(A/N: Hey everyone, I hope you enjoy this chapter.)
Morning broke, and Arnold awakened from his slumber to the sound of his beeping digital clock.
He grumbled in dismay and turned to look at it, 6:45am.
Swiftly, he rose from his bed, wiping the sleep away from his eyes.
"Gotta get ready!" he said excited for his first day of work. He headed to the door, down the stairs, and towards the bathroom only to see a line awaiting him.
"Ooooh! Noooo" he groaned as he turned back down the hallway disappointed.
But...as an afterthought, he recalled something from long ago. "Yes!" he exclaimed quietly as he made his way down to the basement, through a secret passage way, to find the private bathroom grandpa had hidden from the previous boarders all those years ago.
He chuckled as he stated, "If I remember correctly I thought four-eyed jack was down here." As he entered the adorned bathroom, he muttered. "Thankfully, these boarders still have no idea about this."
For a moment, he slightly felt bad for not saying anything to them, but knew that this was his opportunity to be on time for his first day of work. He couldn't miss it.
Once he finished getting dressed, Arnold checked the clock once more, 7:20am.
He felt energized for his first day and couldn't wait to start. Arnold always enjoyed new challenges while learning new things, and to be able to help people in the process made him feel better.
With 40 minutes to get to work, Arnold bolted out of his room with lab coat and briefcase in hand down the stairs. In a rush, he grabbed his coffee and toast while taking the time to quickly greet the boarders on his way out. Heading towards his car, Arnold looked over the directions.
He then drove a half-hour through unfamiliar streets towards the facility. As he approached the outskirts of Hillwood, not far ahead were the gates of the institution. The place was surrounded by many columns of trees in a row on each side. Drawing closer to the gated entrance, Arnold approached a booth with an armed guard stationed in it.
"Good-morning" Arnold greeted.
The guard replied. "Good-morning, Sir. How may I help you?"
"Um... My name is Arnold Shortman and I'm a new employee here" he mentioned before the guard momentarily entered the booth to grab his clipboard.
The man looked in his late 30's somewhat tall and lanky with reddish hair almost like Eugene's with light freckles on his face. He wore a typical guard uniform with a badge and everything, but held only a baton for weapon.
The guard skimmed the list of names written on the clipboard. "Shortman...Shortman ... Hmm...Ah! ...Shortman, Arnold. Yep! Well, Welcome to Hillview Mental Institution or should I say... Welcome... to the jungle!" The man exclaimed as he slightly chuckle with humor, wiggling his eyebrows in the process.
Arnold felt slightly odd at the man's behavior. He was unable to respond for a moment. At the sight of Arnold's quizzical expression, he laughed. "Oh well, you'll find out soon enough!"
Arnold inquired curiously, "Why do you call it the jungle?"
The guard smirked at Arnold's gullibility, he replied in amusement. "Ooooh Nooo, Mr. Shortman this you have to figure out yourself."
The guard stood there quietly for a moment, while Arnold racked his brain. Arnold felt the guard was trying to intimidate him and he was not amused.
But he soon snapped out of his tactic and cut right to the chase. "Well, it looks like you're all set, Sir."
And the barrier lifted, allowing Arnold to pass through.
"Oh! Thanks...um" Arnold nervously laughed.
"Earl Jenkins but you can call me Earl" the guard nodded in courtesy tipping his cap to him.
Arnold nodded back as he replied. "Thanks Earl"
Before he drove forward, the guard took the opportunity to inform him of what he needed to do as he entered the facility.
"Alright now...just drive straight down the road and turn to your right you'll find the employees parking lot there. Follow the walkway on the side of the building and that'll lead you to the entrance door, you can't miss it. Oh! And since you don't have an official employee id just buzz in, tell them your name, and they'll let you in. Any questions?"
Arnold looking stumped uttered "Uh, not really"
"Well, then once again Welcome and... Good Luck " the guard replied winking.
Arnold nodded slowly still not liking the guard's mysterious attitude, and drove off.
