Things Happen At The Midnight Hills Sanitarium
I just wanted to visit a friend; the day began pretty normal, Breakfast with coffee, I love scrambled eggs, little did I know that I’d be dealing with a scrambled mind, before the day’s end.
Now I’ve never been diagnosed with Schizophrenia or Bipolar Disorder, Multiple Personality or any other. As far as I know, I’m just like everyone else.
When I entered the door of the Midnight Hills Sanitarium, it started. The dark 1950’s, doctor’s office, barf green walls, lent an air of foreboding and the bar locks on the doors to every room, made me glad that I’d told my roommate
where I was going. I’d heard of people visiting and never coming out because they’d been mistaken for one of the patients. I thought I heard a voice say, “I am here”, but there were only two of us in the room. I walked up to the reception desk.
“Um, excuse me, but I am here to visit someone.”
A rather stern looking woman, peered over her half-glasses at me and replied sarcastically, “And who would that be?”
“David Rockcraft.”
“Oh yes, he’s up on the fourth floor, room 423, I’ll get an attendant for you and you need to leave your keys, nail files, pens, pencils, anything you have that could be used as a weapon, here. You’ll get it all back when you’re ready to leave.” She plopped a large envelope on the counter top and I proceeded to empty my purse. I watched as she wrote the time, date and my full name on the label. A six foot, muscle-bound attendant arrived in less than 2 minutes.
“Yeah, Pats?” He mumbled.
“This lady is here to visit number 423.”
“O’kay, follow me.”
I followed him to the elevator and watched as he found the key to unlock it. We entered and exited on the fourth floor. Again, he stepped out from behind me, locked the elevator doors and turned to the hallway door, unlocking it.
“This way, Ma’am.” He motioned and I stepped inside, again, behind me, he locked the door and motioned for me to follow.
One long corridor down, we turned right into another one. Halfway down he stopped before another door, unlocked it and we entered.
“This is the floors community room. This way...”
We passed through the room where there were several patients, watching TV, playing cards, some staring into space, then we stopped at another door, room 423.
He stuck the key in, turned it and the door opened to, another locked door with a small window in it. He unlocked that one and motioned for me to go inside. “When you want out, just knock on the window.”
Terror gripped me as I heard the key turn in the lock, behind me. My God, I was locked in a room, in a mad house!
“Hey Jen, you came.” David was sitting on the bed. I kissed him and we hugged; he seemed a bit calm for someone in a sanitarium, behind locked doors but I thought they would have him drugged.
“How are you, David?” I asked, sitting down beside him.
“I’ve got no thoughts.” He replied but I didn’t hear just David. That voice in my head again said, “I am here”.
Clearly, it wasn’t David’s voice and I know it wasn’t mine.
I wanted to ask David if he’d heard it but he’d just been diagnosed with Schizophrenia, a few weeks ago so, I just let him talk.
“They’ve got me on, Hal...something. I can’t remember the word, Halrol, Hal...derol; I don’t know...it messes with my thoughts.”
“Haldol?” I asked.
“Yeah, I think that’s it! Anyway, I can’t think, can’t...put my, no I can’t find my thoughts.”
I wanted to cry but held back the tears. I didn’t want to upset the most brilliant and gentle friend I’ve ever had. So, I changed the conversation, “Hey, I got I got a promotion, the other day at work; I’m a Database Administrator now.”
He smiled. My eyes caught the paper and stub of a giant crayon on the table beside his bed. He’d obviously been trying to sketch a dog. “What’s this?” I asked, picking up the drawing.
Again, that voice...”I am here.” It was followed by David’s.
“Yeah, I tried to sketch but, I don’t remember what a beagle’s ears look like.”
I smiled and asked, “May I?” I picked up the crayon and he watched me sketch in one ear then, I handed it to him. He hesitated at first, and then sketched in the other, slowly. I
smiled and he returned a half smile and put the crayon down.
“Hey, why don’t I get the attendant to take us to the community room? We can watch something together.”
I knocked on the window in the door and the attendant unlocked it. I asked him if we could go to the community room.
“Kay,” he responded and David and I walked through the door. David watched while the attendant unlocked the second door, opening it to the community room. As I walked through, again the voice, “I am here.” I had the thought that maybe one of the inmates had said something and that was what I was hearing. We sat down and the attendant handed me the remote. He walked over to the other side of the room and stood, his arms crossed over his hulking chest.
Around the table where people were playing cards, I noticed a woman smoking a cigarette. She smoked and paced up and down the length of the table, repeatedly. I almost screamed out for the attendant when she put the lit end of the cigarette to her free hand and shouted at one of the card players, “I don’t burn!” She repeated this about three times, each time shoving her hand in the face of the players. I was distracted by that voice again, “I am here.”
