The Cupids Get Commited

by Atomdancerrr

Character studies on how both Cupids handled being committed. Despite being the same elemental spirit the personalities of his Hosts changes his attitude towards this stressful situation. 1 is very upset about it. The other takes it in stride.

2 short character studies on how both Cupids handled being committed. Despite being the same elemental spirit the personalities of his Hosts changes his attitude towards this stressful situation considerably. 1 is very upset about it. The other takes it mostly in stride. A comparison of the differences proves fascinating. So read and enjoy!

Disclaimer. I don't own Cupid or Claire/Psyche but really neither does ABC! The original myth goes back thousands of years and the first literary effort was a book written in Latin by the Roman Author Lucius Apuleius. The book was called, "The Golden Ass." (Yes, even back then Cupid was Cupid! ) Lucius lived between 123 AD and 180 AD, not a long life but long enough, obviously!

If ABC has the grace to leave me alone I am pretty sure Lucius won't start haunting ABC Executives and ABC Lawyers!

What will People be doing with Doctor Who and Samuel Beckett, the many characters of Star Trek and yes, again Cupid and Psyche one thousand years from now?

Five thousand years from now?

A few billion years from now?

I suspect, SOMETHING.

We'll use Artificial Intelligence technology to bring all these characters to self-awareness, give ourselves immortality, including the Galilee Carpenter and give Him His well-deserved Kingdom. Because of Relativistic curved space-time all this already exists!

The Future is the One Great Undiscovered Country that really does exist!

And in it all our dreams and hopes will be brought to life, forever!

We are creating that future now by what we write. For everything one Person can dream another can create for real. We have robots rolling around on Mars now and vacuuming carpets on Earth. We have cell phones and the International Space Station. The Nautilus has traveled under the South Pole and The Moon Ship Columbia has been to the Moon. All this started out as science fiction. And we ain't seen nothin' yet. Want to read the most likely sci-fi scenario ripe for becoming self fulfilling prophecy, due to future computer tech? Read the last two chapters of the book of Revelation! We will end up living in a giant, 1500 mile long cube! Why should the Borg have all the fun?

We may get to meet Cupid and Psyche someday and we Writers are creating their memories for them!

So please consider any fan fiction an advertisement for the original professional offering. Those who work this hard to make more are its biggest fans!

There are only 5 to 6 degrees of separation between all the People in the world. Please somebody try to contact Rob Thomas and tell him Cupid keeps failing because he is writing in the wrong genre. He needs to write Claire's book, "The Search for Cupid" inter-spaced with protest comments by Cupid himself and first person point of view descriptions by other characters dealing with him. If he does, he will have a best seller like K-PAX! It is Readers and Thinkers who like Cupid, not your average TV watcher. Just as Classic Trek "failed," back in those bad old days of the 1960's, both Cupid shows are too deep for TV!

The original show can be watched at Youtube and ABC's site has the more lighthearted remake. They are both good. For an explanation how Cupid switched Hosts see, "Cupid 1.0 to 2.0 The Transfer." If you want to find two unaired scripts of the original series are on the net. ('Chapter 6' and 'Company Pier') Google scripts + Cupid. I also know where other Cupid fanfic is. So write me if you want to know. You can also buy the new show on Itunes very cheaply!

The Cupids get Committed.

By

Elizabeth Hensley 8-)

Part I: Cupid 1.0 Gets Committed

By

Elizabeth Hensley 8-)

The Police Officers who handed him off to us explained, "The poor little guy thinks he's Cupid!"

We had heard some strange delusions but this one had us floored!

But we did our jobs. Hector took his right arm and I took his left arm while the Cop unfastened the handcuffs.

We noticed he didn't even flinch at the feel of our hands firmly on his arms. Instead he looked around him this way and that a big frown on his face.

The Cop finished taking off the cuffs and told our new Resident gently, "Cupid these Mortals are going to attend to you now. They'll help you get settled into your new temple."

The Patient finally spoke, "This is not a temple! This is a mental hospital and I don't need to be here!"

Hector smiled and said, "Good! You know where you are."

Slowly and as soothingly as possible he said, "Yes. I know where I am and I do not need to be here. Let me go please!"

It was harder on them when they did know where they were and what was going on. But that kind tended to get out more. What tiny chance this type of Patient had of not ending up permanently committed, this Patient at least had that tiny chance!

Gently I said, "I'm sorry. We can't let you out, Cupid. You have to stay a while. It really won't be so bad!"

The man didn't deny who he thought he was, didn't even flinch at my calling him 'Cupid.' Sometimes Delusionals would try to deny who they thought they were when they realized where they were going and that they were going be confined for a very long time, but not this one, at least not then. When he finally did try that trick he did it well enough to fool a whole room full of Psychiatrists and other Mental Health Workers including the Therapist he had been working with every day!

That isn't easy to do!

I reminded him gently, "you have been court ordered her for 90 days of observation. And I'm just an Orderly. I certainly can't release you early, but neither can the Doctors! You'll just have to make the best of it for three months."

"Three months!" He was really upset! Most People would be.

"Make the best of it." I suggested, "Consider it an adventure you can tell your Kids or Grandkids about someday. Come please!" We tugged on his arms and he at least didn't try to pull away.

With no physical resistance upon his part we lead him out of the admitting room and down the hall into an isolation room. Our Patient was gazing around frowning and taking everything in. I could tell this one was a Thinker. THAT was how he was going to try and get out!

And those were the kind that eventually made it too. There was hope for this one!

