Western has a routine for everything. There was a school/activity routine for weekdays. I found there was one for week-ends too. The girls got up Saturday morning and did a series of chores. Saturday afternoon was down time. Maybe, some of the girls would go for a walk around Woghop Lake. Saturday evening, they usually went to the movie at Mainside with the boys.
I liked the routine especially the walk around the lake. It was the movies that got me into trouble.
* * * * * * *
HE FOUND IT! After two long years of searching, Alfer Centurie finally located that special planet he was looking for. He called it DUST for all that cosmic stuff that got in his way of finding it. He was so excited he could barely spit. He was hopping up and down. He called Tanya Blue. He danced around his telescope. (He realized that this was uncharacteristic, but he did it anyway.)
Alfer Centurie was the happiest he’d been in years. It was a while before he realized, that, having attained his goal, there was just naturally a next step. However, in another uncharacteristic move, he decided to ignore that issue and go out and play with Tanya instead. (He really did like her.)
* * * * * * *
Whoever picked the movies did not use the most judicious consideration. Surviving the Andromeda Strain was no easy task for me. Most notably, the scene where the hero takes a knife and cuts a deceased person’s wrist to see the granulated blood flow out was my most difficult. I felt several pairs of eyes on me during that scene.
The Andromeda Strain was nothing, though, compared to the absolutely brilliant selection of THX-1138. My wisdom part could only marvel at such idiocy.
* * * * * * *
We went with the boys in the little school bus. It was still light out when we left. The theater at Mainside was a brick building set alone on the campus. All the patients filed in. The CSTC (Child Study and Treatment Center) kids sat in the first two rows.
(So, you’ve been to a movie before.) The lights went down. The movie came on, and the screen was filled with large images of violence and abuse. Right through the credits, helmeted police types were beating bald civilian types with clubs and fists.
I was shocked but considered myself under control. I could handle it. I could hear other patients in the back beginning to yell or shout. A new kind of tension filled the room. There was always regular old mental patient tension, but this something being drawn tight.
The accompanying CSTC counselors consulted hurriedly with each other. I caught only snatches of the conversation. They had decided not to take the girls to this movie, but it had been scheduled for another day on the calendar.
The boys’ counselors decided to let them stay. The girls’ counselors wanted to leave and decided to walk the girls home. I liked two of the counselors that were with us: Karen and Claudette. So, I trusted their judgment and followed them out without protest unlike some of the other girls. The other counselor was Madsen who I did not like.
I still felt okay. I thought I could handle the walk home. It wasn’t until we got outside in the dark that I began to have second thoughts.
* * * * * * *
It was probably Martineau that suggested that Lucifer and Alfer Centurie go together. All those intensive attempts at interaction weren’t working. So, he advised them to go and just observe J and Sasifraz from a distance without trying to make contact.
Alfer Centurie wasn’t all that interested in going, living on Cloud Nine as he was. But, Lucifer convinced him to go with him. This was a new approach for the both of them. As fate would have it (or maybe Martineau), they picked the night of THX-1138 to do it.
* * * * * * *
The dark almost immediately felt ominous to me. It was Sasifraz’s territory. I shuddered and wondered how long I had before Sasifraz exerted more power than I could. The walk back was about ten minutes. I didn’t know if I had that much time. I kept moving, With each step, I wondered if I could make the next one.
The girls were all a little tense—talking uncomfortably. I was silent. I rounded the last Mainside building. We had just entered the dirt road back to Child Study and a little woodsy place when Sasifraz screamed at me. “MOVE!” It was a command that I couldn’t ignore.
All of a sudden, I tore off down the hill into the woods. My initial feeling of relief changed quickly to confusion as I stopped under the trees and wondered where I would go next.
* * * * * * *
“It’s dark!”
“So, it is.”
“I can’t see a thing.”
“Wait a minute. There’s a street light over there.”
Alfer Centurie and Lucifer, in their attempts to see J or Sasifraz, discovered that they really couldn’t see a thing in the dark. (You’d think that psychically they would have worked this out.)
“Look there,” as their eyes adjusted, Alfer Centurie, the sharp eyed-one, saw her first as J came flying down the hill into the trees.
“What’s she doing?” Lucifer felt like he’d stepped into the middle of a movie. (Close but not quite.)
* * * * * * *
I froze under the trees waiting for Sasifraz to tell me what to do next. As I waited, I could hear Madsen coming down the hill after me. I wasn’t up to making any decision on my own. As Madsen got closer, no information was forthcoming from Sasifraz.
As I waited, I knew the timing was close as to which one would get to me first. Madsen grabbed her arm. I followed as she lead us back up the hill to the other girls. Once we cleared the trees and could see Child Study, the road opened into a big field. I began to have more trouble following docilely to where I was being lead.
* * * * * * *
Sasifraz was calling to me from the horizon—seducing me. “This is the way, J. Come over here. Don’t go with them.”
Alfer Centurie and Lucifer were standing near Sasifraz but went unnoticed by him. They watched with concern as I stopped to move toward him.
Karen, who had taken my arm from Madsen, pulled tighter on me and asked for help from Claudette.
Sasifraz’s crooning rose to full intensity as I saw him, Alfer Centurie, and Lucifer on the horizon. “Kantor is here, J. You’ve got to come over here.” I knew that they were all members of The Mark and was certain that Kantor was there with them just out of sight.
I struggled to get to them but was moved steadfastly by Karen and Claudette. Pam, another girl with more of a delinquency history than a mental one, started lagging behind the other girls in an effort to get attention. They ignored her in order to get me back to the Cottage, and she fell in line.
“We’ll have to put her in isolation when we get back,” Claudette spoke quietly to Karen.
Karen, felt concerned and added, “I think the one with the bed is good enough.” I knew Karen wasn’t really comfortable with isolation but took small comfort in being put in the one with the bed. After all, it implied a nightly stay.
As the group drew to the Cottage door, Alfer Centurie and Lucifer looked at each other as if to say that they’d seen enough. As they turned to leave, they saw Sasifraz finally notice them and turned in their direction as if to move in on them before they winked out.