Under His Influence

“She says that’s out of character.”

“I’ve been busy.”

“Yes, busy making a machine to repair the ozone layer. I’m wondering about your scientific background…?”

“I’m wondering about your qualifications, actually. I’d like to see written proof. How do I know you’re a psychiatrist? If you’re retained by this dump, you can’t be a very good one. I demand to be moved to a private clinic.”

“You’re just here for the initial assessment.”

“Well, I reject your capacity to carry it out. I’m not talking to you. I want a female psychiatrist. Do you have one of those?”

“You can’t specify—”

“Lalalalalala, not listening to youuuu,” John sang. “Get out of my space. Bring me a female doctor. I only speak to women. That’s the new rule.”

The psychiatrist waited for a moment, then left the room.

“I don’t know what to make of that one,” he confided to his female junior outside the door. “He’s rational, maybe a bit bitter, possibly paranoid. Presents quite eccentrically but… I don’t know. We need to see about a transfer to The Lawns anyway. He says he’s a millionaire.”

“Is he though?” The junior grinned.

“I don’t know. He also says he won’t speak to me—only a female doctor.”

“Maybe I could finish off for you?”

“I don’t know. I don’t want to indulge him if he’s just playing around with us.”

“Can’t hurt though, can it?”

“Perhaps not.”

They were stopped by a nurse at the door of the recreation room.

“You’ve finished with Mr. Stone already?” he asked in surprise.

“Dr. Wolseley is going in for a second bash,” said the senior doctor. “He doesn’t want to co-operate just yet.”

“Oh right. He has a visitor. Is it okay for him to see her?”

“Yeah, we can give it an hour.”

The nurse collected John from the locked cell and walked him to the recreation room, where an assortment of patients were watching television or staring into space or doing jigsaws. On a seat in the corner sat Anna, huddled into herself, trying hard not to look anywhere.

“My beloved wife,” John said stagily, almost for the benefit of the nurse. “What do you think of the new place?” He indicated a broken pane of glass, patched up with cardboard pending proper repair. “Well ventilated. All modern conveniences. Desirable residence, eh?”

“John, I didn’t want this,” Anna muttered.

He sat down next to her and deliberately took a hand, holding it tightly against his chest.

“Well, funny you should say that, because neither did I. And yet, here I am.”

“I want you back. Properly. The real you. The John that loves me, not the one that thinks I’d cheat on him.”

“What’s this? I catch you with another man and that makes me insane?”

John looked around the room, as if searching for an audience to shake heads and roll eyes with.

“They’ll help you…you’ll get better.”