We had to give him more bad news, "Until the Doctors can examine you to make sure you aren't going to hurt yourself or others we have to strap you down. Sorry pal!"

He sighed but he saw we wanted him in the restraining bed so he climbed up himself without any kind of a struggle. We didn't even have to put his arms into position. He did that himself and watched with a pained expression on his face as we strapped him down. We left the restraints a little loose as he was cooperating with us. We weren't supposed to but we felt there ought to be some kind of a reward for not being a troublemaker!

He asked, "How long do I have to stay like this?

I lied, "The Doctor should be seeing you soon."

I hoped! It varied between immediately to several hours if we were very busy or if it was a golf day.

This turned out to be a busy day. The Sun set and still no Dr Greeley!

We had to leave him alone once in a while. When we did so he would start hollering in some foreign language into thin air. That didn't sound sane or give the poor little guy a good prognosis but strangely enough when we were with him the hollering would stop and he seemed perfectly sane except for that little mental glitch; thinking he was a Greek god!

He explained it to us "I am hollering at my family in our native tongue, ancient, Thessalonian Greek. I can't hear them. I'm not schizophrenic. They don't talk back. Oh how I wish they would! It's just prayer really. I'm supposed to be a god myself but I've been reduced to just praying like a mere Mortal to who used to be my family! I can't even be sure they are even listening to me! They no longer want me."

There were tears in his eyes about his "family no longer wanting him." This one wasn't malingering. The poor little guy believed his crazy story!

He explained further, "Unlike the really Big Guy we only have selective omnipresence not TOTAL omnipresence. We can focus on anything we want to in the entire Multiverse but not everything all at once. If my Mother, Venus is busy with her Olive Trees for instance, my Papa, Mars the god of war can even sneak up on her and give her a surprise hug. He smiled, 'The joke is because we only have selective omnipresence is why so many of us exist!'"

We laughed. We caught what he meant!

He explained further "So they may not necessarily be paying any attention to me right now. If fact it is highly unlikely that they are. If they had wanted me they would have kept me! So why pay attention to me now?" His face took on a haunted look, "I am utterly alone!"

I said quickly, "No you are not. We are going to find someone for you to talk to. That's what we are here for!"

A thoughtful look crossed his face. He was considering that! He swallowed and I could tell a decision was being made.

From that moment on he had accepted that he was a Mental Patient and needed and could benefit from our help.

It was not that he didn't still think he was a Greek god. It was that he knew he was a LONELY Greek god! He had insight enough to realize he could benefit from professional attention because, as he put it himself, "Being thought a Lunatic is a very weird way for Mortals to pay attention to a god, but at least it's attention! I'm a very minor god in an almost dead religion. I'm desperate enough I'll take whatever I can get!"

Our Greek god started crying! He thought he'd been cast out of Olympus. Add now he definitely was being locked up in a mental hospital and it was just a little bit too much for him.

It is really uncomfortable crying in a laying down position when you can't wipe the tears out of your eyes. We did it for him as often as we could and the Nurses helped.

I asked, "So you believe the gods are there but you can't see or hear them?

He nodded.

I said, "I suppose that passes the Lilly Tomlin sanity test, but Greek gods? Yikes! Cupid you sure aren't a Presbyterian!"

He actually smiled a bit at that. We found out later the little guy has quite a sense of humor! Now that IS hopeful and a bit unusual in Delusionals. They were usually deadly serious and very unfunny People.

He asked, "And that is why I am being held here? Because I believe I'm my own higher power?"

Gently I said, "That's it in a nutshell Cupid. Your old religion is just a little TOO old and no one believes in it any more."

He said sadly, "No one believes in me, and I mean that on many different levels!" He swallowed. "To quote Darth Vader, 'I find your lack of faith disturbing!'"

I said gently, "You'll have a chance to discuss that with Folks who can help you deal with it."

He said, "My confinement here is really just the old, old story. Seen it a billion times. I hated it done to others. I REALLY hate seeing it happen to myself! It's religious discrimination plain and simple!

He glared at us, "Find me one sacred scripture other than in the Koran (which we can ignore because just the fact it does suggest such things says all that needs to be said about where that really comes from): That directly says from any legitimate god, 'go out and persecute those who don't believe exactly as you do and kill in my name just because they don't believe!' Go look! Go check for yourselves you functionally illiterate, modern Mortals! Turn off your TV's and your 'putors long enough to check! You can read. You just don't bother too. You won't find such a verse! Oh yes, sometimes we gods order you to kill one another. But it is always so this group or that group can survive, not just to be killing over beliefs! Even my Pops the god of war isn't that horrible! He thins your herd for population control. Because quite sadly 6 billion plus Humans and counting on this one Planet are too many for us gods and the environment to manage. But he doesn't want any kind of you completely destroyed or persecuted! As individuals you are just so darn cute and every kind of culture you make up is interesting! So we gods do NOT tell you to go harm each other merely over beliefs or lack of them! That is totally YOUR idea AND WE DON'T LIKE IT!"

He frowned, "We lose more perfectly good Mortals that way!

"Get along! Hug it out you little Freaks!"

Then he added, "And I have a right to believe what I want to! I don't have to be a Presbyterian to be useful to society! Why should I be locked up just because I believe my family and I are our own higher powers?"

He had great points here. But most People don't get in fights with pimps over territorial disputes or holler at the top of their lungs in Greek to empty rooms or think they once had a magic bow and arrows they could use to make People fall in love.

Cupid was very sick. It was just most of his sickness was about his past and he did have strengths. He knew where he was and where he was wasn't making him a happy at all!