David was engrossed in a western when she walked over to our side of the room and approached me. I tried to ignore her and looked at the TV. Before I knew it, she was in front of me with that damned cigarette.
“I don’t burn, see, I don’t burn.” She said, shoving her hand in front of my face. Again, the voice, “I am here.”
I smiled at her and said, “I see that.” She walked on over to another inmate, repeating her, non-burning behavior and then to another. I watched as she made a full round of the room. The attendant never moved.
I was getting nervous and worried about David. Was he bothered by her bizarre behavior?
“David, I think it’s almost time for, “America’s Funniest Videos”, do you want me to watch it with you?
“What’s that?” He said.
“You used to love it.” I replied. “Remember the one with the squirrel, skiing behind that toy boat? I remember that you laughed so hard that you told me your sides hurt.”
“I don’t remember it, Jen.” His eyes roamed back to the TV screen, as the non-burning woman walked towards us again.
Of course, the voice, “I am here.”
She was just about three feet away, when some inmate in the corner leapt at her, grabbing for her throat.
“Shut your damned face hole, bitch!” He shouted and one hand reached her neck as the attendant came after him. The voice, a bit louder now said, “I am here.”
The attendant was wrestling the attacker to the floor as David and I jumped up and out of the way, watching. Another two attendants came through the locked door and soon, her attacker was being sedated.
The original attendant looked at me and motioned towards David’s room. “You’ll need to take him back there.” He said. I took David’s arm and we went back into his room, followed by the attendant with a key, locking the doors again.
David didn’t seem fazed by the bizarre occurrence, but I was all nerves now. We sat back down no his bed and I took his hand.
“That was...I think his name is, Greg.” He said.
“Which one?” I asked.
“The guy that grabbed, Anna, he’s Greg. I think he’s in here because he snapped at work and beat up a guy.”
I patted his hand and replied, “Well, let’s not talk about him. Here, let’s both sketch.” I handed him a crayon and I took another and a piece of paper, smiling. I began to sketch David. He began to sketch, too. We hadn’t sketched together in years, not since the art class where we’d met.
I was trying as much to calm my own nerves, as much as, I was trying to keep his calm. We sketched for about forty minutes and I let him know that I needed to get to work. I’d only asked off for a couple of hours. I kissed him goodbye, promising to visit again, soon.
“Is there anything you need, that I can bring you, David”, I asked.
“No, thanks though, Jen”
I smiled, hugged him and knocked on the door’s window. The attendant unlocked it and we made our way, locked door by locked door, to the elevator. Soon I was at the reception desk, claiming my property.
The voice spoke, “I am here”.
Okay, I thought, so you’re here, so am I. I opened the outer doors and walked out to my waiting car.
The rest of my workday went slowly, I had no concentration, all I could think about was David and what had happened at the sanitarium. I had a quick lunch in the cafeteria and finished out the day.
I hadn’t heard the voice since I’d left the sanitarium. It still had me puzzled and I felt as if my brain was a jigsaw puzzle just poured out of the box, onto a table.
It was five o’clock. I went to the restroom, freshened up and headed to my car. I had Italian food on my mind as I pressed the unlock on the remote, it beeped and I heard a ka’thunk from the car door. In minutes, I was on the ramp to the interstate.
The route home is about a forty-five minute drive, it’s the most scenic that it can get, with huge rock hills on either side. As I pulled onto the interstate, I heard the voice, “I am here”.
Leave me alone, I thought. What do you want from me?
The traffic was a bit congested today, slowing things down quite a bit. I was sitting in the same spot for about 10 minutes, the traffic not moving. I figured there was a wreck up ahead and turned off my engine.
“I am here.” And then, there’s that, I thought to myself.
It was followed by a rumbling, from above that was getting louder. Something hit the roof of my car with a, thud. Then, another and another; it just kept coming. A rock the size of a dime hit my windshield and bounced off as the cars in front of me began to move.
I started my engine...another rock fell, then, a whole slew of them! What was happening? Where were they coming from?
The cars in front of me pulled up about three lengths and I followed, as quickly as I could. It was just in time, too, even larger rocks began hitting my trunk lid. The cars moved again and I moved, again and I moved behind them. In my rear view mirror, I saw what I’d never dreamed of seeing. The car, right behind me was hit with a huge boulder! Its roof caved in on the driver’s side.
The voice, “I am here”, in my mind again. It wasn’t long until the cars began to pull ahead, some pulled to the roadside, away from the falling rocks. I did too and getting out my cell phone, I called in the emergency.
I sat with my eyes glued to the smashed car, watching people ahead leave theirs and run back to help the driver.
The EMT’s arrived quickly but, it was too late, the driver was dead.
I have never heard the voice since that day. I realized that it was not connected to the sanitarium where David was but it occurred to me later that, it was my guardian angel.
Copyright, 2019, M.L. Kiser
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