GC7NZZJ Henry’s Obsession I - Turn Me On!

Henry has a strange obsession. He can’t walk past a light switch without switching it. If a light is off, he’ll switch it on. If it’s on, he’ll switch it off.

This is causing problems in Henry’s every-day life. He causes havoc wherever he goes, to the shops, to the library, wherever. Just don’t EVER mention his visit to Blackpool Lights!

A year or so back, Henry started seeing a therapist. It seemed like a good idea–indeed, the judge insisted upon it!. His therapist has made a suggestion to try and wean Henry off his obsession.

He has made a board with thirty-two switches, operating thirty-two lights. He tells Henry that he can switch these switches every morning, when he first gets up. On the first day of the month, he can operate every switch. On the second day, only every second switch, on the third day, only every third switch, etc.

This, the therapist reasons, will gradually reduce his obsessive behaviour as each day he will switch fewer and fewer switches, but will still be able to look forward to the first of the next month, when he will again get to switch all the switches.

At first, this appeared to be working. Henry, being a neat and organised spot of person, starts the year with a clean board with all lights off and followed the daily ritual without missing a single day, recording the results in a special journal.

Unfortunately, things didn’t work out in the end.

Investigators looking into the matter (when it was once again safe to venture near) after the "Incident”, were unable to make much sense of what happened. Only a single page of his journal remained, containing a seemingly unrelated list of dates, together with other strange jottings. The investigators believed the dates, in some way, contain a clue to where the real cause of the ‘Incident’ lies hidden, but they have, so far been unable to decipher it….

You can see all of the caches in this series at the Henry’s Obsessions List Page

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