‘Art Asylum’

Artist Keunhoo Park

Art Asylum

Lightning struck.

A lanky man in red overalls swung his steel hammer into the clay pot sitting on top of a small, white stand. Upon the impact, the pot was obliterated to smithereens. All of the pieces of clay scattered across the blank, white floor. The lanky man excitedly crouched down to collect the pieces of clay but was interrupted when he heard the door open.

Two men dressed in black linen suits entered the room after opening the door. The lanky man stared up at them as they slowly walked towards him. They looked around at the chunks of clay on the floor and then back up at the lanky man.

“Tommy, this is Theo Beckett. Uh, Dr. Theo Beckett, I should say,” the man on the left smirked after correcting himself. That man on the left was Dr. Marvin Hayes.

“Um, it’s nice to meet you, Doctor,” Tommy replied nervously as he reached out his hand. Theo smiled and shook Tommy’s hand. Theo kept looking around the room which prompted Tommy to also look around, trying to keep up with where Theo’s eyes were going.

“Uh, Marvin--”

“Doctor.”

“Y-yeah. Right. Um, Dr. Hayes,” Tommy softly chuckled to himself. “I thought you weren’t coming for a few more hours and I didn’t know there was a guest.” Tommy started to scratch his arm as he stood there looking at Theo.

“Eyes on me, Tommy.” With Marvin’s order, Tommy followed exactly and looked away from Theo who kept his eyes on the scattered clay pieces. “Don’t worry about it. Just keep doing what you were doing.” Marvin’s eyes narrowed as he stared directly at Tommy. “You should see what this guy can do, Dr. Beckett. These pieces of clay you’ve been gazing at? He makes a whole new sculpture out of them.”

Tommy sheepishly grinned. Marvin tapped Theo on the back and without another word, they exited the white room. As they closed the door, Tommy looked back up to see the men’s black suits disappear. The white door almost appeared hidden inside of the white walls that surrounded Tommy on all sides. He crouched back down and started to collect the pieces of clay.

Another door opened. It was exactly the same. Completely white, just like the entire room. As both doctors entered the identical room, the only color that stood out was a short man lying on the floor, covered in paint. His entire body, plus his oversized boxers, was caked in every color on the rainbow one could imagine, but he was just laying there. Theo’s eyebrows furrowed for a few seconds as he stared in perplexion, but Marvin tapped the back of his hand on Theo’s torso and nodded his head towards the man.

“Just watch,” Marvin directed.

And they did. They watched as the short man began to roll around on the previously spotless floor. The mixture of greens, reds, purples, blues, yellows, and oranges all mixed with one another, creating a homogenous hue in the circle that the man created for himself. Then, he stood up. Theo looked at Marvin with that same confused expression, but Marvin could only grin at what they were both witnessing. The short man stomped his feet around the room in different spots. He then slid back down, but only on his side. He shuffled back and forth while on his side for almost a minute, then he stopped to lay back down on his back. As he stood back up, he was standing in the center of the room, and the center of his painting.

Marvin clapped emphatically while Theo slowly clapped along, not fully grasping what just happened. The short man looked around the room, unsure if the claps were for him, but then understood. A small grin formed on his face and he took a couple of bows after the two doctors finished clapping.

“Freddie, good work,” Marvin assured him. Marvin then gestured towards Theo while keeping his eye contact with Freddie. “This is Dr. Theo Beckett.”

Theo nodded towards Freddie who clasped his hands together as a show of gratitude. Freddie put his hand out afterwards, but Theo shook his hand in the air, waving off a potential handshake.

“The paint, Freddie. Come on now,” Marvin said, almost dismissively.

Freddie looked down and nodded. “No, you’re right.”

Marvin chuckled to himself as Freddie looked back at his painting on the floor with hesitation. “See that, Doctor? A masterpiece. He does all of his art with his own body and he’s got the whole room to do so.” Marvin looked on proudly while Theo tilted his head sideways, trying to make out what the painting was.

Freddie looked back towards them and noticed Theo’s tilted head. “It’s, uh, abstract. I just do whatever my body thinks is right and after that, I have a finished product that only my body’s spirit knows. I still don’t fully grasp all of it, but you see--”

“That’s enough, Freddie. Thank you for showing us,” Marvin said. He nodded his head in the direction of the door, and he and Theo walked towards the door. Freddie looked on as the doctors quickly tidied their suits, then left the room and closed the door. Freddie then turned around to look at his painting on the floor and like Theo, he also tilted his head to look at it from a different direction.

