[Continuing the journal of Diane McMurphy, a patient in Bad Shepherd mental hospital, “The Asylum”]
Founded many years ago as “Shepherd Hospital for the Pitifully Deranged,” the name was changed in 2001 because it was no longer in accord with twenty-first century principles of ethical jargon. So now it’s “Shepherd Hospital Center for the Pitifully Deranged,” even though it doesn’t seem to be the center of anything in particular. Most of the townies, with understandable confusion, call the place “Good Shepherd,” although it’s not church-related. The founder was a rich Mr. Shepherd, who gave his hill-top mansion to the city fathers, who then had it fitted out with amenities useful for keeping embarrassments (us) out of sight. We inmates, of course, call it “Bad Shepherd.” Worse yet, so does the staff.
We take “Shepherd” seriously, because everything is serious here, like it or not. If Dr. Wolfe and the others are good shepherds, we must be bad sheep. Shepherds have crooks, and Good Shepherd has lawyers and accountants. We patients call the place “Bad Shepherd” because all of us bad sheep are penned up here where the staff pulls the wool over our eyes, while the Hospital shears the public for our keep.
[to be continued …]
<END>
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*The Seventh Effect: a thriller from Melange Publications about a new kind of bioterrorist plot against the USA.
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Memorable Fancies 
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