As he pulled away, he whispered, "What was up with that guy?" Not wanting to dwell, he just shrugged it off and went on his way.
Driving down the gravel road, Arnold noticed the immense grayish building coming into view. It was huge and ghastly. This building sort of had an antiquated feeling to it. Its outward appearance looked like one of those asylums you would see in a horror or suspense movie, where its appearance often sets the tone for what horrifying character may be lurking inside, resulting in massacres.
Passing by it, Arnold could see the worn windows surrounded by dirt and mold. And the metal bars welded on them were rusted beyond recognition of its original color. The lawn looked like it wasn't manicured regularly with weeds evidently surpassing the height of the grass. Looking at it made Arnold shiver in fear temporarily, but he continued on towards the parking lot, parking his car.
Getting out, Arnold rapidly grabbed his briefcase and white coat, and marched towards the employee's entrance. Arriving at the door, he pushed the button on the intercom, and waited for a reply.
A woman's voice spoke up, "Last Name, First Name?"
"Uh...Shortman, Arnold" he replied anxiously.
"Please Hold" the woman said.
Next thing he knew, a buzz sound was heard on the door. Arnold took this as his cue to pull the heavy metal door open.
Soon he began walking down hall towards a receptionist's desk.
"Excuse me, 'Hi'.. my name is Arnold..uh. can you direct me to personnel?" he said, shrugging his shoulders not knowing where to go from there.
A young woman looked up from her magazine, mouth agape, then resumed chewing her gum slowly as her eyes never left the man before her. "Hellooooo, Hot Stuff" She thought as she stared up and down at him repetitively, making Arnold slightly blush at her ogling.
She gathered herself to reply.
"Um..Sure" she said as she gulped her bubble gum, before offering a bright smile. She leaned forward on the desk and close to Arnold, and he temporarily looked down only to quickly look back up, she smirked knowingly then said, "Go to your right from here down the hallway two doors down you can't miss it."
She offered Arnold a wink as he thanked her awkwardly, and then he rapidly walked to the direction he needed to go to.
Contrast to the state outside of the facility, the surroundings inside was pristine. Everything in that place was meticulously arranged and not a single blemish of dirt can be seen. In this instance, he felt it strange, seeing that the outside was poorly kept. He didn't understand why it was arranged this way. It seemed a bit odd though.
Arnold shook his head and continued walking about to his destination.
Not a moment too soon, Arnold arrived at personnel.
He knocked a few times on the door and entered at someone's response inviting him in. He was welcomed by a secretary in her mid-40's named Nancy.
"Good-morning" she uttered
"Good-morning" Arnold replied "My name is Arnold Shortman, I'm new here."
Nancy was a well-mannered raven haired woman with hazel eyes, who looked to be meticulous in performing her job. "Well the name's Nancy, nice to meet you and Welcome to Hillview Mental Hopsital." She present her hand and Arnold shook it. After offering him a seat she explain a few things to Arnold then began entering Arnold's information into the system.
She had him sign some waivers, took his picture and thumb print for his employee card, and handed him the regulation book for the facility to read.
Staring at him through her prescribed glasses she pointed out. "Now, Dr. Shortman your employee id card will be ready and activated by tomorrow. It will give you access to patients' rooms in the facility."
For a moment, Arnold's eyes widened and a smile crept up his face as he felt proud at being called doctor for the very first time.
"I like the sound of that" he thought.
She skimmed the by laws and other stuff before she concluded her counsel, " Any questions?"
Arnold replied with a half-smile "No, ma'am"
"Good, well then looks like you're all set Dr. Shortman."
She pressed a button on her intercom and asked for someone's name that Arnold didn't quite catch.
The woman presented him to a young gentleman who came to the door. This young man was short in stature and had a slight resemblance to Dino Spumoni. It could be his son. "Nahhhh"
The woman spoke up and addressed Arnold, "Dr. Shortman, this... is Jonah from human resources also, he'll be giving you a tour of our facility. And then, he will take you to Dr. Benson our head psychiatrist for section O of this facility. You'll be working under his tutelage for the next few weeks " she noted before bidding them goodbye.