A small, white, wooden desk was in the far right corner of another identical room. A young man was hunched over the desk as there was no seat for him to sit in. On the desk was a plastic white bowl and to the side of that, a pile of Crayola Crayons. There wasn’t a box for them, so they were just laid out in a single spot on the desk. The young man wielded a butcher knife in the air with both of his hands on its handle.

The door opened. The noise of the door opening startled the young man, who lost his left hand’s grip on the knife. Without much support from his right hand, the knife tumbled down onto the white floor, bouncing high enough to clip one of the desk’s legs. The young man’s eyes poked out as he rubbed all of his fingers on both of his cheeks. 

“Ulrik!” Marvin shouted, “Be careful, okay?” 

Ulrik dropped his hands from his face and slowly turned around to face both Marvin and Theo standing in front of the door, on the opposite side of the room. Marvin gestured his hand over to the corner Ulrik and his desk were stationed in, so Theo walked in the direction with Marvin following close behind.

As they walked across the room, Marvin introduced the two men with him to each other. “Ulrik, this is Dr. Theo Beckett.” Then, Marvin and Theo stopped and were standing right next to the width of the desk. “Theo, this kid right here--”

“Kid?” Ulrik interrupted. “I-I’m a man, Doctor. Young, but a man. Aren’t I?” He asked, looking for approval.

Theo turned his attention to Marvin who was almost stunned at the question. “It’s an expre--Nevermind. As I was saying… This man here is unique. Well, more unique than the others.” Marvin then looked at Ulrik and eyed down at the white bowl on the desk. “Pick up the knife and do what you do,” he directed.

Ulrik swallowed nervously, then he crouched down just underneath the desk to grab a hold of the butcher knife. As he stood back up, he kept both of his hands gripped tightly around the handle of the knife and looked back up at Marvin and Theo. Marvin pointed to the pile of crayons and Ulrik nodded. Ulrik noticed one of the crayons was slightly off to the side of the pile. The crayon was cerulean, standing out among the other darker crayons almost blending together. Ulrik wielded the knife again and this time, he didn’t lose his grip as he held it in the air. With great force, he quickly swung the knife without much thinking and cut the tip of the crayon straight off from the rest of its body. Some of the other crayons rolled off the desk onto the floor. Some of them bounced into the air and created a new pile. Even Theo jolted at the instance of contact, but he quickly adjusted his suit and stood up straight again.

Marvin elbowed Theo while smiling with glee. Theo tried his best to keep his cool, but he still felt rather shook from Ulrik’s carelessness of the butcher knife. Ulrik grabbed the cerulean tip with his thumb and middle finger. He held it up close to his face as he examined it before dropping it into the plastic white bowl. A speck of cerulean surrounded by vast transparency.

“Believe this or not, but that bowl is going to be filled to the brim with those. It’s one of the most incredible things a set of human eyes could look at,” Marvin excitedly said. 

Ulrik closed his eyes and tried repeating Marvin’s compliment over and over to himself, but he was interrupted almost before he could truly begin. 

“Keep going,” Marvin demanded.

Ulrik swallowed again. He began looking back-and-forth between the two doctors and the surface of his white desk, but he listened to Marvin. He stuck a mahogany crayon underneath his pinky and rolled it over to an empty section on the desk.

Marvin patted Theo on the back as the two of them kept their eyes on Ulrik and the crayon. Theo, followed by Marvin, walked back to the other side of the room to the door. Ulrik looked over his shoulder to see the two doctors leave the room. Theo opened the door and stepped out, while Marvin looked back at Ulrik. He was standing in the door frame with a grin on his face, then he closed the door. Ulrik continued to stare at the door, but he slowly turned his head back around away from his shoulder to look at the mahogany crayon once again.

Another door opened. Another completely white room. An older, frail man was sitting right in front of the door. He was sitting criss-cross applesauce and didn’t look up when Marvin and Theo opened the door. With barely any room between the doorframe and the older man, Marvin and Theo were standing on their tippy-toes.

“Musa? Our feet--”

“Shhhh,” whispered Musa. He still never looked up. He only kept his attention on what was in front of his downward-facing head, surrounded by the crossing of his legs. “My bookmarks are almost complete, Dr. Hayes. Just like you requested.” Musa spoke softly, but with enough conviction to keep the doctors quiet while he continued to look down.

