Gomorrah

6.Smoke and Scars

After lunch the two made their way outside with the other patients. Rather than join in a game of baseball they went over to the giant pine tree near the edge of the campus right in front of the security gate. Levi leaned against the pine as Evan sat in the grass near him. A few minutes later Sgt. John came over with a pack of cigarettes in paw. He waved and and handed out their favorites, Pall Mall. The bone white cigarettes slid from the red carton into their waiting paws. John lit them and they stood in silence for a while watching the game. John was the first to break the silence "Yes before you ask about my lack of shock with Evan I knew about it. As the head of security I'm privy to things like..." he said before being grabbed by Evan. Through clenched teeth Evan said "You bastard of course you knew this! Give me a reason why I shouldn't rip your head off right here. I have all day!". Levi finished his cigarette and John tried to break free of Evan's grip and said calmly "Of course you knew. Like you said you heave a whole place to patrol .Why should we not hurt you?". John replied between gasps for air "Because..I'm the only one that gives a damn about the residents. Put me the fuck down so I can let you two in on something not many here know much about..The head doctor..She's fucking crazy and I know..". Evan started to calm and he put him down. His mood shifted from high anger to a low simmer, he knew he would soon explode. John told them everything he knew about the head doctor and her rise to one of the most depraved.

Angela Schulz was born in 1919 to a poor family in Oklahoma. Her father was of German descent and her mother was Cherokee. When she was still a child the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl ruined her family to where they were uprooted from Oklahoma and had to relocate first to California and then to Pennsylvania when she was still a teenager. In school she was the top of her class and had an interest in psychology, psychiatry and medicine. This was in stark contrast to her parents who were barely literate. Besides being poor and uprooted from her home she was also abused by both her parents as they were raging alcoholics. The belt and the fist were common forms of discipline in the Schulz home. Violence as a form of control was so common that the father lived by a saying "It is better to be feared. And what better way to enforce than than with scarring the child where the tumor of disobedience no longer festers". This was beaten in to her both literally and metaphorically. When Angela turned 18 her father died from the effects of alcohol and her mother was sickly. Angela took a job as a nurse in a charity hospital and then in a psychiatric hospital when she turned 20. Despite her father being dead and her mother being sickly the abuse still continued. It shifted from physical to emotional abuse. She was told that she was never good enough to be anything but a poor Okie. 

After she saved up just enough money she enrolled in the Drexel University College of Medicine when she turned 21 in 1940 and she got a job as a charge nurse at the infamous Byberry Hospital. She was again the top of her class at Drexel. She completed her undergraduate studies three years as she took summer classes in order to avoid going home to her abusive and sick mother. When she entered her graduate program, her mother died. At 24 she lost both her parents and at the funeral she never shed a tear. She stood by the casket with a blank expression and only said to the Cherokee elder after the service "Death comes to all of us. Why should I feel a scrap of emotions towards her?". The elders said she was either completely destroyed by her life or she had become a living Asgina, a demon. She resented everyone yet wanted to break them in the same breath. She finished her graduate ad resident  program in three years at 27 in 1946 and immediately started climbing the ranks from a resident to head of a department at Byberry. Some say it was her ruthless attitude and others say it was because she slept around with the heads of departments. She was either removed from her position or quit from Byberry and took over St. Christina's as the head doctor. Since then she has run a tight ship at the hospital ever since the end of 1948. 

Evan and Levi took in the story. In a way it was not surprising for someone so horrible to be damaged. They saw her walking around the fields with her cigarette in paw, watching everyone hungrily. Like they were all her's for the taking. She spotted the three of them and came over. "Well boys I guess this is the smoking spot now?" she said giggling innocently. She finished her cigarette and started a second one. "Pall Malls? I'm more of a Marlboro cat personally but I'll try anything" she said looking at the red carton. She saw that Levi and Evan were tense, this made her smile. "You boys alright? Is the woman spoiling guy time?" she said giggling again. "Not at all" Levi said. "I hear you managed to find an Orthodox priest for me to talk to. Thank you doctor. No offense but I miss the liturgies of Orthodoxy...A shame it's not big here but I'll take anything". Her eyes narrowed "Did you not like our Protestant Christian mass?". "It's not that I hate my brothers and sisters..It just reminds of my grandfather Alexi. He was a priest and really the only one who gave a damn about me" he replied. She nodded and said almost sadly "I know. I read your file and your story..Levi I'm so sorry you were abused..I.." she stopped herself from daring to connect with him. No one should know about her. Sure some of it came out with a slew of rumors from she slept her way to the top to even that she murdered patients. She never confirmed nor denied the rumors. She preferred letting  others live in this state of stupid fear. Nonetheless it was hard not to sometimes sympathize with other abuse victims. "At least you had someone to show you care. Some have no one". Levi smiled sadly "That's not true, we all have somebody. It's just a matter of finding someone that gives a damn about you". The words hit Angela and everyone there hard to where no one could speak. Levi finished his cigarette, turned to Evan and said "I think I've had my share of outside air. I'm heading back inside. You coming?". Evan followed him, leaving John and Angela there alone and speechless. John went back to his post and left Angela at the tree wiping her eyes. "He knows.." she said to herself.