Both men introduced themselves and shook hands. Arnold followed the young man in touring the facility.
They made small talk along the way, getting acquainted. It didn't take long to tour the place when they finally made their way towards his mentor's office. As they walked, the young man smiled at Arnold and expressed, " Dr. Shortman, I think you'll do great. These people here... they'll keep you on your toes though. This place has...interesting characters."
"What do you mean?" Arnold said naively.
Jonah replied with a smirk on his face "Oh! You'll see..."
Arnold looked perplexed once again at the young man's vague response, but he brushed it aside as they approached the doctors' wing.
Reaching the doctors' offices, Jonah led him to his mentor's office, Dr. Henrik Benson.
He knocked on the door a few times before they entered. As they stood in the office the young man introduced Arnold to his mentor and then bid him farewell.
Dr. Henrik Benson appeaed to be a man his late 50's with dark grayish brown hair and light blue eyes with a pale complexion. Arnold noticed that he is married man with kids based on the angled frame with a picture of his family in a typical family photo. Accompanying that family portrait were small framed pictures of little kids in it, most likely his grandchildren.
Looking to his mentor, Arnold offered a smile. The doctor smiled back and rose up from his chair.
He shook Arnold's hand, and offered him a seat.
"Nice to meet you, Arnold"
"Nice to meet you too, Dr. Benson"
"Oh, no need for formalities, we're both colleagues now!" waving his hand nonchalantly "Please, call me Henrik"
"Okay...Henrik" Arnold said with a gracious smile.
"I'm sure you're dying to get started" his mentor stated.
"As a matter of fact I am" Arnold replied with a slight pause then looked to the doctor somewhat apprehensively "I'm just a little nervous, but for the most the part I'm pretty excited to start helping people."
Dr. Benson gently smiled at Arnold's eagerness.
"Well my boy, help is what we're here to do" the doctor said as he stood up and grabbed his lab coat. He took some files with him and walked towards the door, opening it. He held it for Arnold to walk through it, smiling. "Let's begin then, shall we?"
"Yes, Dr. Benson" Arnold replied with a hop to his step.
"Henrik" the doctor stressed.
"Oh..yeah..Henrik" he sheepishly grinned, sticking his hand in his lab coat pockets. He thought, "I gotta remember that"
They both walked along the hallway towards the elevators when the doctor mentioned.
"Alright Arnold, this is crucial for you to know if you want to survive in here. I suggest you take my advice to heart. Now some of these patients are very tricky and can get violent. This place is not a walk in the park like where you probably trained. So be on your guard. " He emphasized. " And no matter what... just remember to stay calm, okay?"
Hearing those words out of the doctor's mouth threw Arnold off guard, he gulped and replied tentatively, "I will, Henrik"
As they entered the elevator, Henrik continued. "Now, for the first half of the day you are going to observe me interact with my patients, and then the latter half you will interact with 6 patients I have assigned to you. So don't worry about the workload it will be light...for now. Any questions?"
"Those sessions with my patients will they be daily?" Arnold asked.
"No, yours will be every other day, 2 to 3 times a week depending on the severity of the case" Henrik replied.
"This is not med school anymore, my boy" he pointed his finger directly at him and continued,"Your training days are over. The only thing you need to do is give me a written report of your findings from your sessions at the end of the day, so I can sign off on it. This is just for your probationary period until we know you can handle these cases without my looking over your shoulder that is. You still have full control on how you approach the patients though."
Arnold thought for a moment and smiled "Thank you Henrik, I'll do my best"
"That's the spirit!" the doctor slapped his hand into Arnold's back making him slightly stumble forwards.
Arnold winced for a second but forced a smile. Although, the sting of pain still resonated in his back, Arnold stood boldly. "OW, that hurt" he thought.
As elevator doors opened to the 5th floor, both men exited and walked towards the nearby rooms. Arnold attentively observed his mentor's routine as he prepared himself to examine his first patient.
The doctor along with Arnold stood a few yards away from the room "Ah, there we are: room 5-21," he exclaimed.
