Weeks passed and more and more people began to believe Ben was seriously ill and in his final days, though it had slowly become final weeks. Every day, Ben got up, brushed half his teeth and then got dressed. He sometimes left for work, where he received sympathy and gifts, and returned home where he was assistant to his mother - a soon to be reality TV star.
Ben's mother had actually been contacted by a series of news stations and actual reality TV producers after word had spread about Ben's rare and mysterious disease. Scientists had been hired and paternity tests had been done, before everyone realised there was no reason for paternity tests, so the scientists began analysing Ben's DNA instead and trying to find out where the disease was coming from. So far they had had no luck as Ben was not actually ill, and he figured that no one would find out what was really the case, as the intelligent scientists had never done an X-ray on him and had missed the obvious fact that Ben's organs were not actually shrinking. This seemed to work for the reality TV producers, who gave beaming smiles whenever Ben became more sick as this supposedly translated into more views and therefore more money.
Ben found himself very much controlled by others in the weeks following his big announcement, and did not entirely like it. At home, people would put makeup on his face and had hijacked his room, which was now filled with bright lights and microphones. The living room and the kitchen were much the same, as Ben's life was to be documented in these three rooms for as long as he managed to live. It was also in these three rooms that Ben was to exaggerate his symptoms (more than he already was) and also present his family dynamic to all the potential viewers Mike - the TV producer - said Ben would capture. Everyone was hoping that the public would fall in love with the young man dying and spending his final days with his family track, and that the scientists and the idea of a rare disease that was rapidly spreading across Ben's body would add to the pizzazz. Ben's mother was hoping that the public would come to love her so much that she could continue with her own reality TV series, movie contracts, adverts and beauty lines after Ben's death.
"You look wonderful darling," she told Ben on their eleventh day of shooting. "Look sad for the cameras okay? Mike said it would boost the views, and we want everything to go well today because our pilot episode is being aired. Good vibes on set everyone, okay? We want this to be big!"
Ben smiled weakly and then sighed when his mother was out of view. Her whole reality TV thing seemed to have taken over his life and he had missed work on more than one occasion, as was the case today. People seemed to be so into his fake illness that he didn't have time to spend five hours a day at work anymore, especially in amongst the interviews, multiple takes and all the famous people he had to meet who were being nice to him as they figured he would die soon.
"Okay, guys! Listen up!" Mike shouted, wrapping an arm around Ben's mother. "We need to get ready for the first take of this scene. I want you - Ben - to enter the kitchen and just be passive aggressive. Kind of get your breakfast ready but make sure you're banging pots, slamming drawers shut and so on. Hillary, I need you to be the motherly figure and ask what's wrong. You're going to be sitting at the kitchen table when Ben enters and you'll be doing a crossword puzzle out of the newspaper, but you'll look up when you notice he's angry. And then we'll have a heart to heart at the kitchen table, because Ben you're going to be really worried about what's happening to you. You don't feel like yourself anymore and just when you're doing that, Hen is going to enter. She's going to be mad jealous because Ben's getting all the attention, and Wren's going to have to wrench her off of Ben when she moves to attack him in the final moments of the scene. Now I know that's a lot to take in but we've got time to shoot this. Well actually Ben might not have very much time so perhaps we do need to hurry this up..."
Ben zoned out as he got into position outside the kitchen door. He really missed work, which was the whole reason he had started this fiasco, and now he couldn't even get out of the house long enough to get into the multi-storey building he sometimes worked at, let alone get into level negative five.
YOU ARE READING
Junk Mail
HumorBen Hughes, a 22 year-old failure, has never known success. He's heard of it and he's dreamt of it, but it seems to have always slipped through his fingers. Taunted by his mother, and judged by the world, Ben decides to take matters into his own han...
