Bent

And the doctor pronounced the verdict:

“You have forever-chew syndrome.”

Stanyan looked at him, astonished to see that the doctor had delivered this with a completely straight face. How long did the doctor need to practice that, Stanyan wondered.

A real dentist or “nutritionist” or doctor would know the root of the issue at hand: this person doesn’t have any eating disorder, just a combination of issues thrown into that one neat hand-basket that he happened to be in.

“Forever-chew syndrome”. When did that start?, Stanyan wondered as he lay unhappily as a “perpetual insomniac” in bed. Stanyan smiled suddenly, eyes still closed, realizing how he was labeling himself left and right — and that probably those labels originated from somebody else in the first place.

“Ah life,” Stanyan sighed. “Certainly the reason I have FCS is due to the fact that I routinely slept in a certain way when my bone structure was getting set up and as a result, I am actually a covert Quasimoto. I’m too subtle to be horrible but twisted enough to be screwed for the rest of my pitiful life.”

The next morning, Stanyan woke, surprised and gladdened to realize that he must have slept in order to have done that, resigned to make the most of the frame he had created.

Suzie greeted him in the hallway and to Stanyan’s astonishment, he realized that she was a covert Quasimoto too! This was the first time he had perspective as to why she had one eye looking smaller than the other. What circumstances did she grow up in that caused her to suffer her frame the way he had his?

“Stan what on earth are you thinking about?” Suzie’s quizzical look and direct question sliced through his musing and brought him outside of his head for the time being.

“Hi Suzie,” Stanyan grinned. “I’ve got the whole world and its welfare on my mind. You?”

Suzie laughed and handed him a sheet to keep track of the tasks he would have handled by day’s end.

“That was what I started off with this morning but now I’ve got all my attention directed towards getting a true answer from you,” Suzie grinned back.

“Mm, good luck with that,” Stanyan replied.

“You had this look like you had just noticed something about me for the first time,” Suzie pursued. Stanyan didn’t say anything but looked up from the sheet at her to indicate that he was listening and that she could continue.

“What did you notice?” she wanted to know.

“It was complete evaluation from a layperson,” Stanyan said as neutrally and plainly as he could.

“Oh?”

“I went to see a dentist yesterday, first time, unique from the other dentists I’ve had, found him on Yelp, good stuff,” Stanyan started to give way to the dammed communication since it was a packaged-deal kind of thing, but stopped himself short: “Did you ever get an evaluation from your dentist about something other than what your dental exams or x-rays said?”

“Huh? No. Why? What kind of evaluation?”

“Uh, well, I did — he made a diagnosis, so to speak, about my sleep problems — of all things, right, a dentist — and, uh, that was the layperson evaluation I was doing on you,” Stanyan concluded. “I’m sorry.”

Suzie puzzled a bit on what she heard. “But I don’t have sleep problems.”

Stanyan shook his head, “Right, you do not; that is why I apologized.”

“Um, so what lead you to your conclusion about me — and what was — ?”

At that moment the director walked in and nodded to acknowledge their presence, allowing them to conclude whatever they were saying if they wished to. Seeing nothing but a slightly open-mouthed stare travel from Stanyan to one in his direction coming from Suzie and a somewhat rigid look of defense pass to alert attention towards him from Stanyan, the director smiled cheerfully.

“And good morning to you as well,” he began.

“Morning,” they both replied, Suzie a bit sheepishly.

The director continued to smile: “We have a big day ahead of us, the usual. I expect no less than the usual and you yourselves I am sure do not either. No further org-wide announcements.”

Stanyan started decorating his record sheet with his own desired tasks in addition to the usual and sat down to start on the list. With the director sitting catty-corner to their desks, Stanyan felt okay about leaving Suzie in mystery at present.