Tobacco Sun by Lorna Hollifield

Author:Lorna Hollifield
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Pen Name Publishing
Published: 2017-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

Dr. Garris

The doors to the conference room burst open, and two guards rushed in to manhandle Sydra away. At that moment, the intriguing actress that I had to force myself not to stare at left, and a disturbed inmate slinging snot and tears filled the uniform that suddenly looked at home around her body. Something had changed, and it wasn’t just the mood. Sydra was gone. Someone else entirely had set up shop, and now used her bones to thrash about in the officer’s meat hooks.

“That’s enough for now,” the older of the two scoffed, feeling special about his authority. “I’ll get someone in here to clean this mess up. Good going, makin’ her sick, Doc.” He wrinkled his porkish nose up and guided her out the door around her vomit.

I balled my fist up and brought it down hard on top of the wobbling table. Dr. Rathburn shuffled in, this time with his ivory-handled cane in tow that I’d come to think was just for looks. He passed by Sydra, seemingly pleased to witness her in the throes of hysterics.

“Great job with your new methods, Peter! Clearly, you’ve made a breakthrough exploring these...what is it? Group dynamics?”

I looked him in the eye for a second, long enough to decide I had nothing to say.

“Are you ready to end your fact-finding mission, and declare that girl insane yet?” His voice was weak but vehement.

“She got upset because I was getting to her. It isn’t always calm and pretty. We did almost have a breakthrough!” I tried to keep my voice even but struggled with it.

“You can’t get anywhere with lunatics, Peter! I’m trying to tell you. It can’t be done. She needs to be deemed incompetent, and then I can pull the strings needed to get her turned over to the University. We can help her there and report on the progress. Then, maybe, we can avoid outbursts like this with other criminals.”

“People have outbursts, Rathburn. It’s called emotions. It doesn’t mean they’re crazy or can’t be helped - quite the contrary. The repression is what causes the hysterics.”

“Peter, I remember you as a student of mine. You were one of the very brightest, graduated at the top of your class. I knew you would be my successor one day. But now...now, you spout off like some sort of quack. You need to come back to the home team before you ruin yourself.” He waited for the response I didn’t offer. “Fill out your little forms, and I’ll have her turned over to us. Exploring your other avenues has been, admirable, in a respect. It’s good science to ask the occasional question but you know it’s time to let that go. Trust that I know better than you this time.” He took on an almost fatherly tone now, a new tactic. How tired I was getting of people trying to handle me.

“She hasn’t even been tried yet. It isn’t our right to make that call for her. Also, that outburst was anxiety based.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.