39.

~ Maybe the medication was working. Maybe it was the long, boring days where nothing ever happened. Probably both. Norman had been feeling better and clear headed since he'd elected to stop taking calls from his mother, or Dylan.

Doctor Edwards had felt that, given how upset Norman was after talking to his mother, it was for the best to focus on something else.

Now the art classes, group therapy and one on one sessions with Doctor Edwards were calming to Norman. He could breathe easier, knowing Mother wasn't just around the corner. Ready to claw at him with her sharp words.

"Lets talk about Blair Watson." Doctor Edwards said in his always soothing voice.

Norman reflexively felt his body go tense. His fingers knitting together and the need to cover himself and look away.

"What about her?" Norman asked. "She… the man that killed her is locked away."

"I mean last time you were here, you talked about your relationship with her. How you'd go over to her house. That things… happened." Edwards said.

"Private things." Norman snapped back darkly.

"I know." Edwards said. "But I have to ask."

Norman shook his head and realized his legs were twitching.
"I'd go over to her house. She… we'd have school projects. She wanted to help me edit a paper to be published." Norman explained.

"There seems to be more to it than that." Edwards told him. "After she died… they found your DNA inside her, Norman."

Norman shook his head. He didn't want to think about that. Didn't want to remember.
"I don't remember-"

"Yes, you do." Edwards said quickly. "We need to talk about it."

Norman shook his head again.

"She… she was an attractive teacher." Norman told him angrily. "All teenage boys want to have sex with an attractive teacher."

"You're not all teenage boys, Norman." Edwards said calmly.

Norman refused to look at Edwards.

"When did it start?" Edwards asked.

"At school." Norman said quickly. He knew exactly what Edwards meant by 'it'. He meant the dirty things that Mother and Romero were doing. The two of them making that smell together all over the house. Mother rushing to the Romero's motel room in the middle of the night with no shame at all. The two of them doing 'it' while they thought he didn't know.

"She…" Norman shook his head. Remembering Miss Watson with her sleek red nails and perfectly painted lips. How her clothes hugged her body in such a way he could see every curve; like a pin up calendar. All hips and cleavage exposed for everyone to see. No wonder Mother hated her.

"She would put her hands on me at school." Norman said carefully. His memories coming back sharp and painful.

"She, felt good." he added guiltily.

Edwards was quiet for a moment.

"At her house…" he encouraged gently.

Norman didn't want to go there. Didn't want to say.

"It… went on. Like that." the younger man said. "We… did things."

"Did you want to do those things? She was an older woman, Norman. Your teacher. You were barely seventeen." Edwards told him.

Norman looked away. His arms crossing over his chest.

"Men are supposed to like it." he said. "Doesn't everyman have a fantasy about being seduced by an attractive older woman?"

"Some do." Edwards agreed solemnly. "But it's probably upsetting to have your teacher make you have sex with her."

"She didn't… she didn't make me." Norman said.

"She would't let you leave. She touched you and told you not to tell anyone." Edwards told him.

"She…" Norman felt slightly faint.

The memory of what Miss Watson did to him was flooding back. How her hands were suddenly strong and she was unzipping his pants, pulling him out and stroking him. How Norman didn't know what to do, how to react or how to stop it. It had felt good and he'd been ashamed of that. How'd he'd gotten too excited and Miss Watson only smiled and made him shower in her house while she washed his clothes. How she made him try again and again until he could learn to keep control. How she'd made him touch her between her legs. Guiding his hands there and demanding he do as he was told. His sweet teacher suddenly gone and he was afraid of the woman who'd replaced her.

"It was like I couldn't say no." Norman said softly. "She'd make me take a shower… wouldn't let me get dressed. Made me stay in her bed. She kept putting her hands on me. I couldn't help but… react that way. I didn't want to. I wanted us to be like we were. She was so nice before she started doing it. I just wished she could have stayed that way."

"How long?" Edwards said. His voice feeling very far away.

Norman shook his head.

"Almost the entire school year." Norman said. "I think the first time was just a week after school started. The last time was the night she died. I… I ran home."

Edwards was quiet for a moment.

"Did your mother know? Did she know what was happening to you?" he asked.

Norman shook his head.

"She was sleeping with Deputy Shelby then. Miss Watson told me not to tell because I'd get into trouble. I believed her." he said.

"She made you have sex with her for over a year." Edwards told Norman. "She hurt you and you never told anyone."

Norman shook his head.
"I… we were in love." he choked.

"People who love each other don't do things like that, Norman. Sex dozen't equal love." Edwards told him. "She was in a position of power and she abused the trust that was placed in her."

Norman shook his head.

"She would have been arrested if-" Edwards started to say.

"No!" Norman snapped.

