Be Afraid

Be Afraid

Joe Registrato

"Are you afraid to look?"
"It's only me. It's always me."

"Still, are you afraid?"
"I don't know about afraid. I'm more disappointed than afraid. I'm disappointed because I can fool everybody else, but I can't fool me."

"So you'd rather walk around fooling people."

"No, I'd rather walk around fooling myself. I can be a millionaire, a rocket scientist, even a god, but when I look at you, it's always just me. Me, shoot, I'll never amount to a hill of beans."

"Damn it, man. What do you want from me? I'm just a piece of glass."
"Can't you throw in with me here, just once? Let me see a golden boy, a hero, Tom Brady, Jesus Christ, Abraham Lincoln."

"I wish I could, Pal. Look at this way, I never lie. I'm not allowed."

"That's the problem. The one thing I want from you, you can't give me."

"Maybe it would be better if you throw a towel over me. That way you'd never be faced with the truth."

"I'd make a mess with the razor and I don't think I could tie the tie."

"I guess that's true. So, what? You just have to keep on looking at... sorry about this, your sorry ass self?"

"I don't see a way around it."

"You're not looking bad this morning. Fresh haircut, that trimmed but still unshaven look, nice white teeth. I wish you could do something about that vein along the side of your nose. I think it might be getting more noticeable. And those ears, man, are those things growing?"

"Can they really do something with a vein like this? And the ears, I don't know. Maybe a little bigger."

"Definitely. See a doctor, Pal, a plastic surgeon. I'm not going to be able to help with it."

"So you're basically as worthless as I am."

"Oh, yeah? What about Narcissus? My ancestor's responsible for a whole field of psychology. Can you match that?"

"I got to admit, that was a pretty big deal. But hey, it was what, a couple thousand years ago. What have you done for us lately?"

"Just remember, what you see is what you get."

"Right. Thanks a lot."

"Sure. See you in the morning."

"No way around it."