Opening the patient's file, he skimmed through it aloud while Arnold took mental notes of his routine. "Last name: Cabot, First name: Dean, he's a Caucasian male, age 21" Henrik stated "he suffers from an extreme case of bipolar affective disorder. Hmph interesting!"
He watched Arnold through his glasses hanging lowly on the bridge of his nose for any signs of malaise "It says here that he has periods of deep, prolonged depression followed by excessive mania and irritability. In his depressive state, he is suicidal and in his manic state, he is described as extremely aggressive."
Arnold gathered the information in his mind, trying figure out how he would approach the young patient. His focus returned back to the doctor as he continued on. "He was just diagnosed 2 days ago by a specialist and currently is unwilling to take medication"
Arnold interjected, "Excuse me Henrik, but why is he refusing treatment?"
"Well, he's a former substance abuser, therefore, he does not want to take medication. It says here, that he came to us voluntarily"
Henrik faced Arnold and continued, "Basically, it says here that he beat up his roommate. He couldn't control his anger and mood swings, so he came to us for help."
"What is your recommendation for this patient?" Arnold inquired.
"Well we're starting him off with patient education, which would benefit him in knowing how to cope with his condition and individual psychotherapy. So we're headed to his room now to advise him of what I just mentioned to you!" Henrik concluded.
Once the brief was done, Arnold nodded as he and Dr. Benson headed into the patient's room.
As they came close to the door, they heard yelling and disturbing noises. They cautiously stepped into the room, but were surprised by a flying desk chair coming at them. The young man looked enraged as he blurted out expletive words. "GET OUT! GET THE HECK OUT!" the young man screeched as the chair was thrown.
Straight away, Henrik jumped out of the room, landing down sliding on the waxed floor of the hallway, yelling. "Nurse! Nurse! Bring the tranquilizer ASAP!" the aged doctor remained there for a moment trying to catch his breath from the sudden burst of energy he expanded. He breathed a sigh of relief before he quickly got back up to rescue his protege.
Meanwhile, Arnold managed to dodge the flying chair and pounced on the young man, making him collapse on the floor with him. Taken by surprise, the young man was unable to react as Arnold swiftly flipped him over on his stomach, and then pinned him down to the ground while he waited for the nurse to arrive.
"Get off me you son of a " the young man screamed while trying to writhe himself out from under Arnold. Arnold stayed there shocked, yet still calm as he held the man down. He had not expected something like this to happen to him on his first day of work!
Keeping the young man steady, awaiting the nurses arrival, Arnold focused on remaining calm. Within a minute, the nurse arrived with a large syringe giving the young man a shot in his rear end while Arnold held him down.
Seconds later, the resistance from the young man soon diminished. Arnold loosened his grip gradually, releasing him from under him. He then, stood up allowing the orderlies to prop up the young man to his bed. Breathing a sigh of relief from the emotional ride he just endured, Arnold wiped the sweat on his brow and turned to Henrik, " Are most of them like this?" he asked tilting his head towards the young man knocked out by the drug.
Shrugging nonchalantly Dr. Benson replied, "Yes, most of the patients here are."
Arnold sighed wearily and sarcastically muttered lowly. "Great!"
Henrik looked to Arnold a smirk on his face, "Nice moves there, did you wrestle in high school? Or college perhaps?"
Arnold replied with a coy smile. "Nope, I only played baseball in high school, but someone had taught me a few karate moves when I was young."
Skeptical of Arnold's answer, Henrik replied, "Humph, a few huh? Well, it seems your karate skills saved you from that flying chair my friend, and it did save your ass with that young man. Pardon my french." Henrik chuckled.
His mentor continued, "Well, my boy, you just might be a great asset to this place. In any case, it seems we have many more patients to go. So...on to the next patient." the doctor uttered jovially.
Arnold's eyebrows raised up as he inaudibly whined in disbelief. "More?"
Slightly frowning and lowering his head, Arnold followed his mentor to his next patient. He muttered. "Oh man, this is going to be a loooonnnggg day."