Exam

I am taking an exam. It is in a white booklet. On the first page, I have to fill out my personal information: my name, the date, my race, my marital status, and my annual income. The second page has more questions: they want to know my blood type, my allergies, if I have any STDs, and whether there is a history of mental illness in my family. On the third page, I am asked if I am autistic. I check no. Immediately, a woman comes in the room and hands me a little booklet of five arithmetical questions. The first four are easy, the last is impossible. She says I have ten minutes, and watches as I answer them. Then she leaves with the booklet. On the fourth page, I am asked if I have leukemia. I check no. A black man enters immediately and takes my blood. The fifth page is blank. Where is the exam? A woman enters the room and puts a paper with a Greek word on it in front of me. It looks like LEAOUKON. I don’t remember all my Greek letters. –Write whatever comes to mind, she says. I write down, “Farm Landscape.” - Anything else? she asks. - No, I say. She leaves with the paper. Another woman comes in with a long, flat candle and a little knife. She tells me to write something about farms on it. - On the candle? I ask. - Yes, she says. I try to carve a little buffalo but it ends in a mess. – Where is my exam? I ask, handing her the candle. But the woman is gone. Suddenly, three children burst into the room, with a moose hide. The hide has been bleached white and is very soft. They stretch the skin out over my desk and hand me a pen dipped in black ink. – Try this, one of them says. -If you have never thought, think now.

(Attached is my drawing entitled "Inspired by Robert Ludlum.")