Blind Rage

INT. Doctor's Office exam room-Early morning

Light streams through white linen curtains. Ivan sits on the exam table. a white-tipped cane leans next to him. his feet can't reach the floor, so they kick back and forth gently. doctor jones enters. He is startled when he sees ivan.

DOCTOR JONES

Uh...Pretty early for an appointment, huh?

IVAN

I can't tell.

DOCTOR JONES

Oh, yeah. Sorry.

IVAN

It's fine, people forget all the time. No biggie.

DOCTOR JONES

Um...was this something you were born with?

IVAN

Car crash when I was twenty-three.

DOCTOR JONES

Tell me about the accident.

IVAN

Is this part of the checkup?

Doctor Jones checks the list, it's not there.

DOCTOR JONES

Yes.

IVAN

I've always had an aversion to doctors, but I've come to realize that it's OK to treat you guys as human beings. And you know what?

IVAN(CONT'D)

I'm gonna open myself up today.

DOCTOR JONES

What? Sorry.

Doctor Jones begins examination, interspersing instructions throughout the rest of the scene.

IVAN(CONT'D)

You know those people who skip checkups because they don't like 'em? That was me, as soon as I turned 18. So you can imagine, I hated rehab, because I was surrounded by medical professionals 24/7. I just wanted to see again, but since that couldn't happen, they were the only people who could help me. Sympathy cards from friends was the last I saw of them. Had to have a nurse read the damn things to me.

DOCTOR JONES

That's pretty rough.

IVAN

Yeah. I used to miss the old times. I realize now that they were toxic, but there's that irrational urge for the old times.

DOCTOR JONES

What do you do? Do you have a job?

IVAN

I'm a magician. They call me The Great Calvicalti. I used ta do card tricks at parties. Everyone was too drunk to care. So I looked at myself after the accident...well, I didn't look literally, but you know...

DOCTOR JONES

You thought about what you could do.

IVAN

Yeah! So I thought, what are my skills? I can do card tricks, I'm good with people, I can memorize almost anything, and I guess the best thing is that I have all the time in the world to practice.

(pauses)

I offered my skills to the rehab group, started doing shows at the hospital. i'm actually doing my first show outside of the hospital today. I'm called "the Great Calvicanti". My shtick is that my initials are "IC", but I can't.