Red Rose Bay or Folie à Deux

Within Red Rose Bay, an eccentric, weathered angler watched a small Rainbow Trout jumping in and out of the water. Gazing at it with a bit too much intensity, he imagined it changing into a bigger fish.

His eyes blurred- as did his faculties- from his lengthy gaping. Thus, the bigger fish turned into a whale! The humongous leviathan leaped through the water, landing in huge belly flops, splashing pools of water higher than a bird could fly.

The man stared with fascination at the black and white whale and discovered it was a flock of white geese covered in soot and oil. These wondrous creatures soaked in black grease enraged the man! Thus, he dived into the water and tried to save each goose.

He tried to swim to their rescue, but grew tired and swam back to shore. As he sat on the ground, he became mesmerized with the poor feathered wonders, and realized they were a herd of zebras galloping back and forth.

On the spot, he jumped from where he sat and charged into town to tell everyone that he was the spectator of a million, or more, zebras prancing about in the cove. He was oblivious to the many who rolled their eyes up at him, but there were a handful of others who believed (Folie Imposée).

These others considered this man magnificent because he viewed such an unprecedented occurrence. They became spellbound listening to him talk about the zebras. It made them feel as if they beheld this amazing spectacle themselves!

The man and these others went around the entire outer skirts of Red Rose Bay, telling everyone what they observed. So many saw such a wonder! How could they all be wrong? There is power in numbers.

In time, most of the town’s inhabitants accepted they witnessed the herd of zebras, too. But many who lived faraway from the site didn’t trust the rumors, either way.

Some who remained neutral to the idea of such a phenomenon readied themselves to witness clues of concrete evidence. Those who wanted to believe always found the proof needed to validate their belief, even if it was as minor as a single black or white sliver of hair. Those who wanted to remain levelheaded considered such proof incompetent.

The town, Red Rose Bay, goes by the name Shared-Psychosis Way by disbelievers (Folie à Deux, or better yet, Folie à Plusieurs).

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