Touched with Fire

Carla and Marco lead somewhat parallel lives, albeit in different ways. Both suffer from bipolar disorder. Both channel especially their manic periods into art in both being poets, Carla published. Both decide unilaterally to go off their medication in wanting to feel instead of being in a numb state. Both have parents in their lives - Marco only his father - who love them and want them to be well, although their parents have a different view of what is best for them than they do. And both have an obsessive focus on an orb - Carla the sun, Marco the moon - although part of the obsession for both is the light associated with it. Where they differ is that Carla wants to discover more about her illness in being told when she was diagnosed in her early adulthood that there was some sort of trigger in her life, what that issue was she doesn't know, while Marco sees his being as who he inherently is, which he believes is someone not of this Earth. Although they come into the situation in a different manner, they meet when they are both admitted to the same psychiatric hospital under the care of Dr. Strinsky. Their initial antagonism for each other ends up being an intellectual challenge for both leading to them feeding off each other as they fall in love. As their want to feed off each other is in that manic state, they may face the challenge not only of Dr. Strinsky and their parents not seeing their relationship as a healthy one, but whether they themselves can sustain a relationship with each other in such a state, especially in needing to have some sense of responsibility for each other.