Episode 1 – Profitable Suffering
Just like any other child born
during this age, Charlene is told by her parents to strive for a job that pays
well, so she can be financially stable enough to do whatever she wants to do in
her life. She’s told to be a doctor since it’s a praiseworthy job that pays
extremely well. Even though Charlene doesn’t think she wants to be a doctor,
the way her parents talk about it make her trust them. She makes plans in advance
to learn about being a doctor. For now, at her young age, she reads up on
whatever she can.
Charlene then hears about an
educational puppet show called Adventures Into the Forbidden. It’s said to push
the limits in what children like Charlene are supposed to learn while still
being safe enough for her to watch. After asking her parents about it, they let
her watch it after dinner. The first episode she catches stars a puppet called
Dave the Doctor. He’s a simple puppet dressed in light blue scrubs, surgical
cap and mask, and black eyes with the edges of his smile showing slightly above
his mask. The set he’s on is a normal room in a hospital not too different from
the kind of room Charlene goes to for her doctor checkups.
“Hello, boys and girls! I’m Dave
the Doctor!” the cheery puppet says, “Today, we’re going to talk about being a
doctor and I’m not just talking about what we do. I’m talking about all the advantages
that come with the job! When you save a life or help someone be healthy, you’re
basically being a superhero. Just imagine doing something heroic every day! Your
heroic actions are well paid for because of how stressful the job of saving
lives can be but don’t worry about it. There are plenty of suffering people in
the world that you can make money off of! Now, don’t think for a second that
the suffering of others doesn’t affect me.”
The camera quietly jumps to a close
up of Dave’s face that slowly begins to cry.
“It hurts me. A lot, but enough
with the sad feelings. Let’s put a happy face on and do some doctor work!
Today, we’re going to do surgery! Who and where is the patient you might ask? It’s
me! Now, don’t try this at home kids.”
Dave puts himself on the surgical
table and cuts himself open with a scalpel all the while keeping his happy
expression, being silent, but violently spazzing out. Once he is cut open, a real
human hand comes out of him. Dave then turns to the camera with his arms up in
the air.
“Tada! What do you think you were
going to see? Us puppets are controlled by people after all. That’s it for today’s
episode. Thank you for watching!”
Dave waves goodbye along with the
human hand as the TV show ends.
“That show wasn’t half bad,” Charlene’s
mom says who was listening to it from the other room, “I especially liked the
part where they talked about the hard work you needed to do to take care of the
people you love. Sounded just like my dad.”
As her mom goes back into the other
room, Charlene wonders what she was talking about. That barely sounded like
what the episode was about. Thinking that she just misheard what the show said
from the other room, she brushed it off and watches the next episode. This is
another episode with Dave, which she doesn’t mind since she wants to know about
being a doctor.
“Hello, boys and girls! I’m Dave
the Doctor! Today, I’m going to be helping people, a doctor’s primary role. Here
come my patients now!”
An injured puppet walks into the
room.
“Doctor Dave, I was just in a bike
accident and need help,” the puppet says.
“That’s no problem for me!”
Dave quickly wraps up the patient’s
injuries in a cast and bandages.
“Wow! Thank you, doctor! I feel
much better now!”
“Be sure to be careful while you
heal and extra careful next time you ride your bike.”
“I will!”
The patient walks out of the room.
“Did you know that the human body
can heal itself from many injuries from inside and the outside even without the
use of medicine? Isn’t that amazing?”
Another patient comes in who is sick
and sneezing.
“Doctor Dave, I need medicine for
my sickness.”
“Let me diagnose you first to see
what sickness you have.” Dave examines the patient with his various tools
before writing down a note on a clipboard. “Ah, you appear to have a common
cold. Here is your prescription for the medicine you should take and a free
bottle! Be sure to take the right number of doses-”
The patient immediately downs the
entire bottle. There’s an awkward silence in the room until the patient explodes.
“That’s what happens when you take
more than what you’re supposed to. You won’t explode, but you could get sicker
than you already were and even die. You don’t want that to happen as a doctor.
You would lose a patient, a source of income, and you could lose your job. Anyways,
here’s the last patient.”
A sickly old puppet walks into the
room and Dave doesn’t appear happy to see him compared to the other patients.
“Son, your mother and I are feeling
sick. Can you-”
“What did I tell you before?”
“Son, we’re your parents. You can’t
just let us die.”
“You only have so long to live and
there’s nothing I can do to help you. Spending money on medicine and surgeries
on you would only be a waste.”
“It could ease our pain and extend
our lives for a bit longer.”
“It’s going to be in vain. Everyone
eventually dies. The least you could do is not be a financial burden to me.”
“What do you need all the money for?
I don’t think you’re even getting paid the right amount for all the hard work
you do. It’s not like you’re a dad or a husband.”
“I don’t need a family. All I need
is my work.”
