The Cracks

(thoughts on obsessive compulsive disorder)

I was walking home the other night and I realised that I was avoiding stepping on the cracks in the path.

I thought, “Fuck, does this mean I’m developing an obsessive compulsive disorder?”

So I started walking on the cracks. And then I thought, “Fuck, walking on all the cracks is as compulsive as not walking on them”.

I changed to alternate between on and off. But then that seemed a bit obsessive too.

Next I did crack using a paradiddle (in drumming, where ‘R’ is hitting with the right hand and ‘L’ is the left hand, the paradiddle pattern is RLRR LRLL). I stepped on crack, off crack, on, on, off, on, off, off.

At first that seemed OK, but then it too began to play on my nerves.

So I implemented a random pattern of steps using a pseudo-random number generator that I imagined had been surgically implanted into the left hemisphere of my brain by aliens. The generator approximated a normalised distribution of on and off the cracks.

After all this, my brain began to get all fucked up.

I was on the verge of seeing through time when I got home.




Title
The Cracks (thoughts on obsessive compulsive disorder)

Length
200

Written
November 2004

Dedication
To drummers everywhere, always be guided by crack

Editorial Notes
The inspiration for this story (though it’s not really a story, is it?) came from a hobo on the bus reading A Brief History of Time

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