Rose & Other Stories Page 2
“I did,” Dr. Fenton said, “I was wondering where you had last worked.”
“Is it relevant to anything in particular?” Dr. Radburn asked.
“I need to know what level of activity you are used to,” Dr. Fenton asked, “So that I know where you can start.”
“I can keep up with you,” Dr. Radburn said, “It shouldn’t be any trouble.”
Down below on the grounds, Henry and Curtis had started fighting again. They were probably fighting about the chess game from three years ago. Dr. Fenton felt the pressure behind his eye that suggested the headache that went with a long night.
“We’ll see,” Dr. Fenton said as he turned from the window. Dr. Radburn didn’t respond or show any emotion.
“Let’s start with a tour of the place,” Dr. Fenton said as he walked passed Dr. Radburn toward the door.
Dr. Radburn didn’t move. “I was told to come here to meet you and get my schedule. I was told that everything else would be left until tomorrow.”
“I was told that being a doctor meant that there was plenty of time for golfing,” Dr. Fenton responded, “But I haven’t been able to do more than drive by a course in thirty-five years. Come on.” Dr. Fenton opened the door and stepped into the hallway. He waited with the door open for two minutes before Dr. Radburn followed him out of the room. Dr. Fenton closed the door before heading off down the hallway.
Dr. Fenton pointed to things and identified them as he walked passed. He didn’t look to see if Dr. Radburn was following him. They went through the fourth floor, which was administration and offices. It had once been for patients, but it was only floor with a ledge outside the windows and no bars on the windows, so it was changed to office space. The fifth floor, which led to the roof, was storage, so Dr. Fenton went down. In the middle of the hallway on the second floor they encountered the fight that had been brought inside with Henry and Curtis.
Dr. Fenton tried to separate the two patients by getting between them and getting them at arm’s length. Dr. Radburn tried to grab Curtis from behind and pulled him away from Henry. Henry backed off, but Curtis started to struggle. Dr. Radburn tried to keep a grip on him, but Curtis got his arm free and smashed his elbow into Dr. Radburn’s mouth. An orderly came down the hallway with a sedative. Dr. Fenton took the syringe while the orderly helped hold Curtis down. The needle went into Curtis and quickly Curtis went limp. The orderly took Curtis to his room.
Once Dr. Radburn had finished icing his lip, Dr. Fenton finished the tour of the second floor and then the first floor. The tour ended at the front desk.
“Well, thank you for showing me around,” Dr. Radburn said as he started to turn toward the exit.
“Come on,” Dr. Fenton said cheerfully, “Since you are here, we should get you started. The best way to get acquainted is to help out with the distribution of medication.” Dr. Fenton guided Dr. Radburn back into the ward.
Dr. Radburn was just short of swearing at Dr. Fenton as he stood over the nurse as she passed out the little cups of pills and water to the patients as they walked passed in a line up. He wasn’t supposed to start until tomorrow, but Dr. Fenton hadn’t paid any attention to the several times that Dr. Radburn had mentioned it. He had other places he needed to be at this moment. All the patients were on some sort of pill in this place. The nurse was carefully making sure that each patient got the cup for them and not any other cup. It was almost like she took pride in the level of organization that was put into all of this. Dr. Radburn didn’t understand why anyone would have pride in something like that. It really wouldn’t matter if patient medication got mixed up, as far as he could tell. They all looked to get the same amount of the same pill.
Dr. Radburn had watched the patients for a while too, but that got boring quickly. They all seemed to be about the same. All of them had mental problems and all of them shuffled along in a quiet and orderly fashion. Not one of them stuck out as being unusual. Slowly the line went passed. Each patient was handed the two cups. They put the pills in their mouths and then swallowed with the water. Then an orderly would take the cups and the patient would go back to whatever they were doing before it was time for medication.
Dr. Radburn knew that he would have to go through this every day for six months as well as individual sessions with some patients, but he wasn’t supposed to start all this until tomorrow. Dr, Radburn was sure that he would have no problems keeping up, despite what Dr. Fenton thought. Dr. Radburn’s attention was brought back to the patients.
