Soap Opera 2

Watching the examination closely is a local kid. Name of Joe. He regards the scene, detached and bored. Slightly intellectual, might be a misfit. He gazes with passive, dark eyes. Thin, gawky, a certain inscrutability and mawkish silence, but a silence which might precede a violent revelation. Something of the religious mystic about him. Eyes and hair dark, of Mediterranean or Middle Eastern parentage.
He lies on the cool boards, flat on his slim stomach, his shirt open, watching the medical examination with eyes wide with boredom. He hearkens to the words of Doctor Jeff, who throughout the examination throws back sweet, cloying words to Joe, delivered in puzzling couplets from the side of his mouth, like lying riddles. His mellifluous, gentle voice.
"You'll be a great man one day Joe. You're born to it. Did you ever dream of riches? Of millions? All that'll be yours one day, and more".
His voice drones on, weaving a spell on Joe, who seems to picture it all, like a pageant before his eyes.
"This is a country where men can strike gold, and be kings, but freer than kings ever were before. D'you want beauty Joe? D'you want sex? A luxury apartment Joe, a yacht, champagne in your veins. Think about it Joe. Your face on every front page, your name on every breath, your heart as full as a bank vault, your blood enriched, gold bullion like shingle on a beach. Joe, the world is in your heart and you can win it."...
Joe is awed, frightened, wondering.
.... Dr Jeff turns his face away from him and his monologue runs into a dry mumble. As though the river of his discourse had come suddenly to stony, barren ground.
"Next there'll be a dry run. Fortune, the old whore, abandoning men. Man made humble again. In the far future. All the gold eroded, all the young girls gone. Ice water in your veins, no boat at anchor. Your face on no front cover..."
Joe has become perplexed, and is straining to listen.
"The inside of a cell, the fall of an empire, the rise and fall, the final collapse! Where then your finery? O, the public are fickle swine. Whom they love today they revile tomorrow. They have executed lesser kings. The poisonous mob-baiters, that write newspapers, taunts, calls for resignation. Joe, my boy, there is no idol that cannot be torn down. Look at the faces of the fat cats when the cream disappears. Yes now son, all this is to come, the world in your heart that it will kill you to lose!"
Joe looks up to see Dr Jeff's face. Shadows in the eyes, unsmiling. The prophecy complete.