."
"Damn,
I'm gettin' sick of this! I need your help and you're
s'posed to be all that, so get
off your ass and help me!" yelled Naomi.
"Two
cuss words!" Joshua sang out.
Naomi
gave him a withering look and Joshua smiled innocently. "Go play with Stevie," she growled at him.
"Yayyyyyyy!" he said, rushing off to find his friend.
Jerry
looked at her and she raised an eyebrow. "Alright," he sighed.
"I'll talk to her tonight."
"Talk
to her now," Naomi insisted. "I haven't gotten a decent day's
sleep in a week." Jerry opened his mouth to protest and she added,
"And she hasn't gotten a decent night's sleep in a week. So if you
really cared about her and you're her boy and all
that..."
"Alright,
alright, I'll call her; quit with the guilt trip," shrugged Jerry, turning
away.
Naomi
flew in front of him and pointed toward the door. "Why wait?"
Jerry
sighed. He either unstressed Daina or joined her in
her downward plunge.
A
knock on the door made me look up from yet another written test from the cloud
with a look of pure joy.
"Company!" I yelled, running for the door.
"Not
so fast," the cloud said, forming a misty barrier between me and the
doorway so that I couldn't see. "It's just Jerry, come to bother you.
Doesn't he know you're studying?"
"Yeah,
but..." I protested, feeling strangely dizzy.
"Here
you are, trying your best to learn tons of information and all he can do is annoy you by having fun without you."
"Yeah,"
I muttered, suddenly irritated. How could he do that to me? Go and have fun
and not invite me...!
"He's
probably just coming by to rub it in," the cloud continued vehemently.
"Can you believe that?"
"What
a jerk!" I snapped.
"Exactly! Are you gonna let
him treat us like that?" the cloud demanded.
"Hell, no!!!" I bellowed. The door became
visible to me now and I strode toward it and yanked it opened. "What the fuck
do you want?"
Jerry
stared at me in surprise. "I-I came to see how you been doing," he
said uncertainly.
"Don't
gimme that sh...what?" I paused, my anger abating as suddenly as it had
come.
"Yeah,"
he said, sounding a little more sure of himself.
"Naomi's worried that you've been kinda stressed
out lately."
"STRESSED
OUT?????" the cloud boomed around me and I
with it. I hadn't meant to say it, nor had I meant to grab Jerry's collar and
jack him up against the wall, but it happened. Before either of us knew it, I
had yanked him into the room and thrown him bodily up against the wall.
"What the hell is that supposed to mean?"
Jerry's
face went from one of surprise and even fear to one of confused realization. "Wait
a minute," he said, grabbing one of my hands off his shirt. "Do you realize
what you just did to me?"
"Damn
right I realize!" I said, the words flowing from the cloud around
me to my lips. "I'm in here up to my earrings in boring information
that I gotta do or know by the end of
this week and you came waltzin' in here with
your little fears and worries talkin' about 'Naomi's
worried" and "you're stressing" and you think just 'cause you're
getting your own little apartment, you know something from shit! Well, lemme tell you, asshole, I have had it up to here
with people trying to tell me what to do and what's good for me when I know exactly..."
Suddenly,
Jerry grabbed me by the shoulders, whirled me around and pushed me against the
wall. "Daina!!!" he shouted,
shaking me a little. "Get a fucking grip!!!" The cloud, which had been surrounding me like a thick haze
throughout my tantrum, dissipated to absolutely nothing, leaving me in the
middle of a sentence that I wasn't sure how I started and couldn't even attempt
to finish. I blinked in confusion and looked at this person in front of
me, sure I knew him, but not sure how. "It's Jerry!" he continued,
seeing my confusion. "Remember me, gay guy, friend of yours, wrecked your
car...no, let's not go there right now...look, you're stressing heavily and
we've gotta get you out of this room before you
totally lose it." He turned away from me and spoke to someone else.
"Where can we go?"
"Take
her to the
"Make
me a door to it," Jerry directed. With some effort, Naomi concentrated and
made a door appear in my room. Jerry steered me toward it before I could do or
say anything. I was still feeling lost and confused, but for some reason, I was
greatly relieved by this bizarre turn of events...