Open wounds

32

"Calm down. Marc? Marc. I didn't shoot you." Dr Harrow said to calm Marc down. He had a platter over his nose.

"Your mind is violently vacillating between sense and nonsense.Picture this, all right?" Dr Harrow spoke and Marc touched his nose and felt the plaster over his nose.

"Your brain is a pendulum, swinging between a very difficult reality, that you are my patient here at Putnam Medical Facility in Chicago, Illinois, and a reassuring fantasy that you've created on your own. That you're some kind of, I don't know, superhero. All right? You are doing everything and everything possible not to look within." Dr Harrow explained.

"You're not really a doctor." He spoke with a smirk, but his accent was different then his normal American accent

"Is that why you keep starting imaginary fights in our hospital?"
Dr Harrow asked.

"No, you're not a doctor." He replied with.

"Look. I feel real. I feel like a real doctor." Dr Harrow said as he showed Marc that he was real.

"You're not a doctor." He replied again.

"Well, all right. I'm not a real doctor. Okay, well, all right, all right." Dr Harrow chuckled, "It's not about me, okay? Let's start with you. Let's try it your way. Retrace your steps. Tell me. Tell me. How did you come to be here today?"

"How did you get here?" He asked as he slumped into the chair.

"I took the bus, like I always do. You wanna know what you told me, how you got here?" Dr Harrow explained, "You told me that you were in a place that was oddly reminiscent of this office, except that it was in Egypt, right? And that you were with a rhinoceros and..."

"Hippopotamus." He replied with firmly.

"You're right, I'm... You're right, it was a hippopotamus, but it talked. Now, what do you think? Do you think that is sense or nonsense?" Dr Harrow explained to him.

"Nonsense?!" He asked almost offended.

"I find this really encouraging. Honestly, I do. The struggling mind will often build places to seek shelter for different aspects of the self from our most traumatic memories. It's called just an organizing principle, okay? Some people, they see a castle, right? Somebody else will see a maze, or a library. Or a..." Dr Harrow explained to him

"psych ward?" He interrupted.

"Yeah. Or it could be. Could be a psych ward. Yeah. What I find extremely interesting is this new... The new animal character. Um..." Dr Harrow explained again

"Hippopotamus?" He interrupted again, he looked at the glass pyramid.

"I find that really interesting. This hippo could break down the walls between you and Steven, and we might finally understand." Dr Harrow told him.

"Understand what?" She asked giving Dr Harrow a confused yet angry look.

"Well, before you got upset, you were talking to me about a boy. Do you remember that boy?" Dr Harrow asked

"Mmm-hmm." He replied with looking back at the glass pyramid.

"You think you could tell me about that little boy?" Dr Harrow asked

"Hey, thank you. I feel really great. Yeah. I mean, they must pay you a lot of money in this place." He smirked as he got up and grabbed the glass pyramid, "You know what? You're really good. I tell you what, I feel like a million dollars, never felt so good."

He went to walk away, "I'm gonna see myself out. Thank you. Doctor!" Then two people who work there came and grabbed him and he tried to stab Dr Harrow with the glass pyramid.

"Be gentle with him! Listen, I am not your enemy!" Dr Harrow told them, "No! No!" The one of the workers injected him with sedation making him black out.