“Maybe. If there are plenty of veggies around.
“I’ll have tubs of them everywhere.”
“Very kind of you.”
“No prob.”
* * *
I was exhausted by the time I got home late that afternoon. Not only had it been a very stressful day, but I had gotten up early, only to be thwarted by highway construction, and there were further delays on the way back. I hoped tomorrow would be different.
So it was with considerable chagrin that I was intercepted by an unmarked car with a flashing light that pulled me over next to an open field about half a mile from the house. I might have been going a little over the speed limit, but not enough to warrant a ticket. I wondered whether my license plate or inspection tag had expired.
One police officer came to the driver’s side of the car, the other to the passenger side. I opened the window. He showed his badge. “Dammit, Wang, couldn’t you wait until I got home?”
“Just doing you a favor, sir. We don’t want your neighbors to get suspicious, now do we?”
“Suspicious of what? What do you want this time?”
“A certain individual read our neurologist’s report.”
Dartmouth abruptly pulled his weapon from a concealed holster and took a shot at a sparrow sitting in a tree next to the field. He missed both the tree and the bird, which shat on the hood of my car as it took off.
A bit unnerved, I replied, “What individual?”
“Let’s just say you’d recognize the name. He’d like her to come down to Washington to answer some questions. Would you ask your friend about that?”
“What kind of questions?”
“He wants to see for himself that she can read his mind.”
“I don’t think she’d be interested.”
“We’ll make it worth her while.”
“How do you plan to do that?”
“We’ll put her up in the best hotel we have. Swimming pool, tennis, championship golf course. What more could she want?”
“Right. I’ll pass that on to her. Anything else? I’m tired. I’d like to get home now.”
The steely eyes locked onto mine. “We’ve heard that there are three windows for her departure. Can you tell us which one she’s using?”
“No, I can’t. I don’t think she knows yet herself.”
They whirled simultaneously and jogged back to the unmarked car, throwing gravel all over mine as they wiggled and sped away in a cloud of dust. I imagined I heard the strains of “The Love for Three Oranges” and a voice shouting, “Hi-yo, Silver!”
CHAPTER NINE
Tewks and Filbert were waiting for me in the lounge when I arrived on Tuesday morning. I didn’t think there was much more to be learned about Naraba’s or the Rwanda chimp’s backgrounds, especially in the short time we had left, but I hoped they would be able to help me with the related question: how many other alters were lurking in fled’s brain, and were they all chimpanzees?
Filbert, of course, was having a fine time swinging from the central chandelier, and generally galloping around among the patients, to their unending delight. Old Mrs. Weathers was enjoying the playtime as much as anyone, chuckling toothlessly at the silliness around her, even though she could see and hear very little of it. Even a couple of the faculty members, Cliff Roberts and Hannah Rudqvist, were taking everything in with childish grins on their faces.
I sidled up to Hannah and asked her what she thought of the proceedings. She observed that “If more people swung from chandeliers once in a while, I think we’d have far fewer mental problems.”
“But far more broken limbs,” Cliff pointed out.
“A good trade, don’t you think?” she countered.
Roberts turned to me. “Come to visit us again so soon, Dr. B? Afraid you won’t wear out your welcome?”
I could never think of a good comeback for a stupid comment like that. “Not really. How are you, Cliff? Enjoying the show?”
“Up until now.” He turned back to Hannah. “See you later, sugar. How about lunch somewhere quiet?”
Blushing deeply, she answered, “Maybe,” and quickly departed. For some reason this annoyed me. Was he coming on to her? Was she too shy to say no? “Been meaning to ask you, Cliff—how did you get into psychiatry?”
“You know the answer to that better than I do, Gene: it beats working for a living.”
While I was trying to think of a good comeback for that, fled appeared. When Filbert spotted her he ran and jumped into her arms. She flipped him around to her back and headed for the stairs, to the disappointment of everyone in the lounge. “Can’t he live here, Dr. B?” Rocky pleaded.
“Sorry, Rock,” I said apologetically, “he has to go home tomorrow.”
“He’s not an asshole like everyone else here. Can’t we get another chimp?”
“You’ll have to speak to Dr. Goldfarb about that,” I called back as Tewks and I headed for the elevator, only to see the door close with Roberts inside. Reluctantly we followed fled and Filbert to the stairs.
They were already waiting for us in Room 520. Both seemed quietly serious, as if they, too, realized that the foolishness was over for the time being. Filbert nibbled on a tomato, though “he likes fruit better,” Tewks informed me. I apologized for the oversight. Fled, on the other hand, had no trouble enjoying the cornucopia, stuffing her huge mouth with a variety of tubers while she had the chance. When she was finally finished, she picked at her teeth and sighed happily.
“Ready?” I asked her.
“Always.”
She cooperated fully when I coaxed her into hypnosis. It didn’t take long: even before I could ask anyone to come forward another alter appeared, screaming. Immediately I shouted for fled. The squealing stopped and I found her gazing at me stoically.
“All right,” I said, “let’s try it again. Filbert, would you come over here, please?” He complied immediately. With him standing close to fled, I invited her to close her eyes once more, and asked Naraba to come forth. Before she could shrivel into a ball and try to slither under the desk, Filbert began to groom her.
Through the two translators I determined that she was indeed the former roadside zoo attraction, and I asked her immediately whether she knew of any other beings in the immediate vicinity besides fled and us. It seemed to take her awhile to understand the question, but finally she answered, “Yes.”
“How many?”
Tewks reminded me that chimpanzees don’t do well with counting, but she forwarded the question. The answer came back: “Many.”
“Do you know all of them?”
Again there was a pause while Naraba apparently tried to make sense of the question. “Some.”
“Can you tell us who they are?”
She became confused again and couldn’t answer.
I asked her whether they were like, or different from, her.
Answer: “They are like me.”
“How long have you known the others?”
“Long time.”
“Since you were a baby?”
“Yes.”
“Did you know them when your mother was with you?”
“No.”
“Did you know them after your mother was taken away, but before you were put in a cage?”
“Yes.”
“Are all of them here with you now?”
“Don’t know.”
“Is the first one you knew here with you?”
“Yes.”
“Do you know her name?”
At this point, Filbert jumped up and screeched. He pointed to Naraba, but I was pretty sure it was fled he meant. I asked her, “Is it fled?”