The morning news had always been a bright spot in his morning routine. Make coffee, feed the dogs, watch the news team chat about traffic and viral videos that are interesting and brush up briefly against any real controversy, then back off with a human touch of humor. Usually the kind of humor that overcomes. The kind of "grit" or "can do attitude" news channels crave. The morning news team likes stories of people and animals that "overcome" some social or economic road block with apparent ease. "We all know it's crap", Mike mumbled to the dogs, " we watch it anyway." Nobody wants to hear about how it's actually going in the Ukraine at 6 am. Or what law SCOTUS overturned today that crept closer to impacting the viewer this time.
He sat on the edge of his kitchen stool, dabbing half and half in the coffee when that morning's video appeared. It was cell phone footage. Someone took footage of a woman at a gas station-one that looked very much like one in his in his own neighborhood--washing her entire car with the gas station provided window squeegee. She did not seem in distress, in fact she seemed to be enjoying herself. She was not in a hurry, nor was she dressed as if she was on her way to an office to work. The car was a new 2022 Honda, one of the little SUV types.
Diane and Steve, the anchors, watched and chatted.
"My goodness, I have certainly felt like that on some mornings," she smiled into the camera and darted her eyes at Steve, who sat motionless. She then continued "I don't know that she's going to get everything off of her wheel wells that way." She continued to smile. She looked at Steve again. "Steve?"
Steve seemed to snap out of his stupor for a moment. It was time for Mike to leave for work, but something about the awkwardness on the screen made him pour a bit more coffee into this cup.
"Diane, I am sorry, I was just thinking that I've felt like that at times. In fact, last week I wondered if I drove my car into the breakdown lane and stopped, got out and started screaming, if anyone would notice."
Diane looked behind Steve, Mike assumed she was being signaled by a producer. "Steve, yes, you told me that when it happened, Steve, " she shook her head at whoever was signaling her, and made the symbol to keep rolling with her finger. "We've talked about the day that the veneer finally slips, and we speak our internal monologues instead of spewing the written news. It appears it has happened." She tried to laugh, but there was no humor in her tone.
Then Steve started talking.
"You know I've been diagnosed as borderline personality and bipolar, Diane. One is a behavior and one is a mental diagnoses. The first cannot be treated with meds, the treatment must be in person, but my insurance covers treatment classes that happen during this broadcast. A second opinion last week suggested I do not, in fact, have BPD, just bipolar. I am thirty and at my age and being male I'm not supposed to have BPD, but to be fair, the Covid lockdowns---we're not supposed to call them lockdowns, are we, Diane?---screwed up even the most sane people. But I don't think anyone was sane in the first place, have you been listening to the news we actually report the last few years? The station won't give me the three weeks off I'd need to wrestle this, not unless they can lie and say I'm in rehab for an addiction, mental health issues are embarrassing, so I continue to come here and someone does my hair and makeup, and I wear clothes from wardrobe and read words someone else wrote about what is going on in the world. It's going well doing it this way I think, " Steve then picked up his coffee cup from the desk, and hurled it at the camera.
The TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES sign replaced the studio.
Mike shook his head, unsure if he had really just viewed what looked like a meltdown. By an adult. On camera. On a news program.
He scratched Boomer, his beloved blood hound, on the head and turned off the TV. By the time he was in the car, he'd forgotten all about the morning's broadcast.
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