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Avoiding the bionic man

 BEAR: Do you miss performing?

HOOKER: Of course. But with these hands, I couldn't play if I wanted do.

BEAR: Arthritis?

HOOKER::I don't know what else to call it.

BEAR: What does the doctor call it?

HOOKER: I haven't been to a doctor. It doen't hurt that much.

BEAR: All the same--

HOOKER: Bear, I've reached the age when the doctor is no longer my ally. Our goals conflict. He wants to keep me alive. I want to die of natural causes, sooner rather than later.

BEAR: That almost sounds suicidal.

HOOKER: Bullshit it does!

BEAR: Sorry. Didn't mean to piss you off.

HOOKER: I'm sick and tired of being called morbid or suicidal just because I want to manage my own death. I've had a spectacular life! But it's over. No family left, no kids. 

BEAR: What about me?

HOOKER: You're my longest friend, but you're not my responsibility. 

BEAR: I'm saying I'll miss you.

HOOKER: And I'll miss you if you go first. But this doesn't change the bigger picture.

BEAR: Does your doctor know you feel this way?

HOOKER: No. 

BEAR: Maybe you shoud tell him.

HOOKER: I don't trust him. He'd keep me alive even if it meant turning me into a bionic man.

BEAR: He knows more than you do. He's a doctor!

HOOKER: And half the doctors graduated in the bottom half of their class.

BEAR: I never looked at it that way. 

HOOKER: Nobody has.

BEAR: Did you come up with that or read it somewhere?

HOOKER: Maggie read it in Dear Abbey.

(End)





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