I was supposed to stand outside the Patient's door and guard him. Instead I stood just inside the Patient's door and kept him company. It seemed to keep him calmer and kept him from hollering in anger and frustration at his gods and invisible family. He was the gregarious sort and didn't seem to mind the restraints much. He just didn't want to be left alone! I had a sad feeling I was going to be seeing him around for a very long time. I turned out to be right but I never dreamed it would be across the street at our bar! For in the future this little guy, crazy as he was, faked sanity just long enough to get out of the hospital, walked across the street, acquired a job as a Bartender and then proudly announced to just about anybody who interacted with him that he was 'Cupid the god of love!" Then what was the hospital board to do? Recommit a Man who was obviously harmless, being accepted on his own terms and competently making a decent living? But I know Dr. Greeley wants to! Dr. Greeley doesn't like things misfiled and a severely delusional Mental Patient running loose even if he is just across the street certainly counts as misfiled!

It had been a very busy day but Dr. Greeley came as quickly as he could to examine him. He asked me, "What do you think is wrong with him?"

Why would a Psychiatrist ask an Orderly that? Because we spend more time with the Patients than the Doctors do and see them under more stressful conditions. For instance the most stressful period of being a brand- new Mental Patient is their coming in the door for the first time. We are Orderlies. We look scary and once we take them into the locked part of the hospital and we close and lock that door behind them it can seem the point of no return. Many Patients who thought they were going to stay in control of themselves fall apart right there under stress and fear, and each reacts in the way their particular illness makes them react. Plus it doesn't take a degree to soon be able to tell a Paranoid Schizophrenic apart from someone who is merely depressed or suffering from OCD. We do get it wrong sometimes of course. But I suspect we "hallway diagnostics" do just as accurate a job as the "office diagnostics!'

I quipped, "He told us his name is Cupid and he's from Olympus so you see he knows who he is and where he's from. He seems perfectly normal to me!'

Dr. Greeley rolled his eyes and sighed, "A Delusional. Does he hallucinate?"

I shook my head, "I don't think so. He does talk to Invisibles when we have to leave him alone but he made it a point to tell us he was just talking to his family but they do not talk to him, not one word since being kicked out of Olympus, so he certainly wasn't hallucinating and that we should make a note of that. He said he couldn't even be sure they were listening but it makes him feel better to yell at them for marooning him in the Mortal realm. Since he can't hear them I'd just call that prayer! But he sounds really mad because he's doing it in some foreign language, Greek I think. When he talks to us he seems rational enough if you grant him his place of origin."

Dr. Greeley sighed, 'Oh dear. Patients who do word salads and hallucinate have a better prognosis because then we know it's dopamine related and meds can help! We don't really have any drugs to help this kind. Nothing helps them! ECT just scares them into pretending to get better. Hypnosis can help rarely but only if the Patient can and will allow himself to be talked under. Even Sodium Pentothal doesn't always get to the truth if their delusion is deeply entrenched enough and even when it does get to the truth the Patient usually denies it later even when we replay back the session. His only hope is if a Therapist can win his confidence over a period of months to the point where he can be persuaded he is mistaken. I will call Claire and see if she will take him. Cupid. Hmmm. Actually that sounds right up her alley! The relationship expert and the god of love!" Dr. Greeley chuckled.

He walked in the door and said, "Hello I am Dr. Greeley and I want to help you."

The Patient gave him a wide grin, "great! Get me out of here!"

Dr. Greeley said gently, "I am afraid I can't do that. You have been court ordered here for a 90-day period of observation and I can't release you until the time is up. Try to think of it as a nice, long vacation. It won't be so bad. If we decide you are suitable for our harmless ward you can socialize and play games with the other Patients and there will be craft projects, TV, Ping-Pong and group therapy. Most of our involuntary Patients kind of enjoy it once they get over the shock."

"Ninety days! The Patient was exasperated, as would be anyone. "I keep hearing that. I keep hoping someone can commute my sentence or give me a pardon or something! That's why I keep asking! I keep hoping this is a nightmare and I'm going to wake up! I don't deserve to be here! I was minding my own business helping arrange dates for Women when this pimp attacked me. I didn't get violent back. I just put my arms up to protect my face and turtled up to protect my vitals. I was scrunched up, down on the pavement and he was pummeling me when the Cop car showed up. I thought they were going to rescue me. Instead they accused me of being a pimp too! I explained that I wasn't. I was offering dates with Woman who wanted my help free of charge acting to screen the Men for safety's sake and that I was doing it for free because I have to match up one hundred couples before I can go back home to Mount Olympus."

The Patient felt betrayed. I could tell. "They told me then they would rescue me but had to put the cuffs on me as a matter of policy. I agreed. I thought they would just give me a lift away from the area. Instead they put me in a holding cell at the Cop shop and then took me before this Lady Judge and she ordered me here. Ninety days! I can't believe it! I didn't get violent with anyone even though I certainly could have! My father is the god of war and he taught me well! I didn't even fight the Orderlies here who put me in these restraints! Instead I made Friends with them. Hi Isaac. When is Hector coming back? See?"

Dr Greeley glanced at me. I nodded. "He didn't fight us. He hardly even protested verbally."

Dr. Greeley said, "you promise not to hurt yourself or us if we take the restraints off?"

The Patient said firmly, "I have never tried to harm myself and I never harmed anybody else. Well yes I did shoot People with my arrows who I knew would be poor match- ups but hey I was bored."

