K-Pax by Dr. Gene Brewer

Author:Dr. Gene Brewer
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9780312977023
Publisher: St. Martin's Press

GISELLE was waiting for me the next morning, jumping up and down, nearly beside herself. “He’s from the North-west!” she exclaimed. “Probably western Montana, northern Idaho, or eastern Washington!”

“That what your man said?”

“She’s not a man, but that’s what she said!”

“Wouldn’t the police know if someone, especially a scientist, had disappeared from that part of the country five years ago?”

“They should. I know someone down at the Sixth Precinct. Want me to check for you?”

For the first time in several days I had to laugh. It appeared she knew someone in any line of work one could name. I threw up my arms. “Sure, why not, go ahead.” She was out the door like a shot.

That same morning, Betty, wearing an enormous pair of copper earrings in another desperate attempt to get pregnant, I presumed, brought in a stray kitten. She had found it in the subway station, and I assumed she was going to take it home with her that evening. But instead she suggested that we let the patients take care of it.

The presence of small animals in nursing and retirement homes has proven to be of great benefit to the residents, providing badly needed affection and companionship and generally bolstering their spirits to such a degree that life spans are actually increased significantly. The same may be true for the population at large. To my knowledge, however, such a program had not been introduced in mental institutions.

After due consideration—we are an experimental hospital, after all—I asked Betty to instruct the kitchen staff to see that the kitten was fed properly, and decided to let it roam Wards One and Two to see what would happen.

It headed straight for prot.

A short time later, after he had nuzzled it for a while and “spoken” to it, it went out to meet the other inhabitants of its new world.

One or two of the patients, notably Ernie and several of Maria’s alters, stayed away from it, for reasons of their own. But most of the others were delighted with it. I was especially surprised and gratified to see that Chuck the curmudgeon took to it immediately. “Doesn’t stink a bit,” he averred. He spent hours tempting it with bits of string and a small rubber ball someone had found on the grounds. Many of the other patients joined in. One of these, to my amazement, was Mrs. Archer, who, I discovered, had owned numerous cats before coming to MPI.

But the most remarkable effect of the kitten was on Bess. Unable to sustain a relationship with another human being, she became totally devoted to “La Belle Chatte.” She assumed the responsibility for feeding her and emptying her litter box and taking her for romps on the grounds. If anyone else wanted to play with the kitten, Bess immediately gave her up, of course, with a wise, sad nod, as if to say, “You’re right—I don’t deserve to have her anyway.” But when night came, La Belle invariably sought out Bess, and the staff would find them in the mornings sharing the same pillow.

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