The Road to Redemption (15 page)

The bottle was nearly half empty already. John kept taking swigs out of it and muttering incoherently to himself:

“She’s in wonderland, what are you doing here....?”

There was no point trying to rationalise with John, or even try to understand what he was muttering about, any more. Audry stormed out of the room, angry confused and frightened.

Another big swig and John stumbled out into the garden. The events of the day and now the scotch, was starting to take effect.

He started to sway as he reached the grass

“Fuck this fuckin grass.” He used the heel of his shoe kicking backwards. The lawn was only new and hadn’t yet bonded properly with the soil underneath. Large chunks of turf started flying in all directions, he kept losing his balance and regaining it, as he swayed around, continually swigging from the bottle and holding it up in the air as he lost his balance and then regained it.

“Stuff you gum tree.” He kicked it and his shoe fell off. He took a final swig out of the bottle. It was empty. He had drunk the whole bottle in something like seven or eight minutes. He threw it towards the house and it smashed on the front steps.

Audry heard the smash and came running out to see the broken bottle on the steps and John staggering around and heading for the front gate. Then off down the street, still mumbling incoherently to himself. It was now late afternoon. He was propping himself up on neighbours fences as he limped by them, with one shoe on and one off. At one point he almost staggered onto the road. A car going past gave him a big blast with its horn. Further down the street, old nosy Mrs. Jean was watering her roses. He propped himself up on her fence and let out a big,

“BOO.”

She jumped back in fright and accidentally sprayed him.

“You stupid old goat,“ he muttered and stumbled off into the approaching darkness.

The scotch was taking full effect now. Everything was going around and around. Next everything was black. He had passed out.

Chapter 16  Audry and George

He opened his eyes. His head felt like it should belong to someone else. He could make out two pairs of legs, from where he was lying on his side. He tried to focus and looked around him. They were two early morning joggers, busy talking as they jogged and hadn't seen him. He was lying in a rose garden in the local park. He had blood, sweat and now dog shit all over him from the garden. The bandage Jane had put around his arm yesterday had come loose and was hanging off him.

He stumbled to his feet. It was just after 6 am and there was no one else around. He tried to tuck his shirt in and staggered back up the street towards the house, but it was hard walking with only one shoe. He fumbled with the key opened the front door and staggered into the kitchen.

He lit the stove, pulled out a fry pan and attempted to cook some eggs. Next thing Audry was at the kitchen door.

“This can’t go on. You are a disgrace John; you’re out of your tree. I’m going to ring my father.”

“Stuff your father,” he said under his breath and continued with the attempt to cook his eggs. When they were about half cooked he poured them onto a plate and headed into the lounge room. He sat on the couch. He hadn’t brought a knife and fork with him so used his hands. Some of it was going into his mouth, some of it onto his clothes and the rest on the couch and floor.

Audry came in and screamed at him again,

“You pig John, its all over my lounge and carpet,” she repeated.  “You are out of your tree John. My father’s on his way.”

“Putty putty poo, whaaaaaaat are you doing here?” He was talking incoherently again

Soon the doorbell rang and Audry answered it. There was a hushed conversation and George entered the room.

“How are you going Georgy Boy you stuffed up sanctimonious old bastard?” He’d been waiting for years to say that. Instead of reacting, George just sat there opposite him and watched him. This was good:

“ Georgy porgy puddiney pie. What's wrong Georgy Boy, has the cheshire cat got your tongue?” If his head didn’t feel like it was about to explode, he might actually be enjoying this. But then his thoughts started to become tangled and he was mumbling incoherently again:

“ The queen of hearts, she’s the queen of hearts......”

George got up and left the room, he hadn't said a word, he had just stared at John.

“Coward, not good enough for your daughter,” he yelled after him.

There were more hushed tones in the kitchen. Then after a while the doorbell rang again. Audry answered it and still more hushed tones at the front door. Two burly policemen entered the lounge room, followed by another man carrying what looked like a doctors bag.

“What's going on here?“ said the larger and older of the two policemen.

“Get out of my house,” screamed John, lunging towards them and knocking the remainder of his eggs onto the floor.

The policemen were too quick for him. In a flash they had him face down on the floor and handcuffed. The doctor stepped forward and administered a needle. John coughed and threw up some egg. He wriggled and tried to fight, but suddenly everything went black.

Chapter 17  Dr Rush

John woke with a startle. He was on his back and there was a white ceiling above him that he did not recognize. Where the hell was he. He tried to move his arms and legs but they were tied down. He lifted his head as much as he could and saw there were two large red straps across his body, one across his chest and another lower down.

“Hello,” he called out. “Hello is anyone there?”

A young girl appeared in a blue uniform and a nametag that read “Nurse Scott”.

