Author's note: It feels so good to write again. I hope, despite my rustiness, that this brings as much joy and laughter as the Joker does every time he makes a show. - SV
TOP OF THE WORLD
"You...complete me"
"Such a feeling's comin' over me
There is wonder in most every thing I see,
Not a cloud in the sky, got the sun in my eyes
And I won't be surprised if it's a dream,"
An old familiar song plays over the speakers of the studio.
The actors onstage and the play's audience are momentarily transfixed. A malfunction in the audio system perhaps?
An improviso brought about by some eccentric producer?
Just as the old song played, a sweetish-acrid smell became known, akin to rotting molasses or fruit gone rancid.
An unidentifiable itch had then made itself known from the backs of their throats.
"Everything I want the world to be
Is now comin' true especially for me,
And the reason is clear, it's because you are here
You're the nearest thing to heaven that I've seen,"
They gag but only just.
Their animal minds beginning to realize something was fundamentally wrong, while their sapience remained somewhat still bewildered at the seemingly random turn of events.
A peculiar and macabre giddiness soon came over those who breathed in the tainted air.
"I'm on the top of the world lookin' down on creation, and the only explanation I can find
Is the love that I've found, ever since you've been around, our love's put me at the top of the world,"
Smile they did.
Laugh they did.
Inexorable and grotesque, the laughing would not stop.
Actors and audience alike had melted into one grand convulsion of comedy.
"Something in the wind has learned my name
And it's tellin' me that things are not the same,"
The door from outside the set suddenly banged open, and in he came.
"In the leaves on the trees, and the touch of the breeze
There's a pleasing sense of happiness for me,"
A wide crimson smile decorated the newcomer's ghastly pale face. His suit, a gaudy purple in outrageous contrast to the acid green of his hair. A positive spring belying his steps as if strolling about on a lovely summer day.
Was he here to perform?
Perhaps such a question roiled in those whose thoughts and breaths were not as yet strangled by the all-consuming and indefatigable laughter that then rang in concert as the song's refrain went by.
"There is only one wish on my mind
When this day is through I hope that I will find,"
Onward he went, whistling in concert as the volume of the old song played louder.
As if to mask the dissonant shrieks of mirth that had possessed his cast, his audience.
He Who Smiled finally got atop his stage, and he saw the actors who shared it in a mad dance, writhing and rolling as their lips turned blue even as the laughter continued to pour endlessly through their throats.
The gaudy one took small bow and blew a sanctimonious kiss to his ever guffawing cast.
"That tomorrow will be, just the same for you and me
All I need will be mine if you are here,"
The musical comedy was reaching its zenith…and of course only he, could deliver it.
Insensate or otherwise, it no longer mattered. They were but puppets of flesh, and he was the puppeteer.
"I'm on the top of the world lookin' down on creation
and the only explanation I can find,"
A great comedian must make people laugh—with punchlines made of lead blood and bone, strings made of life were cut!
He, both author and audience, greeted the show's climax with smile as bright as the song all around.
Again and again and again until at last the comedy had gone and only he and his song were left.
Bowing himself out the theatre, He Who Smiled entered the antechamber where a large glass window allowed onlookers a breathtaking view of the city from up above.
"Is the love that I've found, ever since you've been around
Your love's put me at the top of the world,"
He saw what he had wrought…and it was beautiful.
Ah but the greatest arts are always those who have a greater purpose…and what greater purpose is there but love…
This, the latest in a long, long line, dedicated to the one who made his heart sing and his spirit dance.
For in the heavens there was but a shadow—a monstrous bat branded on the clouds.
"I'm on the top of the world lookin' down on creation
And the only explanation I can find,"
It would have struck fear to countless others.
To him, it was the only applause he ever lived for.
Tears of ecstasy ran down his cheek, his arms wide open to welcome the one who gave him purpose in this meaningless life…
The real show was about to begin.
"Is the love that I've found, ever since you've been around,
Your love's put me at the top of the world!"
**The song is Top of the World, by The Carpenters"