[Continuing the journal of Diane McMurphy, a patient in Bad Shepherd mental hospital, “The Asylum”]
Sugar Odette is my particular friend. The hospital, not being able to enforce the absolute celibacy they’d like to see (which would however drive us totally nuts, thus justifying the hospital’s existence) acknowledges such relationships in a way that doesn’t commit them to admitting to the Board that any fornication is actually being accomplished. We have this ceremony in the day room, where Doctor declares us “com-panions,” eaters of bread together. We feed each other a few crumbs as if they were wedding cake or the Gawdful Host, then hold hands for a few minutes, and leave for our separate rooms. Patients here are not supposed to have sex, but some of us do, that is if we’re not so distracted by delusions or obsessions that we can’t attend to the job, or think we’ve done it and it takes several therapy sessions to convince us we haven’t.
Sugar Odette came to Bad Shepherd about a year before I did. Some embarrassing personal history had caught the attention of the authorities, but only a few old wrist-scars now remain. Once in a while she back-slides and there are fresh scars in other places, but that doesn’t happen very often. When she slides she’s sent to Greenwall Gardens and I can hear her from as far away as my bunk in spite of all the padding, very sad sounds. After a few days she’s let out, sooner if someone in worse shape needs the room. She comes back to me, embarrassed at having “slipped,” as she puts it.
[to be continued …]
<END>
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