The Joker’s Testimony — #015
Unfiled Addendum
Anon: So if the real exam isn’t the stethoscope… what is it?
Joker:
Leans forward, grin sharp.
It’s the gauntlet. The buses that don’t line up. The Uber that bleeds your wallet. The waiting room where the clock ticks louder than your pulse.
They call it “accessibility.” I call it a carnival of cruelty. Every hoop you jump through isn’t to prove you’re sick — it’s to prove you’ll keep crawling even when it costs you.
And the best part? They make you pay up front. Like a magician charging admission before the trick. “Step right up, folks, see the veteran balance his dignity on a hundred-dollar ride to Katy, Texas!”
He laughs, shaking his head.
The grind isn’t the exam. The grind is the diagnosis. And every mile, every receipt, every sigh in traffic is the proof they wanted all along.