Marvin edged his hand backwards to get a grip on the doorknob. He twisted the doorknob to open the door. As he and Theo kept their eyes on Musa, still staring at his bookmarks, they stepped backwards outside of the room, finally able to plant their feet flat on the floor. Marvin shut the door and shrugged at Theo.

“The bookmarks are for the weekend readings. Lots of books. Some are imported from educational districts, some are made in-house. It’s really magnificent, what all these people do.”

Theo nodded with a slight squint in his eyes. He then turned around, facing the direction of Marvin’s eyesight. He was astonished to see the endless hallway of doors on either side. Pale, white, vast, boundless… There were hundreds of rooms, all lined up together. Marvin noticed Theo looking straight ahead without a single movement. He was frozen and fixated on what was in front of him. The four rooms he had been in were already sights to behold. There were plenty more than just those four.

“You like what you see, huh?” Marvin asked. “You’re going to see many more beautiful things. This is the hallmark of unique craftsmanship.” Marvin patted Theo on the back, which got Theo’s attention. He turned around to look deeply at Marvin. There was no clear expression on his face, but all Marvin could figure was that there was a lot on his mind.

The two of them stood in that endless hallway. What they couldn’t see from standing right there was the view from above. This wasn’t just one hallway. There were a plethora of them. A tall man with binoculars was standing in the rafters of the building. He could see it all. The inside was symmetrical and white all over. A cube that housed thousands upon thousands of those same rooms that the two doctors were checking in on. The tall man’s head was almost making contact with the roof of the entire building, but he slumped over to avoid any hard contact. 

As Marvin and Theo opened another door, the tall man grabbed his phone. He tapped it several times before putting the phone to his ear.

“Do it,” he said decisively.

Marvin and Theo entered the room, but the room was empty. The white walls felt more enclosing as there wasn’t a single speck of color in the room besides the two doctors and their suits, and there wasn’t a single sound but their footsteps as they made their way inside of the room. Theo continued to step forwards while Marvin stood near the door, fixating his eyes on Theo’s every last footstep.

Theo eventually stopped. Both his feet were planted on the floor and he began to look around the room. Nothing had changed. Now, there were no sounds at all in the room. Theo looked straight up at the ceiling and again, there was nothing. Theo then looked straight ahead with a look in his eyes like he was trying to investigate the nothingness of the room. Finally, some sound returned. It was Marvin’s footsteps as he edged closer to Theo. 

With only a few paces, Marvin was right behind Theo. Marvin placed both of his hands on Theo’s shoulders, causing him to jolt and slightly turn his head. As soon as he made eye contact with Marvin, he was shoved to the floor. The large thud of both men colliding with the hard, white floor created an aftereffect. A barrage of men flung open the door and entered the white room. Marvin kept his hands on Theo’s shoulders while his side laid on top of him, pinning him to the floor. Within seconds, the other men quickly grabbed hold of Theo and kept him surrounded. He tried to shove his way out, but he was outnumbered one-to-five.

Marvin stood in front of the circle of men who all kept a tight grasp on Theo. Theo could hardly speak from the shock of what just happened, but he looked right into Marvin’s eyes and was trying to plead with him. His eyes had widened far more than they had the entire day and tears were swelling.

Marvin let out a deep sigh. “You’ll enjoy your stay here, doctor. Or should I say… Professor?” 

Marvin was focused on Theo as he finally relented. The five men no longer had to struggle to keep him in line. Theo was only standing with the support of the men surrounding him, but his head looped downwards. He could only look at the floor. Tears dropped directly where he was looking. He could only shake his head and close his eyes with defeat.

Marvin scoffed. “Have fun.” 

The five men then let go of Theo. Without any support, Theo let himself flop into the puddle of his own tears. Marvin opened the door for the five men. As each one left the room, the tall man from above looked on. He clasped his hands together and nodded, satisfied with the call. Back in the room, Marvin was the last one to leave. As he closed the door, he looked back into the room through the crack between the door and its frame. Theo remained on the floor. He was practically lifeless, with his arms and legs outstretched in different directions and his face down on the floor, wet from his tears.

Marvin could only look on disapprovingly. The real work hadn’t begun yet, but there was little time to waste. Marvin stood back and slammed the door shut, leaving Theo to jolt again. He lifted his head out of the puddle and looked at the white door. He then looked up at the ceiling and the walls that surrounded him. To him, the walls were becoming more claustrophobic than before. He felt trapped. And he was trapped.

“Welcome home,” Marvin said as he stepped away from the door.

Noah Redondo is an aspiring creative writer one year removed from graduating college who has a passion for writing