The Psychiatrist

Part 2

The muted walls are covered in surveillance cameras. Every move is watched and from every corner the guards observed every twitch. There are no secrets here expect the ones you keep in your mind, but The Psychiatrist can find thoughts too. The place is a cage roped with chain link fences. The floor is cold, the windows are unshakable plexiglass. The furniture consists of metal cots, plastic chairs and the cafeteria tables. Lunch is served after it grows cold and dries, and the people, the people are well... crazy. The cafeteria is filled with nearly every diagnosis and crime imaginable, but let's just describe who will sit at the table with Miss Elaine, who we know as The Psychiatrist's mother and convicted murder.

Carl, is a 21-year-old, who is as thin as a rail, with a habit of stalking, mania and suicide attempts. His greasy blond hair paired with twitching blue eyes on his hallowed face was accented by the blue scrubs. The court order stuck him here for the next 18 months in the hopes of getting him straightened out. His new obsession seems to be with The Physiatrist; he has left several very personal notes under her door. Nancy, a woman of 30, who resembles a sausage more than anything else, is also famously known as the drug lord of our town. Her dark eyes were cloudly and she had multiple corn rows surronding her full face. She faked an illness to avoid jail and ended up serving 7 years more than she would have in prison. The Psychiatrist hooked her on Xanax and now she refuses to leave in fear of her stash drying up. The unlikely pair of friends bonded, perhaps by their opposite personalities.

Carl's relentless high-speed talking occurred even in sleep, and Nancy's speech was more like a sloth, infrequent and drawn out as if in slow motion. It worked together, Carl's obsessiveness and Nancy's inability to care. The pair was having a typical day when the news of The Psychiatrist's mother being admitted got to Carl. "Her mother, her mother, her mother, I need her mother. Nancy, Nancy, what do I do? Her mother is here." Carl shrieked with delight "Her mother she's here, look Nancy, walking in, she's old, Nancy, Nancy, her names Miss Elaine, Nancy. Miss Elaine, Miss Elaine, Miss Elaine, Miss, Miss Elaine, Whaa....."

His rant is cut off when Nancy's slow bombing words echo across the room, "AYYYYY-MISS-CRAZY-MOTHA- LADY- GET- YO- ULGY- OLD-A** - OVER- HERE." The frail older woman scurries over terrified but somewhat relieved to have something to do.

"Nancy, you called her over! Oh, Nancy why, oh I have to talk to her, what do I say she, looks just like her, oh wow, help, help me," Carl's hands fiddle with his shirt.

Miss Elaine voice mutters, "I'm not crazy."

"No no no of course you are why else would you be here ? We're all crazy, aren't we Nancy? Yes yes you are we are yes of course yes..."

"I said I'm not." With this the older lady's dainty hands formed in frustrated fists.

""Well yes! But, a man stabbed 54 times in your bathtub, the knife in your cabinet. Lucky man, huh Nancy," Carl's gaze moves to Nancy for reassurance, "Miss Elaine's husband I mean lucky lucky lucky" with the final words his eyes glaze over and he leaded heavly back in his seat.

"I DIDN'T DO IT!" The frail women gasped and slapped both hands on the placstic table. Carl shot up straight in his chair now woken from his dreamlike state.

"C-h-i-l-l, women, Chillll." nodded Nancy barely glancing her way.

Carl turned to Nancy and grabbed her wide shoulders as if to shake her into consciousness. "Oh, Nancy did you hear her? She said she didn't do it Nanc! Isn't that rather peculiar? Can you sit Miss Elaine? Oh, please Miss Elaine will you tell us what did happen?"

Miss Elaine was startled because for the first time in weeks someone was interested in her side of the story, she took a breath, sat and decided to trust these two strangers.

"Well it all began October the 3rd," Elaine started, "I was returning to the house when my daughter.."

"YOUR DAUGHTER! That's The Psychiatrist, right Miss Elaine? Isn't that so!"

"Yes, but please let me finish my story," the elderly women hushed him like a librarian to an overeager child, "She was inside with, William, my dear husband, and they were arguing, but as soon as they noticed my arrival, not a word I could get out of either of them. I invited her to stay for dinner, but instead she glared at her father and left. William spent all night in a flurry and went to bed without a word to me. I woke up the next morning with a bloody knife and a dead husband. Of course, I was too frazzled to think, and I tried to bury him in the yard next to our beloved cat, Mr. Mittens. The neighbors saw me dragging him to the hole and called the police. So, you see it wasn't me, I was just trying to lay him to rest, I wasn't caught red-handed. I was sleeping all night." Miss Elaine looked hopefully at her new companions for validation.

"That-sound-like-jack-sh** to-me." Nancy stated.

"No, it's not."

"Oh Miss. Elaine, I know you are right, you didn't do it because The Psychiatrist is right and you are Her mother so you must be right, Nancy please, can you agree, Nancy? Isn't she right"

"You-kill-somebody-finnnnne. Didn't- kill-nobody-finnnne"

"I believe you Miss Elaine, I do. I really do, Nancy does too, she just doesn't say it."

"Why thank you, young man, but do you want to know what I think happened to my dear old husband William?"

"Oh, yes I do! Yes, oh please Miss Elaine."

"It pains me to say so, but I just know that fight had to be something. She just got so mad."

"O-k-a-y just tell us already, you're decayin," Remarked Nancy.

"My daughter must have known something, maybe he was in trouble with some hoodlums or gangsters," her ditsy wide eyes pleaded.

"OF COURSE, The Psychiatrist! Yes, yes! She must, she must know if there were any hoodlums. Yes hoodlums or gangsters."

"Oh, we mustn't trouble her, for my darling daughter is very important and busy."

"NO, No, No! The Psychiatrist is so very wonderful, we can go to her tonight, right Nancy can't we Nancy?"

"Yeah alright, let me hook Joe up." Nancy grunted

"Hook Joe up with what?" The old lady alarmed.

"Oh, oh, it's no big deal, no deal at all Miss Elaine! See Joe is the security guard on the west wing, yes west wing, by her, by The Psychiatrist. And if I ever want to leave a note, eat some of her, I mean her lipstick not her. Nancy, um hum Nancy will give him Ketamine, and well the security guard sir won't say no to a rather large dose. Now not ever have I tried it but it's a psychotic, so he is out nice and good and we can get into her office."

"Oh, I couldn't... I wouldn't want to cause any trouble" Miss Elaine stuttered.

"T-o-o-o-o late now, we goin." determined Nancy. "See yaaaa at midnight."