Someone's In My Head (WATTYS AWARD WINNER 2015)

Chapter Twenty-Two (Pt. 2)

The next sound we heard was the sound of my jaw crashing to the ground. Seriously, whoa. That gear shift was totally unexpected.

"Say it again." I squeaked. I just couldn't believe my ears. Or in this case, my inner cochlea.

But Lenny was distracted. "Wait a minute. You said her name is Tanya? Tanya as in Mrs-Rogers-Tanya?"

In my state of acute shock, it took me a while to remember that Rogers was Phil's last name. "Uh, yep."

"Oh shit," Lenny cursed in dismay. "I. Am. So. Fucked. Right. Now."

"Wha―why?" I cried out in confusion. "You know Tanya, right? I suppose you must've attended Phil's wedding―or even was his best man―since you guys are basically gay―"

Then it hit me. The dots connected. It was like a Eureka moment for me, except that the truth was kinda fucked up on so many different levels that there was nothing very Eureka about it at all.

Okay, let's rewind a little bit. So eleven years ago (plus minus), Tanya approaches Lenny and signed the consent letter to be part of the FallopFix trial group. The trial goes sour, and Tanya becomes all crazy and emotionally unstable―but no, she wasn't institutionalized just because of erratic behaviour. So she kills Lenny's daughter. Why? For revenge? The Tanya I know―although just for a short period of time―could never be capable of such a violent act. Heck, being as religious as she is, I bet she couldn't even kill an ant without heading off to church afterwards to repent.

So if she did kill Melinda (I did pay attention when Lenny was telling his life story), it must have been under the influence of the FallopFix drug. As for Lenny, in his agony of losing his daughter, he calls the police, and Tanya is arrested. After a series of tests, Tanya is announced as being mentally ill and is institutionalized. But something didn't add up. Why did Lenny recognize Tanya as 'Anita' at first?

"She must've used a pseudonym." Lenny pointed out quietly. "Lots of my patients do that, actually. Anonymity is usually quite an issue in these cases."

I hadn't realized that I had been projecting my thoughts. "So you were the one who came up with this wretched drug." I mused aloud. Earlier today, Phil had been ready to tear Kristoff's head off, not knowing that he'd got the wrong guy. Luckily Tanya had pumped some sense into him at the last moment.

Speaking of Tanya, she was mumbling away like a fuzzy cassette. It was too hasty and inaudible for me to catch the specifics, but it sounded like a prayer to me.

Lenny was speaking again. "Oh, heavens forbid! Yes, it's me." He admitted in a rather remorseful voice. "Technically, FallopFix wasn't even a drug; it was a dose of intricately-engineered nanobots that, when introduced periodically into the system, shall target the constricted Fallopian tubes and start to rectify the congestion."

Sensing his hesitation, I prompted him. "So what went wrong?"

"Each one of these nanobots contained a trace amount of omega-endorphin, a synthetic neurotransmitter essential to calm the subject and alleviate pain when the rectification process took place. The infinitesimal amount of omega-endorphin present in a single nanobot could be insignificant, but don't forget that we are talking about 20 million nanobots here. So as it happened, there was a tiny error in the engineering code of the neurotransmitter, and as they were all identical, the error was severely magnified."

"What error could that be?"

"Erroneous structuration of the neurotransmitter. A slight alteration in the protein base of the omega-endorphin transformed its function drastically and irretrievably. So instead of acting as a narcotic, it became a cortisol-like stimulant that triggered behavioural aggression within the subjects. They started to experience extremely bipolar mood swings, bellicosity, some even severe enough to demonstrate multiple personalities."