Dr. Greeley was very concerned about that. "Arrows?"

Cupid explained, "They were sort of bow delivered hypos full of a love potion made up of the love hormone oxytocin, B 12 and several other magical chemicals you Mortals haven't discovered yet. I shot Mortals and even other gods with this stuff and made them fall in love with each other. It's my job. I'm Cupid the god of love. Or you can call me Eros or Amor or just plain Love. You can call me anything you want to but get me OUT of here! Its bad enough just being stuck on Earth much less a loony bin!" He explained further, " I've been sent to Earth without my bow and arrows to learn different ways of matching Mortals up. This is my family's idea let me assure you! I was happy with things as they were!'

Dr. Greeley gave him a sympathetic look. "I can see things have been a bit hard for you. All right I'm taking off the straps."

Cupid did what lots of People do when they get their hands free again. He scratched various itches. He growled, "Was putting me in restraints any way to treat a god?"

Dr. Greeley said sarcastically, "It's our new form of worship.'

"Well I don't like it!"

Gently Dr. Greeley explained, "Well Cupid it's saved many a poor soul from poking their eyes out. Understand you claim you are Cupid but we didn't know you from Norman Bates! Until I could examine you and make some kind of a determination as to your mental state the only safe thing to do is keep you restrained. We'd had People here try to choke the Nurses, try to harm themselves and yes try to gorge out their own eyes. If you stay calm and cooperative and don't try to harm yourself or us you'll never have to be in restraints again."

Cupid said, "I have never been violent. Even when the other gods were throwing thunderbolts around my mother and I would just hide and wait for them to calm down. I'm a lover not a fighter."

Dr. Greeley smiled gently, "They are going to love you here! I am going to call a friend of mine and see if she has time to talk to you about life and stuff. I'll let her make the determination which ward you go in but I'd bet good money it's the harmless ward."

Dr. Greeley left.

Then two of our Nurses came to give our new Patient a medical examination.

The way our Nurses took to him maybe he is the god of Love!

He had them tittering like Schoolgirls.

Patrician Peterson was giggling as she checked his heart, "'I never thought I' be examining the heart of the god of love! I'll have to tell my Mother! She loves romance novels. How come you aren't a cute little Baby?"

Our new love god grinned, "I grew up! But hey I've been told I'm still adorable!"

Susan Thomson was checking his blood pressure," "You sure are! We are going to love it when we get to jab your cute, little hiney with the joy juice."

"Huh?" The Patient didn't' sound too happy about that!

Susan giggled, "You stay this calm and cooperative we will just be authorized to give you just a tiny, little bit of it and it will make you sleepy and you can go to bed!

"Ah, bed! I get your drift." The Patient grinned lecherously, "I love to go to bed! Will you both be joining me?"

Both Nurses tittered.

Susan said a bit worried, "Your blood pressure is up quite a bit, Mr. Cupid.

Cupid said sarcastically, "Just Cupid please, and I can't imagine why!"

It took a while for Dr. Allen to arrive. It was her singles night. The Nurses and us Orderlies took turns keeping Cupid company. He was easy to like. It didn't seem like work. He told us all about Olympus. The way he told it the place was messed up but fun, a mixture of Tom Sawyer's hometown and Peyton Place with shades of Hooterville! It is as real to him as Jersey is to me!

Claire finally arrived. She was protesting committing a Man for merely trying to get dates for Folks. "They picked him up at Eerie and Clark for drunk and disorderly. Why isn't he sleeping it off at some precinct house?

"Well no point. The Breathalyzer was negative. They found him brawling with a pimp. It seems the Fellow was standing on the corner offering to find People dates

"The pimp?"

Dr Greeley laughed, "No the Patient. The pimp took umbrage!"

"Well naturally you thought of me."

Where there is more to it than that but you'll see for yourself.

"I assume is name is not John Doe."

"Good instincts, Claire!"

He added, "You've been working on a follow up for your next book for a long time now. How's it coming?"

Claire sighed, "Honestly it's not. I'm still researching. You know. I'm considering returning the advance money. I hate to admit this but love and romance from a scientific standpoint may be a dry well. Why do you ask?"

Claire swung the door open wide and looked into the isolation room and caught her first sight of Cupid who was sitting on his bed now still making the Nurses giggle. "It's a Valentines Day conspiracy! I don't blow my own horn so I end up on wrapping paper looking like a fat, winged Baby. There you go. Look at that huh?" The man had made a rose out of toilet paper and he handed it to Patricia.

Claire was amazed. "He thinks he's Cupid?"

Dr. Greeley patted Claire on the shoulder. "Keep your advance money. There's your best seller!"

Claire had me take him to her office. They talked for hours. It was three in the morning before she gave up hoping for a quick break-through. I could tell he had her interest. Maybe it was the thought of writing a book about "Cupid" or maybe there was more to it. As I said, he was a very easy guy to like.

Hector had gone home hours ago so he would be awake and alert for the early shift the next day. Usually when we escort a brand new Patient we would have wanted two of us present, but at three in the morning I think the fight would have been out of almost any Patient. But Cupid didn't seem to have any anyway. He was sane enough to realize we were trying to help him. So it fell to me alone to escort him to a room and get him settled in.

As I walked him down the hall he told me what Dr. Allen had said about him, "She says I made up being Cupid to hide some deep, dark horrible thing that happened to me that I cannot cope with! Yes! That's her theory! She has these big degrees with gallons of alphabet soup after her name and that was her opinion of me! Me! Cupid the god of love! She thinks I'm faking it because my mind can't deal with the truth! But I'm asking you my friend what possible nightmare could I possibly be escaping from than that is worse than my current, present day reality. I'm a god! Oh whoopity do da! But I've been stripped of my powers and my family doesn't want me, and that's the kicker. MY FAMILY DOESN'T WANT ME."