“Is that why you’re always here?
Son, you hardly take a break.”
“That’s because my boss never gives
me one as if I need one. All I need is my work.”
“Oh…”
Dave throws a nearby chair into the
wall.
“Get out of here! I never want to
see you or your wife again!”
Dave’s dad tries to quickly walk
away before falling down and crawling away. There’s a deafening silence in the
show that lasts several seconds until Dave slowly turns to face the camera.
“The hardest part of being a doctor
is knowing the inevitability of death and the fact that we can only do so much.
When your patient is on the verge of dying, it’s best to let them die so they
don’t be a burden on others and so they can pass on. On that note, that’s it
for today’s episode. Thanks for watching.”
The show abruptly ends. Charlene waits
for her mom’s response, which is sure to be harsh for what was on TV.
Her mom walks into the room and
says, “That was sad.”
“Yeah,” Charlene says with her head
down.
“I remember telling grandma the
same thing before we put her in a nursing home. Do you like the show?”
“It’s interesting.”
Charlene’s mom stands as she
watches with Charlene the next episode that comes on. Again, Dave the Doctor is
on. Charlene is curious about this despite wanting to see more. Surely, she would
have caught an episode starring a different puppet. There are supposed to be
more, but she stays quiet as she appreciates seeing what she wants. The set
appears dirty as if no one has cleaned it for a while. Dave appears tired with empty
coffee cups littered around his office.
“Dave here again. Today, we’re
going to talk about…today we’re going to talk about how tiring being a doctor
is. Someone is always in need of help somewhere, so you always have to be at
the ready to help them no matter what.”
Two puppets barge into the room
with a puppet on a stretcher.
One says, “Doctor Dave, we need an
immediate surgery on this man who is on the verge of dying!”
“Will do!”
The two puppets leave as Dave gets
his scissors. He cuts open the puppet’s body only to fall asleep halfway and
accidentally cut off its head that reveals a finger in it that’s completely
black. Dave wakes up as soon as this happens and quickly sews back on the puppet’s
head, replaces the heart within the puppet with a new one, and sews it back up.
Dave and the patient then raise their hands in the air.
“There we go! That was done with no
difficulties whatsoever!”
“Thank you so much, doctor!”
“There’s no need to thank me. I was
just doing my job. Now, my assistant will be here to help you fill out your
information so you can pay for the surgery. The coffee ain’t gonna pay for itself!
Haha!”
“I’m sorry, but I’m poor and don’t
have anything to my name. Is there any way else I can pay for the surgery? Maybe
work a job here?”
Silence fills the room as the
puppets stare at each other. The patient’s head then falls off before Dave’s
crying face fills the TV screen as it cuts to static.
“Aw. It was just getting to the
good part. I wanted to see Dave give it to that person who didn’t want to pay
him,” Charlene’s mom says.
“But Dave’s a doctor, mom. Isn’t he
supposed to help people more than make money off them?”
“Doctors help people when they make
money. Besides, Dave was a businessman. Not a doctor. He was helping a man who
he thought could pay him.”
“What do you mean? That’s not what
happened.”
“Okay. It’s your bedtime, so it’s time
to give the TV a rest and go to sleep.”
Charlene goes to sleep and can’t
but think about the show. It was called Adventures Into the Forbidden, but what
it showed didn’t seem to go that far, at least to her. As she tries to go to
sleep, she can’t help but hear the sound of scissors cutting. Charlene tries to
ignore it despite it getting louder and louder. When the sound seems like it’s
close to her, she opens her eyes to see that nothing is in her room. The sound has
stopped as well. After taking a breath, she tries to fall back to sleep only to
feel as if a pair of scissors has pierced her heart from the bottom of the bed.
Years later when Charlene is an
adult, she has become a doctor and one of the best in the hospital she works
in. Today, she visits her parents who are on the verge of dying.
“Charlene dear, is there really no
hope for us?” her mom asks.
“No, there isn’t,” Charlene coldly
responds.
“If you had given us some kind of
treatment or medicine, then we wouldn’t have been like this.”
“No, you would’ve ended up the same
way. I would know. I’m a doctor.”
“Why are you here then? Are you
here to let us live with you or take us to a nursing home?”
“No. I came here to pick up my
suitcase. I forgot I left it here.”
“You can’t just leave us here! Your
father and I can barely move as is.”
“It’s too expensive and not worth
it. I’ll be leaving now.”
“Even with all the money you make?! Charlene! Charlene!”
Charlene’s mom tries to reach out
for her daughter, but only falls down and is unable to get up. Her dad tries to
help her up and now falls down as well. Later on, when Charlene thinks her
parents are dead, she goes to the house, takes the dead bodies her parents off
the floor where they fell and buries them in an unmarked grave in the back of
the house as it would’ve been costly to have any kind of funeral for them. She
then sells the house and everything in it.
