Chapter 13: The Mind of a Mental

"That Day"

Pauline was startled awake. For a moment she continued to feel the dream sensation that she was falling from a cliff, but as soon as she became fully conscious it faded instantly and she couldn't remember at all what the dream had been about. She lay in bed, feeling unsettled as the early light peeped in the window.

Not so long ago she had been sure she would be happy to never see Al Large again. Thanks to him she had missed the deadline for her application to university. She had also been fairly certain the Doc would soon be leaving Portwenn and she would be out of a job. So she was faced with no boyfriend, no job, and no prospects.

And then Jonathan barged in.

000

"Can I help you?" she said.

"No. Shh," he replied, clearly very agitated. He pushed past her and into the Doc's office, demanding to talk to Louisa. When he pulled out a knife Pauline ran for the door but he stopped her escape.

The Doc was angry but Pauline warned him not to antagonize the mental patient who had obviously gone off his meds.

Louisa called her father as the nutter wanted but it didn't seem to calm him down much. The Doc tried telling him to take a few deep breaths, hand over the knife, and sit down, but he spoiled it by adding he would sedate Jonathan and call the police.

You weren't supposed to say that last bit out loud, Pauline thought. She was dismayed by the whole situation but fascinated too. After all, how often did you get to observe a real life case study of a mental patient gone off his meds?

So when Jonathan, rudely addressing her as Reception Chickie, told her to get some tying up stuff, she decided to cooperate with him and suggested surgical tape. When he claimed he was hearing electronic static in the air, she said she thought she could hear it too.

"They'll call the hostage negotiator in soon," Pauline softly reassured the others, but she could see the situation was causing tension between Louisa and the Doc.

Jonathan was gesturing with the knife and obsessing about something-or-other when the fax machine started buzzing. He was convinced the fax about the baker's bacterial infection was really secret code about him.

"This is really interesting, see, what goes on in the mind of a mental," Pauline said to Louisa. "I'm thinking about becoming a psychiatric nurse, you'd meet all sorts."

Jonathan was getting alarming, waving the knife in the Doc's face, accusing him of lying. Pauline was really starting to get nervous. Maybe the hostage negotiators weren't about to be called in.

Then a voice came from the front door. "Hello? Hello? Hello?" Pauline recognized it as Mr. Peters, the unctuous man who had made the Doc go to the review panel. Jonathan freed up the Doc to go out and get rid of him, following behind to spy on them.

Pauline relaxed for a moment, as much as she could in the circumstances. Louisa still seemed tense, very tense. "I… I'm so sorry," she murmured to Pauline. "Martin was right, my father is nothing but a criminal. It's all my fault for putting my faith in him. I've put Martin in danger, and you too. All of us."

"Don't worry," Pauline reassured her in a low voice. "The Doc's free now, he'll get a message to Mr. Peters or something."

They could hear the Doc and Peters talking, but they couldn't make out any words. Then the door closed. "Lock it, lock it. Go on," Jonathan said.

They came back in the office. The Doc will do something now, Pauline thought.

"All right, uh, Jonathan, let's put the knife down," the Doc said, trying to sound reasonable. "Things seem muddled for you now but… uh, you're amongst friends." He lunged at Jonathan and tossed a lamp which the nutter easily avoided. Pauline's heart sank at the pathetic attempt.

"OK, I'll sit down," the Doc said, subdued.

"I think that would be a good idea," Louisa murmured.

Jonathan went to tie the Doc's ankles, and began complaining about getting headaches. The Doc went into clinical mode, attempting to diagnose his symptoms. Meanwhile Pauline noticed Jonathan had put down the knife. It was obvious Louisa had noticed it too. They began to frantically signal behind Jonathan's back. The Doc caught on and once again lunged at Jonathan.

"Hit him!" Pauline yelled.

But the Doc's legs were held fast and he tumbled over, Jonathan grabbed the knife and pulled back to stab. Pauline gasped.

And then Terry Glasson barged in. "Jonathan!"

Startled, the nutter wheeled around and stabbed him instead. Jonathan was instantly apologetic, blaming anyone but himself, as the Doc warned him not to pull the knife out.

"I'm the worst friend ever," Jonathan whinged. "Just um… fix him! Fix him! OK?"

He untied the Doc, who went into clinical mode again, treating the bloody wound, taking just a moment to be sick into the bin.

Deprived of his knife, Jonathan went rummaging in the cupboard and came out with a shotgun. Pauline was shocked to see the gun, it wasn't the sort of thing the Doc normally kept in his office.

Back in control, Jonathan began plotting, something about having to get to a boat at 12 to retrieve a package. Terry being wounded, the nutter considered going himself. Pauline's hopes were raised only to be dashed when Jonathan realized the flaw in that plan.

"Then I'll be out there and you'll be here and you'll just call the police," he said. "OK, we need to get someone else to go and get the boat. You won't do it, so um… you!" He pointed to the Doc.

