5

"But you´ve told us there would be visible results after one week!" Alfred Bailey slammed his fist on the desk, only by inches missing his coffee cup. Dr.Monroe straightened up. There was definitely a change in the way he addressed the man. This time he didn´t even try to be polite; the anger about his failure made him considerably less tolerant. "I know perfectly well what I´ve told you.", he said coldly. "But the therapy can´t succeed when the patient doesn´t take the medication. And this applies to your daughter, as yesterday´s blood test shows."

As he received a blank stare from the parents, he felt the urge to explain: "In the ward your daughter lives in the taking of medicine is not observed. Most patients like this freedom and do not abuse it. But obviously the illness of Maria is progressing more quickly than we all thought. She actively hid the tablets under the dirty laundry in the far corner of her dormitory.". Dr.Monroe took a sip of his tea, absent-mindedly playing with the spoon. It didn´t happen too often that he had to give relatives the final blow, but in this case it was necessary. "Maria doesn´t want to be cured."

"Liar!" Katherine Bailey´s eyes were full of fury. "How can you say such a thing? Maria wants to be cured as much as we want her to!" "And Peter!", her husband assisted. "She loves him – they want to marry …" "That´s no longer true, Fred." Astonishingly Mrs.Bailey sounded much calmer than a minute before, and the doctor was able to relax a little, nevertheless listening closely to every word. "Maria…" She looked at Dr.Monroe, as if to ask permission to go on. He nodded encouragingly.

"She refused to sleep with Peter after that day we had come to her flat. She said the ´Angel of Music´ wanted her to remain ´pure´. Of course Peter didn´t believe a word of it and suspected she was seeing someone else. Stupid boy – as if she could have felt like dating in that state of mind! Two or three weeks later she threw him out of her flat – literally! He was covered in bruises. Since then we haven´t heard a word of him." Katherine Bailey ended, apparently exhausted by her long speech.

"And a few weeks after that she ceased to talk to us.", Mr.Bailey added. The doctor nodded in a satisfied way. "Yes, your daughter has withdrawn from the real world, preferring to live in a dream-like state. Once the patient reaches this stage it is difficult to get him or her back." The professionalism in his voice became less and less as he admitted: "Perhaps I should have told you this earlier.". "Is there still a possibility, anything you can do?", Mr.Bailey asked. "Of course we could force her to take the medicaments, but …", Dr.Monroe started slowly. "Then do so!", the Baileys exclaimed almost in unisono. Katherine Bailey had taken out the picture of Maria and stared at it. "We just want to have our daughter back.", she muttered barely audible.

…………………………………………………………………………………………………...

"They won´t let you do that much longer.", Angela commented Maria´s efforts from the windowsill. "One day you´ll have to take the pills. They´ll simply tie you to the bed and shove them into your mouth." She knew that it wasn´t true, but this way the story sounded much more dramatic. Obviously Maria was finished and had fallen back into her stupor. "Honestly, what´s so great about hearing this guy? You could have many of them out in the real world, and I bet that after a while you´d want more than just their voices." The thought made Angela chuckle.

An elderly woman entered the room and went straight for the corner where Maria sat. "The doctor insisted on telling her, so I´ll tell her, no matter how pointless it is.", she muttered angrily before continuing in a louder, but not much friendlier tone: "Maria, as you´ve not taken your medication so far, we have no other choice than forcing you to, starting from tomorrow. Have you heard me?". "You could as well have talked to the bedside table, Mrs.Norman.", Angela said.

´Please, my angel, you have to help me!´ It´ll be all right, Christine, don´t panic! ´But what will you do?´ I´ll get you out of there. We´ll be together at last.