Chapter 2 – The First Day of the Convention
The hotel where the convention was held was on the south side of Houston, instead of the north side where most conventions went. This location made it more feasible for Dr Alfred Bellows, chief psychiatrist for NASA, to attend. NASA's Johnson Space Center was on the south side of Houston, near the town of Nassau Bay and the waters of Clear Lake. It was rare for a military psychiatrist to be able to attend conventions, but when Dr Bellows received the brochure for this one, he knew he should attend. Several workshops caught his eye, particularly one entitled "Patient Delusions." For more than 12 years, he had been dealing with Astronauts Tony Nelson and Roger Healey, both of whom seemed to act strangely and have unexplained things happen to them. Then, about six weeks before the convention was to take place, Roger Healey was found in a hospital in Washington, D.C., beaten by an attacker. Suddenly, the workshop entitled "The Battered Patient" attracted Dr Bellows.
On the first day of the convention, Bob was dressing in the hotel room and asked, "So, Emily, what do you plan to do today?"
"While you were registering last night, Bob, I signed up for a bus trip to The Galleria and some other shopping plazas here."
Bob gulped. "Well, all right, be careful, and remember, we didn't bring any extra suitcases." He was envisioning a suitcase full of new clothes for Emily.
She laughed. "No, Bob, sometimes window shopping is far more fun!"
The convention opened with a mass gathering of psychologists and psychiatrists in the same room, listening to a keynote speaker and then a description of some of the workshop offerings. Bob looked around to see if there was anyone he knew from previous conventions, but came up dry.
Bob had signed up for a workshop called "Paranoia." He had several patients that could fall under the description of "paranoid" and thought maybe he could learn something new. Unfortunately, it was two hours worth of drivel that he had already tried and hadn't worked. At lunch he sat with four other psychologists who had been in that workshop with him, and found that they all agreed – their time might have been better used somewhere else.
One rule that Bob had learned many years before, at these conventions, is that one never mentioned names of patients. That was a breach of etiquette. Occasionally someone might use a first name, but never a last name.
The afternoon would hold two sessions. The first one was about Patient Delusions. Bob went in to the room, where they obviously expected about 30 doctors, and sat down. Shortly thereafter, a man in an Air Force uniform with colonel's bird insignia took the seat next to Bob.
The man introduced himself, "Hello, I'm Alfred Bellows of NASA."
Bob was startled, but came back with "Bob Hartley, of Chicago." The two exchanged small talk about Chicago, as Dr Bellows had once visited Chicago.
"Two of my astronauts were responsible for ensuring that the Museum of Science and Industry's space section was accurate, during the Apollo project," Dr Bellows proudly told Bob.
"Great museum," Bob replied. "My wife takes her third graders there every year, and they stop in the space section. That's part of the third grade studies in Illinois."
The workshop was interesting, and at one time, the presenter asked the doctors to break into small groups for an activity. Bob and Alfred joined two other doctors, near them, for the activity. During the activity, Bob let on that one of his patients had delusions of seeing a genie in the cockpit of his plane.
"Tell me, does this patient also have … strange things … happen to him all the time?" Alfred Bellows asked.
Bob chuckled, "You'd have to know How – my patient. I think he's constantly jet-lagged because he works for an airline. He seems to know when he's home, but never knows what time it is. These flyers – their heads are in the clouds all the time!" He then looked at Dr Bellows. "If you deal with astronauts, do they have that same problem?"
Dr Bellows shook his head first, "I don't think they…" then thought again. "Well, maybe they do. I've got two astronauts that always have something strange going on with them, particularly one. But I have yet to figure out what makes it all happen!"
At the end of the workshop, Dr Bellows turned to Dr Hartley and said, "Are you here in Houston alone?"
"No, my wife is with me. She's out shopping today," he said, and rolled his eyes.
"The Galleria, no doubt," Alfred Bellows stated with a wry smile, and got a nod from Bob. "I'd like to invite you and your wife to dinner at my house, perhaps tomorrow evening when there is nothing on the schedule? I'll arrange a tour of NASA – your wife should find that interesting if she teaches space science."
Bob gladly accepted the invitation on his and Emily's behalf, and went on to his next workshop. This time, the subject was "The Adult A.D.D./A.D.H.D." A.D.H.D., or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, was a fairly new syndrome and its treatment, controversial. It was mostly diagnosed in children, but more and more, medical doctors were saying it was an adult disorder as well. Treatments ranged from diet and nutrition management, to psychological consultations, to prescription medication such as Ritalin. Bob had read an article in one of his professional journals about the syndrome and decided that he should attend this workshop, which proved interesting. As he listened, he realized that his neighbor, Howard Borden, had many of the symptoms of the adult A.D.H.D.