“You’re in Sunnydale Private Hospital Mr. Mason.”

“How the hell did I get here?”

“Just a minute Mr. Mason, I’ll get Dr Rush for you.”

He could see her leave the room out of the corner of his eye and knock on a door across the corridor.

“He’s awake,” John heard Nurse Scott say.

“OK,” came the reply, “I will be there shortly”

John heard footsteps coming towards him echoing off the lino floor. They stopped when they reached his bed. He looked up.

She was about 28 years old and would probably look quite pretty, if she loosened up her hair a bit and took off those awful glasses, that made her look like a librarian.

“Good morning I’m Dr Rush. You’ve been asleep for quite a while, we were wondering if you were ever going to wake up.”

“What do you mean,” demanded John. “How long have I been asleep?”

“Oh, about 24 hours I would say,” replied Dr Rush

24 hours thought John. The last thing he could remember was being in the lounge room with a splitting headache and two burly policemen holding him down and handcuffing him. But his headache was gone. It made sense. Not a bad way to get rid of a hangover he thought, apart from the policemen that is.

“If you behave yourself I’ll take these straps off and you can go to the bathroom next door to freshen up, then I will have a talk to you in my office. Is that OK with you?”

“OK,” agreed John.

“Nurse Scott could you bring Mr. Mason a towel and a dressing gown and some slippers?” she called out.

John looked at what he was wearing. It was some sort of hospital gown. His dirty clothes were in a plastic bag at the foot of the bed. Out of bed and into the shower next door. Boy did that warm shower feel good on his body. He dressed and returned to his bed, where Nurse Scott was waiting for him.

“Dr Rush will see you now,” she said.

Nurse Scott ushered John into Dr Rush’s office.

As John had observed on first seeing her, Dr Rush would look much better without her glasses and with her hair loosened up. But what he didn’t know she was presenting herself this way on purpose.

She had followed in her father’s footsteps and become a psychiatrist. In fact her father was very well respected in psychiatric circles, having written well-researched papers on depression and anorexia. She had contact lenses at home and had been wearing them as well as having her hair loose, up until about six months ago.

She had been living with her doctor boyfriend for five years and was starting to think about marriage and children, when six months ago, something terrible had happened.  She came home early one day to find him in bed with one of the young nurses. With the break-up of this relationship she did not want to have anything to do with men at this point in her life. If anything she was probably suffering from mild depression. So she had tied her hair back and put on her old glasses she had worn at university. She had not yet got over the pain from the break-up and was not ready to start a new relationship. In a way she was hiding behind the glasses, to protect herself from the world.

She had thought about taking her boyfriend back, but considered it was probably likely that he would do the same thing to her again He had tried to ring her, sent her flowers and had actually turned up at her office on two occasions, pleading with her to come back. After that she had started wearing the glasses to make herself look less attractive if he turned up again, as well as to hide behind them.

Unlike John, she had come from a well off family and like Audry had gone to private school. She had been a good student and like John was also good at sport. She was also into keeping fit and like Alice and power walked most days after work. She was finding the power walking a huge release at present, as it gave her temporary escape from her break-up worries.

Her parents had been very understanding about the break-up and were now having her around to dinner every Wednesday night. However no matter how much they tried to cheer her up, they knew that only time would heal her scars. In fact she was probably just starting to come out of her catharsis over the past couple of weeks and was now starting to wear lipstick again.

“Please take a seat John,” the young doctor said pointing John towards one of her two visitors chairs. John sat down looked at her and opened up with,

“Has anyone ever told you, you would look much better without those glasses and with your hair down?”

Without knowing it John had already given Dr Rush some important information about himself. He was angry rather than depressed. Dr Rush knew from her father’s work, it can sometimes take years to treat patients with depression. When people are in deep depression they lose all ability to rationalize. They just can’t see any way out of their gloom. In fact some patients with clinical depression can’t be cured and have to stay on medication for the rest of their lives. In John’s case however it would be likely that Dr Rush would have to use Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. By this method she would need to have regular sessions with him and give him a series of assignments to complete before each session.

Dr Rush ignored John’s cheeky leading question about her appearance and got right down to business.

“John why do you think you are here?”

“I don’t know. You tell me.” John could feel he was going to enjoy sparing with this young psychiatrist.

“John, something seems to have been making you unhappy.”

“You a Psychiatrist?” probed John

“John,” with a hint of annoyance in her voice, “I’m in my final year. Now will you please answer the question? What brought you here?”

John could see that she had slightly changed to question so he thought he would answer literally.

“I don’t know, possibly an ambulance.”

“Don’t be smart John,” she was on to him. “You know what I mean. What has been making you unhappy?”