![]() “Roger didn’t do anything to you, and nobody killed your girlfriend.” I don’t say what I am thinking, your imaginary girlfriend.Ī guard escorts Howard to the psychiatric wing. “Is it my illness talking, as you said before?” he asks. Howard talks more about wishing to kill Roger. Linda is off to facilitate the admission. ![]() Once inside, I sit in the waiting room with Howard. I know she will be all right as I go to park, and she is. Security people abound at the entrance to the hospital. I don’t like leaving him alone with Linda, except they are not really alone now. Howard is more settled, less menacing, and he enters the facility with Linda. We are now at the emergency psychiatric section of University Hospital. “Will you help me pack when I get out?” he asks me. Next, he speaks of moving, as if he knows Roger will have to be told eventually, and he won’t like what he hears, and won’t want to have Howard around anymore. I must under law warn Roger, or anyone else Howard threatens. “I know you don’t mean that either, Howard. “Ray, please don’t tell Roger I want to kill him.” He doesn’t argue the point, and I don’t pursue the topic. “Linda? Harm her? You wouldn’t do that, Howard!” I feign surprise at what he has said, after a bit of a silence. It is Information to be presented to the doctor at admissions.Īs if Linda were not in the car, Howard says, “I didn’t want to go with Linda because I was afraid I would harm her.” He doesn’t explain why. Howard is next to me in the front seat, and Linda is in the back, taking notes on Howard’s behavior, I see her in the mirror. Roger killed her, I am sure of it, and I will have to kill him.”īy now, we are in my car headed for the hospital. ![]() “Her car is in front of her building,” he says next. He said he would soon be giving up his room and moving in with her. I remember Howard coming to me three months earlier telling me he had met the woman of his dreams, the woman he was going to marry. “Oh, I don’t know,” he says, as if everyone has a girlfriend whose name they don’t know. “I didn’t know about this relationship, this girlfriend you mentioned. He mentions his landlord killing his girlfriend, and I gently explore this delusion with him. He takes medication for this problem, and without looking at his chart, I cannot tell you what the condition is called. Howard is a cutter, uses a knife on himself, often cutting in his midsection. Other expenses, like rent, are paid directly to the vendor. ![]() From this, he is expected to buy his food and take care of personal needs. Our agency handles Howard’s money, and every Monday, he gets $80, and then $20 more on Friday. Surely he would not refuse a few bucks thrown his way for the help he gives his landlord. But on some level, I sense Howard feels used. Howard says he doesn’t mind, he stays busy, and he likes to be busy. He uses him to do work around the place, making repairs but pays him nothing. Howard lives in a rooming house, a flophouse, and the landlord often takes advantage of him. ![]()
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