"I can't work a boat," the Doc protested.

"He's from London," Pauline explained.

"Can I just point out that you're automatically assuming that a woman isn't up to the job?" Louisa offered.

"Fine. You do it."

"I'm… probably not strong enough," she conceded. Pauline thought she and Louisa working together could be up to the job but she was too nervous to say it.

And there came a knocking at the front door and a slightly tipsy voice. "Pauline!"

Al Large. The man she never wanted to see again. She was never so happy to hear someone in her life.

"I know you're in there. Pauline! I know you're in there, I just want to talk!" He continued knocking. "I don't care how long I gotta wait, you're gonna have to talk to me!"

Jonathan greeted him at the door and marched him into the office at gunpoint. What a sight it must have been for him, Pauline thought, the place in disarray, she and Louisa tied up, and the Doc bandaging Terry Glasson's arm.

"What's goin' on?" was Al's only comment.

"I know. You can go," said Jonathan.

"Go where?"

"You need to get a boat and pick something up at 12."

"I can't get a boat, I'm just a plumber," Al protested.

"Al, Mr. Crozier is suffering a psychotic breakdown," the Doc informed him.

"What does that mean?"

"It means he's mad. Just do as he says."

"Either you do it," Jonathan warned, "or I make a colander out of Reception Chickie." Pauline realized the nutter had clearly picked up on Al's interest in her.

"What's a colander?"

"It's a type of sieve, Al," the Doc explained.

"It's bigger than a sieve," Pauline just had to contribute.

Jonathan was gesturing with the gun and it wasn't clear to Pauline if what happened next was a accident or intentional but it made the nutter's point very clear: He blasted the clock on the desk, with a shocking BANG! and clanging gears. Pauline felt like she was going to be sick.

"Me dad's got a boat," Al admitted.

Pauline couldn't hold back any longer. "I want to go home." Al moved behind her protectively and patted her on the shoulder.

"OK, tell them," Jonathan ordered.

Terry explained that the boat was a Spanish trawler that would be three miles up the coast and a half mile off Nelson's Point. "Tell them 'Terry sent me.' Say 'Terry mi mando a por el paquete.'"

He made Al repeat the phrase. Pauline repeated it to herself, trying to help him any way she could, but it soon degenerated into bickering over the correct Spanish grammar.

That only made Jonathan angry. "Seriously! Tick tock! Tick tock, tick tock!"

Al departed. "He'll be all right, won't he," Pauline said anxiously.

"Course, he will," said Terry, but he hesitated before saying it.

Jonathan sat in a corner with the gun on his lap and they waited. And waited.

"What's all this about, Dad?" Louisa finally said.

"Jonathan, will you please take a couple of your pills!" Terry said. Obviously he didn't want to answer her.

"What's in the package?!" she insisted.

"Drugs." Pauline felt certain.

Jonathan smirked. "You wouldn't wanna be puttin' any of this stuff up your nose."

"It isn't drugs," Terry said.

"It's explosives," Jonathan said. "We're bank robbers." He seemed excited at the prospect.

"It isn't a bank, it's a warehouse," Terry said.

"It has a safe in it."

"Doesn't make it a bank."

"Wait." It was just beginning to sink in for Pauline. "You sent Al to pick up explosives?!"

The phone rang. "Surgery," Jonathan answered it. "You got the package?" Pause. "Pauline is fine. Pauline's great." He mouthed to the others, "who's Pauline?"

"Al, careful with the package!" Pauline shouted.

"OK, bring it back here," Jonathan said. "No, no, no, you need to bring it back here, now."

Could dear, sweet, stubborn Al actually be arguing with the nutter? "Al, for God's sake bring the bloody package!" Pauline yelled.

Jonathan shushed her and listened to the phone. "All right." He turned to the Doc. "It's for you. No wait. No funny stuff, OK? No code! All right, hold on. He said someone's fallen off a cliff."

"And?" the Doc said.

"He says 'and?'" Jonathan said into the phone.

"He can hear me," the Doc said. "Al?" He listened. "Call the Coast Guard."

"No Coast Guard!" said Terry.

"No Coast Guard!" Jonathan repeated into the phone, then turned to Terry. "Why not?"

"They'll see the explosives," Terry whispered. "The Doc can go down there." Terry looked reluctant. "The doctor can treat his patient," Terry insisted. "We can get a hold of the package."

"Um, OK. Plumber Boy? We're coming there," Jonathan told Al, and rang off. "All right everybody," he announced to the room. "Come on, we're leaving. We're leaving now. I said we're leaving! Come on, are you deaf!"

Pauline and Louisa glared at his obliviousness to their predicament, which he was responsible for.

"Oh!" he said, almost apologetically. He set them free, and everyone went outside to pile into the Doc's car.

000

The alarm clock went off and Pauline swatted it to silence the buzzer. Cheer up, it's gonna be a great day, she told herself as she got up and headed to the bathroom to get ready.

To be continued…