The Theta Prophecy by Chris Dietzel

Author:Chris Dietzel [Dietzel, Chris]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Publisher: Watch The World End Publications
Published: 2015-09-26T04:00:00+00:00

17 – No Right Answer

Year: 1956

The San Francisco Psychiatric Hospital was a four-story brick and stone building that loomed over anyone who approached it. The gargoyles on top of the building did nothing to help it seem more welcoming. Rather than actual goblins and monsters, each one was designed to look like an infant who was possessed by the devil or else was horribly disfigured and grotesque. Ironically, across the street from the hospital was the Bank of California, the city’s oldest bank, with the sculpture of a stone angel above its entryway.

Although the time traveler was no longer handcuffed, the police officer next to him kept looking at him out of the corner of his eye, making sure the man he was escorting didn’t dart away, as if he was a fugitive instead of someone who had been found in the middle of the bay with a broken nose. At the hospital, as a doctor reset his broken nose and bandaged it up, his police chaperone hadn’t let him out of his sight for a single moment. Now, at the mental institution, the police officer put a hand in the small of the time traveler’s back and gave a gentle push toward the front door.

After walking up a set of ten steps and through the thick wooden double doors, the police officer motioned to a set of chairs in the lobby and said, “Sit there. I’ll be right back.”

He was the only person in the lobby. No family members were waiting to visit with afflicted loved ones. No patients traversed the hallways. No receptionist to sign him in. Only him. There were no pictures on the walls. The chairs, he noticed, were bolted to the floor as if someone might come in from the street and steal them. Were college students daring each other to race into the lobby and steal whatever they could from a place that looked more intimidating than a real-life haunted house, or did the psychiatric hospital simply not care about making a good first impression?

Through a small plastic window he could see the cop talking to one of the hospital’s staff, at various times shrugging his shoulders and at other times pointing to the time traveler. A minute later, the police officer re-entered the lobby, but only long enough to wink at the time traveler and continue through the front door and back to the station.

“And you must be our guest,” a middle-aged man in a white lab coat said, also walking into the lobby.

The time traveler stood and extended his hand, but when he did, the other man took a quick step back as if he had no idea what his guest might do next.

“Please, this way,” the man said, regaining his composure and ushering the time traveler into the main part of the hospital. As he followed the doctor, a large man in scrubs filed in line behind him, making sure their visitor didn’t do anything crazy.

“Right in here,” the doctor said, opening the door to his office and pulling out a chair for his guest.

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