Mark Perkins Takes a Risk

Mark Perkins was a plain man. He wore a shirt that buttoned up. He had sandy blonde hair. He had khaki pants. Sometimes he'd change the pants up and wear navy blue, to let people know he was going to get real wild.

One day Mark decided to shake things up in his plain life by doing something he hadn't done before.

"Are you going to go to the Grand Canyon?" asked Joan Mulkey.

"Are you going to see the pyramids?" asked Robert Cushing.

"Maybe you should do a spontaneous road trip." suggested Andrea Washington.

"Skydive and bungee jump!" said Todd Hoskins.

Mark thought those were all good suggestions, but between those choices, and the choices already in his head, he had a difficult time choosing. He decided to do eeny-meeny-miney-moe, but he lost count because he did it in his head and didn't write the ideas down. 

Mark Perkins was frugal so he didn't want to spend too much money. That was a helpful factor in deciding. Finally he settled on going in his closet and standing in there for a long while. He had never done that before, so it was sure to be a great way to try something he'd never done. He opened his closet door, walked in, and closed the door. 

At first it felt rather crowded, then it pretty much stayed crowded feeling. He had a lot of suit jackets hanging, and a couple of winter and fall coats. One of the coats was puffy, so it took up a lot of space and breathing room. He wasn't concerned about running out of air. He was concerned about whether the puffy coat was a wasteful investment though.

He didn't have much stand room. There were rows of loafers and old sneakers he stood on. They didn't smell terrible, but they definitely smelled like shoes. 

"It sure is dark in here." Mark said out loud, then wondered why he said that out loud rather than just saying it to himself in his head. 

He supposed it was to keep himself company. He'd been in there for a while at this point.

Mark wondered what would happen when he had to go to the bathroom or get a glass of water. Though he didn't set any rules so he really could do what ever he wanted. 

He waited till he wanted a glass of water. Sure enough it happened. But Mark worried that if he left the closet for a glass of water it might some how break whatever he was doing. What was he doing?

"Am I meditating?" he thought.

"Am I protesting?" he wondered.

"Am I playing a game?" he said out loud.

"Do I have a social disorder?" he said to himself, and worried that maybe God or an imaginary roommate would hear him and judge him for his thought. He really couldn't figure it out.

"I can do whatever I want!" he said with assurance. He then thought it was strange again he'd said that out loud, but also felt liberated because he was allowed to. No rules!

He reached for the closet door to go get some water. Suddenly a sense of guilt tugged at Mark. Like he was breaking a fast. If he opened the door he would somehow be disrespecting all the time he'd spent in the dark closet. What would the point of having done it be? What was the point of doing it? Just to do something he hadn't done before? He wanted this to have more meaning than that. Were there rules or no rules?! He couldn't decide, dammit.

"Krap!" said Mark Perkins as he realized he had no goal for this thing. No plan. No endpoint. This wasn't some thing he could just go with the flow about. He began to feel lost and aimless. He backed himself into a corner. Literally. The closet was in the corner of his house.

He stood there for a while longer, hoping something would happen. A sign. 

"Ring! Ring!" said the phone outside the closet door. He thought that phone call might be important. He opened the door and answered the phone.

"Hi Mark, it's your mother, is everything okay? We haven't heard from you."

"Hi Mom, thanks for calling, I was just being adventurous." Mark felt relieved his mommy called to save him. He had a nice mother who loved him.