A Compulsion to Lunacy

Daniel Bingham 1 story

Summary

An unexpected friendship with a man who turns out to be a witless serial killer; an accidental run-in with a surprisingly sympathetic mass shooter mid-spree; a back-alley, chloroform-aided abduction by aliens more likely to be from a Spanish-speaking country than from space. These are just a few of the madcap trials of the chronically directionless Dash Moore, an uncommon hero for these troubled times. But mostly, he just plays Final Fantasy in his parents’ basement, downs DXM pills by the handful, debates his imaginary friend Enrique, and drifts through life drunk, unemployed, and offensive to nearly everyone he meets. Nearly two decades of drug use has bred in Dash a strangely admirable lack of concern about whether he lives or dies and an almost supernatural sense of apathy toward the world around him. His disarming wit often charms those he meets, though his incisiveness about the cultural hang-ups of modern life usually convinces them that he’s kind of an asshole. Combined with his squandered writing talent, his predilection for loitering on public benches, and his need to shoplift for alcohol to help him cope with the fact that he needs to shoplift for alcohol, it is no wonder the many oddball situations and random existential crises Dash must face on the daily. Follow him as he meets with a surprisingly happy and totally believable conclusion.