“How old is she? Does she have a name?”
“She’s between two and three, and her name is Naraba.”
“Does she know where she is?”
“Yes, she’s been here before.”
“When?”
“She goes with fled.”
“She’s traveling with fled?”
“Yes, but she doesn’t like it here and prefers to hide from us.”
“Why did fled bring her here?”
“She found her in a cage.”
“Does she want to go back to Congo and live there as before?”
“Not unless the dogs go away.”
“What did the dogs do to her?”
The chimpanzee began to wail and pound the desk with her feet.
“Never mind,” I said. “We’ll come back to that later. Can you ask her if she knows who fled is and where she came from?”
“She knows fled has come to help her, but she doesn’t know where she came from.”
“Does she want to go with fled when she leaves us?”
“She would rather go back to her own home if it was safe to be there. Otherwise she will stay with fled.”
I contemplated the possibility of hypnotizing Naraba via Tewksbury and Filbert, as I had done with Robert Porter, but realized it would be virtually impossible to accomplish under the circumstances. But how else to re-visit her terrible childhood, her capture and removal from her native habitat, without seriously traumatizing her? Indeed, Naraba already appeared to be showing signs of mental stress: she had covered her head with her hands and started to rock back and forth. I called a temporary halt to the proceedings.
“Please take Filbert away for a moment while I speak to fled.”
Tewks called the chimpanzee back to her and hugged him while I brought fled back from under hypnosis. She blinked her eyes and waited for me to fill her in. “Fled, you have an alter called Naraba.”
“She’s not an alter. She’s a friend who travels with me sometimes.”
“Where did you find her?”
“In a roadside zoo.”
“What do you mean by ‘roadside’?”
“Anyone can build cages anywhere they wish and keep almost any animals they want in them. They charge admission fees and make money from them. They don’t even have to feed the animals. The patrons toss them marshmallows and candy and other shit like that. People are so fucking stupid!”
“These things are legal?”
“Quite legal, in every one of your states. The people who consider animals to be mindless ‘property’ are still in the vast majority, you know. It will be a while longer before that changes.”
“But what I wanted to know was, how did you find her? And has she been with you since then?”
“It’s only been a few days, gino. When I went to your west coast for a look at the beautiful pacific ocean, I landed near this goddamn roadside thing.”
“So why didn’t you tell me it was Naraba you saw on the videotape?”
“That wasn’t Naraba.”
“It wasn’t? Who was it?”
“Not a clue.”
“Then guess what—you have two alters. At least.”
“I told you before: these alters are filberts of your imagination.”
“Then please explain to me where they came from.”
“How the hell should I know?”
“Okay, we’ll get back to that later. Right now I’d like to return to your own childhood for a minute.”
“Haven’t we been over that?”
“I must have missed something.”
“Fyi, doctor, you miss almost everything.”
“Thanks, I’ll take that under advisement. For now, a question: when you were a very young trod, was your mother killed by another being? And did you witness it?”
For the first time since her arrival, her cocky demeanor vanished. She stared at me and her eyes suddenly filled with moisture. Weeping, I concluded, must be a universal phenomenon. “How did you know that?” she whimpered.
“I think your alter—your companion—told me. What happened to your mother?”
“It was an accident. An ap was running around and banged into her and knocked her down. The collision broke her neck and she died in an instant. No one could help her. It was just an accident….”
“That was after you were weaned, and you didn’t find out until someone showed you the hologram, right? But of course it was just like being there.”
Her mouth opened wide and she roared like a distraught lion. Huge tears rolled down her face and disappeared in the hair on her chin and chest.
I reached out and touched the top of her head. “I’m sorry, fled. I’m very sorry.”
“Beings die, even on K-PAX,” she snuffed.
So, my alien friend, I thought, you’re not so different from us after all. Tewks and Filbert also tried to console her, and she finally became her usual self. “Okay, folks,” I said, “I think that’s enough for today.” To fled I added, “But don’t go very far. I want to talk to you about Jerry.”
She had regained not only her composure, but also her attitude. “Why not just talk to him?” she snorted.
“Him, too,” I snorted back.
* * *
Filbert had a wonderful time on the lawn and so, for the most part, did the patients (except for those who are afraid of everything). He swung from the limbs of the big elm tree, went after Georgie’s football, ran all over the back forty. It’s remarkable how people, especially those who are institutionalized, respond to animals. We had cats a few years ago, but one of them bit an abusive patient, resulting in an infection and a lawsuit, and Goldfarb decided to call a halt to the feline companionship program. (The patient’s family lost the suit; he has since departed us, and is missed by no one.)
Even some of the staff joined in the fun, running around the lawn as if they were children again. When it was time to go, Howard, who sometimes acts as spokesperson for the patients, requested that I please let Dr. Tewksbury come back soon with Filbert.
“Is tomorrow soon enough?” I asked him. “We’ll need him for at least another visit.”
I escorted Tewks and her companion to the nearby garage where the van was parked. By that time Officer Wilson had been apprised of the situation. “Good-bye, Doc. Good-bye, Filbert.” I informed him that they would be back tomorrow. “I’ll be watching for youse,” he promised.
Filbert, holding our hands and walking between us, hardly elicited a stare from passersby. There probably isn’t a New Yorker who hasn’t seen something at least as weird. On the way to the van I thanked Tewks for coming and asked for her opinion on how we could do something to help Naraba.
“I think she would be a terrific candidate for a sanctuary,” she said. “There are some good ones in the warmer states. Want me to look into it for you?”
“That isn’t what I meant.” I explained my hypothesis that fled’s alter ego was actually a part of her, and they would probably be going back to K-PAX together. “I was hoping that you and Filbert might be able to tell her something to ease her fears while she’s here.”
“We could tell her that no one can harm her as long as she stays with fled.”
“Yeah. That’s all I could come up with, too.” I declined to mention that I wasn’t so sure of that anymore.
I didn’t know what Filbert would do when I said good-bye. I thought he might wrap his arms around me for a big hug, as he had done for some of the patients. Instead, he stuck out his hand. I flinched reflexively, but he only wanted to give mine a shake, not grab my gonads. “I didn’t teach him that,” said Tewks. “They do that in the wild, too. It means he reveres you more than the others.”