He was fighting back tears again.

Gently I told him, "Let it out, Cupid. I've seen Patients cry before. Don't bother to fight your feelings. Let it out!"

So he let them flow, "To think I, the god of passion, the prince of feelings had to hear good advice like that from you, a Mortal! Thanks, Friend!"

I handed him a wad of tissues. We Orderlies always have hypos full of sedatives in one pocket and tissues in the other!

He sobbed, "Isaac I can live with out my magic, without my powers, without life in my Mother's beautiful palace and without my things and my soft, fancy clothes and the prestige, (not that I had any prestige anyway), if I were just still WANTED! That's what hurts like my soul has been kicked out of my chest by a Mule and stomped on by all of Hannibal's Elephants! That's what makes me almost grateful I'm here so I'm being watched and can't decide suddenly to bump myself off. If my family still wanted me I could endure all the rest and it would hardly even matter. But that they don't want me any more, Isaac, Ay there's the rub!"

He asked, "How is believing a supposed 'fantasy' that I was deliberately thrown away by my own family because I am not wanted any more, any kind of a fantasy anyone would make up to hide from something worse? What could possibly be WORSE? I would have to be REALLY insane to do this to myself! I would have to really hate myself worse than any being in history EVER hated himself and yet I can't, sense, that, inside, of, me, anywhere. I'm checking! If I have hidden pain, an agony worse than how my heart feels already why didn't I make myself some thing pleasant to delude myself with to hide from it? Why this nightmare? Huh? Huh! This makes no sense!"

And that WAS a valid question. Whatever it was he was hiding from, it had to be worse than what he believed was true! But what could possibly be worse than total rejection by one's own family and species?

Maybe sometimes the mind makes a rational decision to go completely crazy. Maybe being crazy was all that was allowing our Cupid to function!

It was too late to take his picture and put a hospital bracelet on his wrist. That would have to wait until morning. But I had the job all to myself of coaxing the Patient out of his street clothes and into the soft, flimsy impossible-to-use-to-hurt-one's-self garment the Hospital makes the involuntarys wear as a matter of policy. Usually that is a very hard thing to do. It is humiliating and frightening to be striped of one's last link to the outside world and I wish the hospital would change its policy. Many mental facilities let even the involuntary Patients wear their own threads. But our Dr Greeley was old fashioned. He said it was to remind the involuntary Patients of just where they were and that they had to do some changing if they wanted a real life back! I don't approve of that. It sounds like punishing People for being sick. But Dr. Greeley doesn't listen to us Orderlies ALL the time.

It was easier under this circumstances than usual. Cupid was tired and wanted very badly to get into the bed we were providing him with, and of course he didn't want to wear his day clothes to bed. I handed him a set of hospital clothes and he thought we were giving him pajamas for the night. He even thanked me and I didn't do anything to correct his misconception. I took his street clothes which were very nice, very expensive and of good quality and taste and folded them neatly, put them in a plastic bag and gave him a receipt which I signed that stated we had them. I told Cupid we would have them cleaned and pressed and bring them back to him. He thanked us for this too, poor little guy! He didn't know I had basically told the truth but it would be 90 days before we gave them back, more if we decided he needed to be confined for treatment longer!

The next day Hector reported to me Cupid was madder than a wet Hen that we were forcing him to wear even more of the same "dinky do's" he had slept in. He also didn't like the food, didn't want his picture taken while wearing the "dinky do's", and wasn't too fond of the hospital bracelet we clapped around his wrist. Maybe it was the nature of his illness. Unlike depressives and People with bad OCD and People who hallucinate Cupid didn't feel "sick." He felt fine and he had a point about being able to function. He kind of proved that last one by doing what we started calling after that "pulling a Cupid," (successfully faking sanity while really being still quite crazy but clever; the opposite of pulling a "Howlin' Mad Murdock"). He had himself self-supporting and in an apartment in the space of a few hours of his release, despite the fact his recantation of his believing he was Cupid had been faked! But he had no insight as to why we thought him mentally ill at least not at first. Later I think his refusal to back down about being Cupid was more stubbornness and pride than lack of insight. But at first he couldn't even understand why no one would believe him.

He was very mad at his family and kept hollering to them in Greek. I had to keep reminding folks, even some of the Doctors, Dr Greeley and Dr. Freshet in particular that Cupid could pass the, "Lilly Tomlin sanity test." That consisted of a joke she told but a very poignant one:

"How come if you talk to God it's prayer but when He talks to you, it's schizophrenia?"

Cupid's hollering at his family of gods was a kind of prayer. He even knew that. He had very carefully pointed out to us himself he couldn't hear them. It was faith as much as anything that made him even try to talk to THEM. And faith is faith! Cupid certainly was no Presbyterian but to say he was totally cracked would be a falsehood. He just had a few very different beliefs about how the Universe ran. Two thousand years ago he wouldn't' even have been thought all that mad!

Of course thinking he was Cupid was a bit strange to say the least but not really all that strange! Many Christians claim Christ lives inside of them and they function just fine just as Cupid proved he could.

