Conundrum One, 3 (354 hits)
Category: NoneRating: 1.75 on 3 reviews (Rate this item) (V)
Submitted by ripple (View user info) at 2006-06-27 00:37:45 EDT
Part One: http://www.ubersite.com/m/87744
Part Two: http://www.ubersite.com/m/88221
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All Maria remembered from her first visit home was fury. Why had that hideous demon taken her place? Who was the girl-child with flaming hair and Satan's eyes? Maria didn't know, but she was certain that the teenager couldn't live.
Arlo had stopped carving the Thanksgiving turkey. He laid down the knife and went into the kitchen to grab the tongs. He never saw it coming.
Maria, premature cataracts in both her eyes, lunged for the grey-and-black slab and flayed her palm. With her left hand, she grabbed the hilt of the knife and brandished it at her evil daughter. Elsie, hands raised in shock and surrender, looked to her brother for help.
Maria saw the girl give some kid - what is he even doing here? - the order to kill. Acting to save her life, Maria jabbed across the table defensively, catching the demon in the shoulder with the knife.
Elsie stood and shrieked. Maria walked around the table, brandishing the knife. Arlo stepped out of the kitchen, gravy in hand. Elsie ran into the hallway, Maria ran after her. Elsie ran and ran between the kitchen and the hallway and the dining room until she was grey with blood loss. Arlo caught his wife as she chased Elsie back into the kitchen. He grabbed Maria and shook her violently, praying she would snap out of it.
x
Maria's visage shifted, her eyes seemed clearer. She saw the knife and the growing pool of blood around her daughter's collapsed form. She saw her son staring in horror, felt her husband's arms and his barely-contained ire. She knew them all, she knew them all, but she didn't know herself. Flexing her bleeding hand, she stepped backward and hid in a corner, shuddering with sobs. The knife slipped from her fingers and stuck in the bloody wooden floor with a sickening thunk.
x
Elsie's wound was severe, but not life threatening. She received 39 stitches and some antibiotics in the ER. The doctor bandaged the gash carefully, and looked at Elsie with pity in his eyes. In another ward, Maria was so sedated that her breathing barely registered.
xxx
Cameron has never fully understood why he was assigned to this particular subsidiary of the hospital in Spencer, Massachusetts. He has had a long, annoying residency here. He has learned nothing but depravity, has adopted no useful practices. He's not even sure he wants to be a doctor anymore. In any other career, a twenty-eight year old would be climbing the promotional ladder; in medicine, he hasn't really even been hired.
When a student, he was smitten with the idea of reforming damaged minds and saving lost souls. He saw himself like Gandhi or Mother Theresa. Someone who did good shit. But then he got to real-life mental illness and he could barely stomach it. Dementia, paranoia, anger and insomnia aren't glamorous. Treating them is tedious. But he keeps up the cheery attitude because he doesn't want anyone to know he's given up on them all.
Well, all except for Amy. Her sheer lucidity shocks him and her claims of sanity move him. Cameron believes that she might be his redemption. If he proved that insanity was subjective, that this perfectly innocent girl was committed, he would be hailed as a hero. Never mind medicine, he would become an icon of humanitarianism! Or at least, he thinks he would.
xxx
Amy looks at her right hand with a scrutinous eye. All of her fingernails are bitten to the quick, but she still has an inexplicable desire to chew them further. Her pinkie has a good millimeter of nail left; she tears it off with her straight front teeth. Amy spits the nail out onto the floor and glances again at her hand. Blood is oozing out of her little finger. She sucks on the digit while briefly contemplating her left hand. She's got nothing.
Amy sighs and wipes her bleeding hand on the bedsheets. 'They'll change them soon, anyway,'she thinks to herself.
The silence of the empty room unnerves her. In its sanitary, solitary confinement, her thoughts echo unnaturally. Within her mind, Amy is aware of strains of songs and childhood memories and past conversations. She just wants silence. Amy jumps as the door to her single room opens. She thought that everyone had forgotten her.
Cameron and Dr. Clark enter the room. They ask her more questions, she answers them. Cameron asks her why she thinks she's in the hospital. Amy has to think about that one.
"Well, the short-term reason is pretty obvious, no? I mean, if one is going to make claims of sanity, slamming one's head into walls is not the most productive thing to do. I had been feeling strange for a while. It all climaxed- for lack of a better word- the other day. Maybe I'm fine now, maybe not. But I really don't need you. Especially not long-term. Sitting in here for, oh, however many hours has made me feel more insane that I have ever felt before. So, essentially, I'm here because I had a psychotic moment. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that one moment will dictate far too much of my life. It already has."
Linus looks at the girl with interest. "Thank you very much," he says, and leads Cameron out of the room. For the first time, he is unsure.
User Reviews
Submitted by Beano312003 (user info) at 2006-06-28 04:50:56 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
Needs more hits and reviews...come on...this is good!
Submitted by phels97 (user info) at 2006-06-27 09:23:40 EDT (#)
Ranking: 2
This series is great, keep it coming..
but i do agree, the first half is kinda hard to read, but maybe thats just cause i read sometimes at a 7th grade level....hangs head in shame
Submitted by Beano312003 (user info) at 2006-06-27 07:59:44 EDT (#)
Ranking: 1
Was hard going in the first half.