Ah, heck, given that this is mindless speculation and has no bearing in thought I'm gonna say that they're married and she has cancer.
She has terminal cancer, yes, but she and he are not necessarily married. I say "necessarily" because I purposely wrote the piece so it could be read multiple ways: the male as father, the female as daughter; the male as husband, the female as wife; the male as young (teenage or 20-something) friend, the female as young friend and fellow social outcast.
Hense the wig, the sadness, and the anger.
The anger is not
just about the cancer. The inability to ward off premature (premature being a relative term) death, even with all our technological advances, is part of his anger, but not all of it. The male character's rage against the silent characters is meant to symbolize all rage against a silent society that doesn't know and doesn't care about the individual as a person. It's a statement against the whole human race for not bothering--or wanting--to look beyond a silly or abnormal exterior to see the affection, fear, frustration, and sorrow people are feeling.
By the bye, great insight, Neirai. I was concerned the story was
too subtle, to the point of bewildering. I do that sometimes in my stories and it's encouraging to read that someone saw the underlying point.
On the subject of tonight's 100 words: I wrote mine for an article I e-mailed half an hour ago to a local newspaper. I covered a local city council meeting as a freelance reporter and sent in my article earlier. I won't bore you with the details, but I can cut out, scan, and send a copy of the article to Dorkelf for proof (assuming the article gets published in tomorrow's paper).
EDIT: I think I added another 100 words to my count with this post. Does writing about writing count?
EDIT: Dorkelf, would you mind un-sticking my first attempt at the challenge and sticking this thread, please?