How do we know they aren't all telling the truth? But if so, the Greek gods are much greedier than Christ. When invited in Jesus makes Himself at home and enjoys life through His Hosts, and gives love and guidance. But from the mythology my relationship with Cupid caused me to read I found it is a very dangerous thing to invite a Greek god or a spirit guide in. Sometimes they take completely over their Hosts! And they don't even always ask permission first!

I wondered if that was what happened to our Cupid?

I went home to my Family that night and hugged my Children and Wife close. I wondered what could possibly cause someone to forget his or her loved ones if it wasn't some kind of possession? I am sure no one ever thought it would happen to them! But it does happen to Folks! We had half a dozen Delusionals at our facility, Casper the friendly Ghost, Superman, a Jesus Christ, a couple of Aliens and now Cupid. Some of them had Family who came and visited them even if they didn't know or wouldn't acknowledge these folks were Family. But most tragic of all were the ones like Cupid who had managed to run away from their old life and become completely lost in every way, losing absolutely everything, even their own identity. If we Mental Health Care Professionals didn't be their Friends they would not have any. Amazingly enough Cupid managed to make Friends and a life for himself way from the hospital with help from Claire. But that is extremely unusual for someone as sick as he is. It still did not restore him to his true identity and I always wondered if there is a Human inside of this love god somewhere screaming to get out or hiding in fear and shame.

But our Superman can't really fly. Caspar the friendly Ghost can't really walk through walls and the only water our Jesus Christ has ever walked on was the water on our floor after it had been moped. However Cupid actually does do a good job of matching up couples! Plus he makes the best margarita I have ever tasted.

He's happy most of the time or so he seems.

But I pray to the real Jesus for him every night!

Part II Cupid 2.0 Gets Committed

The Police brought him to us and took off his hand cuffs. He rubbed his wrists. He was a big guy. I could tell they had been much too tight on him. He said as they walked off, "Thanks for the lift Fellows. But let's not do it again!"

Then he turned to us and sort of half winced and half grinned, "OK ground rules. I won't hurt you and you don't hurt me. I don't think if you are competent Orderlies that you would even want to hurt me but in your business you may have noticed Folks aren't always competent." He gazed at us, trying to figure us out. "Remember I've never done this before so I don't know what I'm supposed to do! Explain things to me so I can be the best Mental Patient I can be."

He was tall. He looked like he could handle himself in a fight. So we were very grateful that this one wanted to cooperate! Later we found out his father "the god of war" or someone had seen to it our "Cupid" was very capable of holding his own if he'd had to! His harmlessness was due to his compassion towards us, "Mortals" and his common sense not due to wimpishness. Some People misjudge "Cupid" as being a sissy because of his gentleness. Take it from us, never mistake cooperation due to intelligence for weakness!

I said gently, "It's OK. We aren't going to hurt you and we appreciate your promise not to hurt us." I added, "I'm Isaac and this is Hector. What do we call you?"

He put out his hands to shake ours both at once and said matter of factly"Cupid. Greco-Roman god of love at your cheerful but not so humble service!"

I glanced at Hector and my look said, Well now we know why he's here! We put out our own hands and we shook and his was a firm but friendly handshake and there was nothing but friendliness in his eyes not the usual fear or wildness most Psychotics have. Whatever had set him over the edge it couldn't have been lack of Friends. His social skills were excellent. I smiled at him and said, "OK, Cupid. You have to come with us."

We grabbed him gently by the arms and tugged to signal to him to move forward.

He did and said as he did so, "I know! I know! Ninety days court ordered observation! Sheesk! For what I did I should have gotten community service or a month in the pokey at the most!"

"What did you do?" Hector asked,

He smiled, "You remember hearing about the ball drop change, 'Hi Holly I'm here?'"

I laughed. So did Hector. He asked in an admiring voice "That was you?!"

He winced and nodded, "Ay. And in retrospect maybe we should have tried a different tactic. But I'm still hoping it works."

Then he explained to us how it was a

publicity seeking behavior to attract the attention of Holly for a Gentlemen from Ireland named Dave so they could find one another to unite in eternal love so Cupid could get one couple closer to going home to Olympus. I remember wondering if Dave was even real or just a hallucination. But of course later the papers reported Dave and Holly were both very real!

He told us as we took him to isolation. "This is very annoying! I am a god interrupted. But I won't be in here forever. I'm going to make the best of it though. I have skills. I can cheer the other Patients up and by doing so cheer myself up."

We reached the isolation room. We told him, "Climb up here please. We're sorry, Cupid but until a Doctor gets here to examine you we have to strap you down. Some of the Patients try to harm themselves so it's really for your own protection. It won't be long I promise! Dr. Greeley isn't too over worked today."

And I thought to myself, I hope!

He smiled, "Oh no sweat."

He climbed up in the restraining bed by himself without us having to force him up there. We appreciated that. Did we ever! Because more often than not we get vehement verbal protests and often physical protests too. We were very grateful to have a

Patient who was cooperative even cheerful. You bet it earned him special privileges! (Because we are only Human).

We strapped him in.

He actually grinned, "How kinky! This could be fun under the right circumstances!"

Hector laughed, "Cupid we will see what we can do. He mouthed the word "Dr. McCrae?" at me and I smiled and nodded. It wasn't up to us to pick who was going to help him but we could put in a good word with Dr. Greeley.