A patient came down the line. She was five feet six inches and about a hundred and fifteen pounds by his guess, with brown hair that fell around her face. Her blues eyes appeared to be unfocused. And she wore the white clothes of a patient who didn’t have anything else to wear. She shuffled slowly down the line without any apparent thoughts about what was going on. Dr. Radburn recognized her from the picture he had seen. His boss had tacked the picture up several years ago and it still hung on the wall. The picture had been put up as congratulations for being the best agent in the department, but had turned into a wanted poster after she had disappeared. Her name was Mina Tate. No one had seen or heard from her in years and here she was, a patient in line for medication in a mental hospital that the department wanted to take over so that they could keep prisoners there. Dr. Radburn’s boss was going to be surprised when Dr. Radburn brought him that news. That was if Dr. Fenton would let Dr. Radburn out to check in with his boss.
“Hello, Rose,” The nurse said to Mina, “Here is your medication for today. Dr. Fenton has you booked for an appointment as soon as you are finished here.” Mina nodded. The nurse offered Mina the two cups. Mina took them and put the pill in her mouth before drinking the water. She handed the two cups to the orderly before walking away. She was headed to the area where Dr. Fenton held his therapy sessions. Dr. Radburn would have loved to be in that session, but knew he couldn’t get into them until Dr. Fenton let him.
The next patient stepped up and Dr. Radburn had to go back to watching patients take their medication.
Dr. Fenton was sitting at the table with a file open in front of him when the door opened. Rose shuffled in and sat down in the chair opposite him. She looked at him and he looked back.
“How much to do you remember of your life before the mental hospital?” Dr. Fenton asked.
Rose shook her head.
“I know,” Dr. Fenton said, “You don’t remember what I told you last week, let alone a month ago.” Rose nodded.
“But I need to talk this out to someone,” Dr. Fenton said.
Rose was still.
“We have a new doctor coming in,” Dr. Fenton said, “You saw him. I put him there watching the patients get medication. He expects me to follow whatever schedule was given to him, but I was told he would be starting today, so I had him start today. I will have to get out of here in time to prevent him from leaving after he has helped with the clean-up. But every time I look at him, I don’t see a doctor. His file looks like a doctor’s, but he himself doesn’t. When you came to me with your plan six years ago, I thought you needed to be locked up when you started talking about spies and departments run by secret government organizations. I didn’t understand why you were telling me so much, but now I do. You need me to protect you against whatever he wants to do with you. I don’t know whether he is here to harm you or try to get you out, but our deal still stands and I will protect you from him.”
Rose stared at Dr. Fenton blankly.
“You’ll understand some day,” Dr. Fenton patted her hand. “For now, just enjoy your roses.”
Rose smiled at the mention of the flowers. Dr. Fenton patted her hand again and smiled back.
Dr. Radburn helped with the clean up after the handing out of the medication. When that was finished, Dr. Fenton came out of his session with Mina. Mina wandered off like all the patients, shuffling and looking lost.
Dr. Radburn went to Dr. Fenton to tell him that he was leaving, but he was also
wondering about Mina.
“Finished with the medication?” Dr. Fenton asked.
“Yes,” Dr. Radburn answered, “I was just wondering about-“
“Good, good,” Dr. Fenton spoke over the second part, “Then you can join me in checking on our more severe cases.”
“I’m not quite prepared,” Dr. Radburn started.
“Very few people are,” Dr. Fenton replied as he walked away. Dr. Radburn had to run to follow.
“What I mean-” Dr. Radburn started again.
“These cases are our most interesting cases,” Dr. Fenton said, “But you also have to be careful with them. We try to keep them calm, but they do lash out.” Dr. Fenton kept talking as he continued down the hallway and Dr. Radburn couldn’t get a word in.
They reached the area for the dangerous patients. An orderly stood like a guard at the entry to the area. He let them through and followed them inside. Dr. Fenton stopped at the first door.
“In here is Raymond,” Dr. Fenton said, “He is paranoid that everyone is out to kill him. He gets sedated regularly, but due to adverse reactions we can’t get him on a regular medication schedule.” Dr. Fenton opened the door and the two of them stepped inside. The orderly stayed in the doorway.
Raymond sat in the corner, looking at them like they were going to pull a weapon on him at any moment. He was in