A different narrative flashed through his mind. One that was as clear and bright as his old black and white movies. Sheriff Romero arresting Miss Watson for what she'd done. Mother's arms protectively around Norman. Her face angry and judgmental as they always were when she learned the truth. She would know then. Everyone would know. Know that he was doing the dirty thing with Miss Watson and she would judge him with disgust. As though she had never done the dirty thing with Romero.

"No, it wasn't like that." Norman went on.

"Why'd you keep it secret then?" Edwards asked logically.

Norman was quiet for a long time. His memories going back under again. Like a ship sinking in a still sea.

"I… we shouldn't talk about this anymore." Norman said at last.

~ Everyday at Pine View was boring and predictable. The only change in routine was when he'd gotten his vaccine and was able to co-mingle with the other patients. His room no longer a cocoon to hide away in. He was forced to do group activities and spend a lot of time outdoors. The break from all of the drama of his home life was refreshing. A welcomed parole from constant fighting or awaiting catastrophe. Still, he wanted to leave. He didn't like the way Edwards would make him remember things. How he was remembering his father dying. The way he'd pulled mother by the hair. How she was screaming and crying. How she was so scared when Shelby was in the house with that gun. How Shelby had been just like his father. Bullying the whole family while they sat around the kitchen table. The same kitchen table where Keith Summers….

Norman blinked and shook off the memory. He was in art class and they were painting. Norman had never been gifted at drawing or any kind of art. Lately, all he ever painted was the old house by the motel. Always at the same angle, always looking alone and in winter. The art teacher saying it was very good. Like the artist Hopper and she showed him pictures on the internet of Hopper's work. A woman with slumped shoulders sitting alone in front of a window. People in a retro diner sitting together, but looking very lonely.

"Hopper was all about that feeling of isolation." the art teacher said. "We all feel alone. Sometimes we want to be alone. Our own company can be good sometimes."

Norman hadn't given his art teacher much thought. She wasn't like Mother or Miss Watson. She was old and fat and her gray hair looked ratty and unkept in it's bun. He felt strange being alone in the room with her though. Even though she never touched him… he wondered what he would do if she made him do things with her like Miss Watson had. Did his art teacher want that? Wasn't she too old?

Norman shook his head and quickly excused himself for the bathroom.

~ In his months here at Pine View, Norman hadn't done much. But he HAD made a study of the staff and their routines. It was like watching a nature documentary. The science of their comings and goings. How they never looked at the residents here in the eye and how someone was always lurking in the corners. Just out of sight, but watching the residents in case of trouble. Norman observed where they sat, who their friends were and how easily it was to annoy them. They didn't want to talk to or be friendly with the residents. If one of them tried, most became irritated and told them to go back to the TV room. The nurses stayed in the island that was the nurses station. A locked room that was behind wired glass. A place where he knew the phone to the outside world was. The main nurses station was always occupied. Unless lunch was being passed out or there was an incident. Some patients fighting or someone in distress. Norman had noticed the man across the hall was always having a panic attack before lunch and there was a mad scramble to get him calm and situated to eat in the dinning room. The nurses station was left ajar by the sudden but expected outburst. Before the heavy door could swing shut and lock, Norman slipped his foot in to stop it and silently ducked inside.

He quickly knelt on the floor as soon as he found the landline phone and hit the number nine. A welcoming dial tone reached him and he breathed a sigh of relief. The automatic directory gave him Julian's cell phone number and connected him with ease. Norman's old friend picked up on the second ring.

"Norman!" Julian said with a snarky laugh. "Where you been? The whole town is opening back up. Was at your motel and the cops are leaving, man!"

"I need your help." Norman said sitting under the nurses desk while the commotion outside went on and no one bothered to check where Norman Bates was. That was good. It was better to be invisible. "I need your help getting out of here."

"Where's here?" Julian asked sounding distracted and Norman knew he was playing a video gam while talking to him.

"Pine View." Norman said gruffly and noticed there was a chart on the desk with the facility's name and address on it. "It's just outside of the county." He read off the street address and Julian chortled.

"I know where that place is. Boy your parents have money. If they stuck you in there." he said.

"Just come get me." Norman snapped.

"When?" Julian asked.

"Tomorrow. On the back lawn they have yoga at exactly ten in the morning." Norman told him.

"That's early." Julian said growing cranky. "I'll have to get up early to be there on time. Pine View isn't close."

"Just be waiting in the small turn around behind the back lawn. No one will see you because of the trees and privacy hedges."

"Fine." Julian said lazily. "I got nothing else going on. Lost my job at the county morgue. Did I tell you that? Sheriff Romero, asshole, arrested my friends last week. Found all the shit we stole. I'm sure he's looking for me now."

"Julian, I mean it." Norman said. "Be there."