Dr Greeley came and examined him. Cupid gazed at him and smiled. He has the most cheerful smile. He said, "Hi there! I'm Cupid. I know you don't believe me but I AM Cupid. You will never persuade me any differently so you should save your breath but I suspect you won't. We can still be friends but that will have to remain a point of contention between us. I know you want to give me medication. It can't possibly harm me so I will hold still for it but after I do for whatever time it takes for it to be supposedly working and I still know I'm Cupid will you please consider that I am right? You can unstrap me. I won't hurt anyone and certainly not myself! Even when I had powers I was one of the more harmless gods. You really got lucky. You could have gotten Zeus or my Uncle Apollo or even one of the Nonolympians like Quetzalcoatl or Thor. Compared to them I am very harmless!"

Dr. Greeley said, "Well! You just did most of my job for me. You let me know why they sent you to us, let me know you are harmless and saved me from having to persuade you to take medication using the same argument I've used on many Patient. OK. I am unstrapping you!"

He did so.

Cupid shook Dr. Greeley's hands, "So! How about them Mets? Think they have a chance at the Pennant this year?"

Amazed at how normal he could seem, Dr. Greeley made small talk about sports for a few minutes than turned to leave.

"Hey!" Our fallen Greek God exclaimed, "Aren't you going to talk to me some more? I'm homesick! I have issues! You didn't even give me a full hour!"

Dr. Greeley sighed, "I'm sorry Cupid but most Psychiatrists don't do that any more. We are basically pill pushers now. But if you want therapy I'll see who I can come up with."

Later Hector said "Dr. Greeley you have got to put this divine Nut Job together with Dr. McCrae! I mean think about it; the god of love and the Princess of Pop Relationship Advice!"

We could see he was thinking about it. But he said, "We were sort of easing her out of here. She doesn't believe much in using meds which is ridiculous. But we'll see. In the mean time I'm ordering him on both Risperidone and Haloperidol because I can't tell if this is Manic Depression or Schizophrenia. He seems to have symptoms of both! He's delusions are way too out of touch with reality for most Bipolar Disorder but he's way too happy about it."

He had a point. Most Schizophrenics are pretty sad and anxious People and they are often living in a chemical brain-soup of pure fear. Not to mention being committed to a mental institution is extremely stressful. But our Cupid seemed to be handling it way too easily to be normal. Newly committed Folks seldom greet us and the Doctors with cheery grins. Oh they may fake trying to pass for cheerful but "Cupid" wasn't faking it. I guess if you think you are immortal a 90 day interruption in your life isn't so bad.

But we expected him to be locked up a lot longer because our instincts told us he was going to be just about incurable. But we didn't anticipate just how clever he could be!

Later he did what we started calling "pulling a Cupid" the exact opposite of pulling a howlin' mad Murdock. He faked sanity just long enough to get out and he did it well enough to fool his personal Therapist and a whole hospital board full of Doctors!

But in the meantime the poor guy was going to get two shots in the butt every hour for a few hours, not just one, two!

He took it with a lot more grace and courage than most People would have!

When he saw us coming with the needles he smiled ruefully and said,"Well now here's poetic justice! Now the Mortals are shooting Cupid!" He lifted his hospital garment so we could do what we had to do. He grinned and said, "With a target this big at this close a range you should be able to hit it even if you went to the Imperial Storm Trooper school of marksmanship!"

"What do you mean by that?" I asked as I rammed needle number one home. I was thinking to myself with amusement, an ancient Greek god who likes Star Wars? (But he turned out to be something of a Trekker!)

"Ouch!" He frowned and his right hand went to his sore cheek. "Wow that smarts!That hurts worse than the blood test they gave me at the Police station. No wonder Mortals don't like shots! My little arrows don't even hurt at all!"

Then it was back to Star Wars. "What I meant was, Luke and Lea would take the Storm Troopers down with just one ray gun blast but the Troopers couldn't hit the broad side of Jupiter if they'd been standing on it! My father, the god of war used to thunder with laughter! He used to say 'Vulcan could do a better job in a firefight even if he never took his eyes off of his usual projects!'"

He was actually trying to distract himself. Which is a good technique for handling shots and one we were glad Cupid knew because he was going to be getting a lot of them!

We didn't give him time to reconsider his cooperative mood. While he was trying to distract himself Hector got him with the Risperidone in the other cheek.

"Ouch again!" His left hand went to his other cheek.

Tears came his eyes. We thought it was from the needle stick pain or fear of what the medicine was going to do to him. Instead to our amazement and amusement it was tears of joy, "You Kids are growing up!"

At least one of us was supposed to be on the ward at all times but we couldn't help it. We had to get away for a few moments! We went to the Employe's restroom and howled!

We were as reluctant to keep giving Cupid those shots as Cupid was to be on the pointy end of the situation. That was true even when it finally dawned on Doctor Greeley Cupid was willing to swallow pills (and would have been right from the first), so we mercifully were allowed to switch him to oral meds. This one we had very mixed feelings about "curing." There are rare Lunatics who are works of art and Cupid was the best example of that I've ever seen! To cure him would be a crime against Humanity! The world needs all the love it can get!"

The third series of shots he somehow got the needles away from us. He didn't get violent. But one second we had them and the next he did. He was so quick and so strong we didn't see it coming. He grabbed them both.

We were VERY concerned! We thought he'd hurt himself or someone else. Instead he opened his mouth and squirted the contents of both hypos down his throat!

We had to tell Dr. Greeley of course.

The Doctor frowned. "I am so sorry! I thought he was harmless. I misjudged him! Transfer him to D immediately!"

We said, "Oh no! He didn't get violent with us and he took the medication! He swallowed it! He told us he actually likes it, jut not the needles. He said it's helping him stand being confined. And he was so gentle! I don't even remember him touching us. He just grabbed the needles and squirted the contents down his throat before we could stop him. Please don't have him sent to Disturbed. He REALLY doesn't need to be there! Just switch him to oral meds."

Dr. Greeley stared at us. Hector nodded vehemently backing me up.

Finally he said thoughtfully, "If ever a Patient were making it quite clear he was ready for oral medication I guess this one just did! Alright. I'll just call in a medication change. By the way do you see any signs the medication is helping him?"

We both shook our heads no. But I said, "He sure is helping the other Patients! Those singalongs, poker games and the shuffle, tag foot ball games he' started are even cheering up the Staff!"

Dr. Greeley asked, "What is shuffle, tag football?"

Hector explained, "He has the Patients and even some of the Nurses use a ping-pong ball as the football. No one is allowed to run or even walk fast. You have to shuffle and it's tag football, no tackling. It certainly isn't a dangerous activity. We are the goals. We have to stand at each end of the harmless ward and points are scored by handing the ball to us. He acts as the referee standing on that end table he calls 'commanding you Mortals from Mount Olympus again.' But we can tell he's joking. Once he is sure we are doing it properly, are not fighting physically over the ball or trying to run or walk instead of shuffling he jumps down and gets in the game."

Dr. Greeley was amazed. "Maybe for the other Patients sake it a good thing this one is going to be around for a while!"

I said, "Please sir, he really does seem perfect for Dr. McCrae! The medications aren't helping. He's cheerful and cooperative. He seems perfectly normal if we keep him off the subject of the gods and Mount Olympus. He made a comment about the President and the war and the economy yesterday that was so funny and so true and so insightful that Nurse Thomson and some of the other Patients were in hysterics! He's out of touch with reality, yes but unlike most like that he could handle therapy. Can't you at least try them together?

I could tell he was still considering it.

In the end the meds didn't even calm him down much, not that he was anxious or even really manic. He was just full of life. So Dr. Greeley did end up putting Cupid together with Claire.

He was in the middle of one of his singalongs when Dr. Greeley finally decided to get Dr. McCrae in on his treatment. We had to pull him right out in the middle of it. He wasn't happy. We told him to wait in the examining room and then even though one of us was supposed to watch him I got called away to help handle a disturbance in Ward C. Well, he seemed pretty content to stay in the room by himself and read old psyche magazines and rip off the pages and toss them over his shoulder at the tiny waste basket from all away across the room without missing even once so I left him there and kind of forgot about him. That could have been a big mistake, even a fatal one, but Cupid didn't take advantage of his rare moment of being unsupervised to harm himself or anyone else or try to escape. Instead he got tired of waiting as anyone would because Dr. McCrae was in the middle of her singles group and took over an hour to get there. All he did was go back to Ward B and continue the singalong where it had left off.

Dr. McCrae finally got there and I had to pull him out of the middle of it again.

He wasn't happy about that. He kept giving us dirty looks.

I said as I hurried him back to the examining room. "Cupid this is your lucky day. She's your kind of Doctor. She' going to talk with you instead of depending on medication. Because the Risperidone and the Haloperidol aren't helping you. Thank your lucky stars Dr. Greeley finally saw the light and is putting the two of you together!"

Cupid shook his head and frowned, "It's not balls of flaming gas in the sky that control our future. It is three, cute, little old ladies with their magic knitting needles and scissors. The Fates are cute as buttons and I just get a big smile every time I get invited over to their place for milk and gingersnap cookies. But they are the most powerful goddesses in Olympus, even more powerful than Zeus!"

I said, "Ah, Ohhhhh kayyyy."

Cupid added, "Astrology is bunk, Isaac. I thought you were educated enough to know that! As Willie said, 'The fate lies not in the stars but in ourselves.' I helped him write that line. It's time you Mortals got over your primitive superstitions!"

I thought to myself, "and this from a guy who thinks the Olympian gods are real!"

He added, "Those little old sisters have really done a number on me this time. But I don't hold it against them. This isn't personal. This is just business."

I decided to change the subject. "Dr. McCrae is pretty, Cupid. VERY pretty. And she is very gentle and compassionate. You will like her!"

He thought about that as we reached the examining room. "Then I suppose no matter what nonsense she tries to fill my head with I can get a quantum of solace from that!"

This time I didn't take my eyes off of him. I went right in the room and watched him like a hawk as if he was a much more disturbed Patient and he kind of frowned at me for that. But I wasn't taking any more chances on another mini-escape. We got there first. I knew Dr. McCrae was studying his file and talking about him a bit more with Dr. Greeley first, so when she did start interacting with the Patient she would be well prepared.

It did turn out to be a match made in Olympus! A religion older than Christianity working with the scientific relationship expert! Dr. McCrae we reluctant at first but she ended up many a time helping him make his matches. After all it was something she sort of did too and I think her theory was after his hundredth couple was matched the Cupid persona would feel free to "go home," and whoever had been there originally would reemerge. But whatever reason for helping him, they were much better at helping folks find love, together than apart.

With Science and Faith working together there is bound to be a whole lot more love in The Big Apple!

**

Author's note. There now! From a 100th bead story back to their very beginnings together I've almost written from one end of the Cupid/Psyche saga to the other! But I'm no done yet by a long shot! There's more coming! Lot's more! So keep checking back here! I am currently working on the story of Cupid and Psyche's Daughter, Delightful, goddess of serenity and their custody battle to keep her. Lawyer Eli Stone helps. So does Cupid/Trevor's family especially red haired and loopy Uncle Mercury, a god of very little brains but a big heart!