The Asylum Part 2

It was summer and the hospital required for us to get some air daily. I was ushered into a courtyard, about twenty meters by twenty meters, which was small with forty-eight women trying to share the space. I looked around as the door was closed shut behind me and could have sworn that it was locked also. I knew from experience that my medication and the sun didn’t get on, in fact, when my aunt had gotten married the previous year, I was only in the sun for fifteen minutes and had gotten scalded. For this reason I walked over to the corner of the space and sat down with my back to one of the four eight-foot-high walls that had barbed wire at the top of them. I felt as though I was in prison and was being punished for having a legitimate mental health condition.

As I sat, I was approached by one of the ladies with a neck tattoo. The tattoo was of a serpent, its face along the front of her neck, its body trailing down her back. ‘Got any weed their love?’ she asked in a thick Dublin accent, I shook my head no. ‘Any blayeds then?’ she asked, her eyes fixating on my wrists. I shook my head no once again. She spat on me for my troubles. I quickly wiped the spit out of my eye with the bottom of my t-shirt and rested my head on the concrete wall, silently crying. ‘Mom, I need you!’ I said to myself and prayed that I couldn’t catch a disease from spit. I would have googled it but the scary bitches who were all torturing the rest of us would then know I had a phone and would more than likely take it off of me. My hand ventured into my pocket again. Just holding the phone and iPod was comforting. My eyes became heavy and I must have dozed off as the next thing I can remember is Ms Trunchbull ordered me ‘up!’ I quickly obeyed the order and followed the evil bitch into the visitors room. She opened the door and my eyes welled up as there, sitting on one of the fold up blue seats that were fixed to the wall, was my mother.

I was so pleased to see her that I began to run into her arms when I tripped over my own feet and fell to the ground. Once vertical again, I buried my face in her shoulder and cried. It was a cry that was reciprocated. As I became aware of my surroundings again, I looked around. The room was full of the fold up blue seats affixed to the wall…but they were all empty. ‘What’s going on?’ I asked my mom. ‘They have a bed!’ she said jumping up and down on the balls of her feet. I grabbed my bouncing mother and bounced with her all the while waiting for a ‘but’.

‘…. But…..,’ he we go, I audibly rolled my eyes, ‘…its not going to be ready until tomorrow.’ I stopped bouncing, my mother looked confused. ‘You’ve got a bed!’ she repeated. I fell to my knees and wept. She sat on one of the more sturdier looking chairs which groaned under her weight, and couldn’t understand what was wrong with me. Reluctantly, I got up off the floor and joined her on a blue plastic pull out chair. I spilled my guts and told her everything that had happened me…so far. She was appalled and apologetic. ‘Why?’ I asked her, ‘you didn’t do any of it to me!’ She gently caressed my hair as I stared at the ground wondering how I was going to survive a night in this hell whole.

Just as I had stopped crying, Ms Trunchbull entered and with authority informed me that it was tea time and that my mother could come back later. I hugged my mom and told her not to come back that evening. I told her that it would make the night harder and that I would see her in the morning. Ms Trunchbull tapped her foot with impatience and I left the room, my mother crying, and began to make my way back to the dining room. ‘Wait!’ my mom called after me. She scurried through her bag and produced a package wrapped in tin foil…a sandwich, something she never left home without. I stuffed it in my pocket and thanked her before exited the visiting room.

‘Tea is nearly finished!’ Ms Trunchbull announced so I walked quicker than normal as I was starving. I picked up a red plastic tray and was handed a dollop of mush. ‘And what is it?’ I asked screwing up my nose again. ‘Shephard’s pie!’ the dinner lady informed me. ‘Mmmm!’ I said sarcastically and returned to the place I had sat at lunch. Just as I picked up my fork, before I even got to try the visually unappealing food in front of me, tea time was over. I emptied my plate and stacked it with the others in the knowledge that at least I still had my sandwich.

When I returned back to the dorm, all of my clothes were everywhere and my M&M’s were gone. I looked up at the ceiling and counted to ten. I knocked on the nurses door to complain, when Ms Trunchbull saw the mess that was my area. She scolded me, ‘if you can’t do as much as keep my own area clean, that I didn’t deserve an area!’ and threw me into the ‘blue room’. Before she left me in there, however, she made me empty my pockets. I tried to refuse, but when I did with vehemence, determined to keep my sandwich, she pushed a button on her pager and four nurses held me down as she administered a shot from one of the biggest needles I had ever seen.

The room quickly began to spin. I felt as though I was on cloud nine. My body felt detached from my brain which was foggy. A giant squirrel came into the room and we danced to music that only I could hear. It was one of the strangest experiences I ever had. Eventually the music stopped and the squirrel disappeared and I fell asleep in the blue padded room on the cold concrete floor.

When I woke, Ms Trunchbull was standing over me. I jumped. There was a little piece of drool that was connected from the corner of my mouth to the neck of my t-shirt. I slowly wiped it away. Everything seemed to be moving in slow motion. Two male nurses entered the room and aided me to my bedside. I noticed that the room was full of a cacophony of snores. It was very disconcerting. The nurses sat me down on my bed where, my head still spinning, I lay my head on my pillow and slept until morning.

‘Wake up!’ I heard in the distance. ‘Wake up!’ the sound was growing ever closer. I felt a finger poke my shoulder, ‘wake up I said!’ When I opened my eyes, I jumped and let out a yell as I was met with the face of Ms Trunchbull. ‘Its ten past seven,’ she looked at her watch before yelling, ‘so get uppp!’ into my face. I sat bolt upright and rubbed my eyes with the back of my hands like a baby would do. I looked around me and saw that the dorm was a hive of activity. Everyone looked busy doing their morning evolutions. I felt a very strong urge to pee and stepped over my favourite t-shirt in order to get in line for the toilet chanting to myself, ‘I am the master of my own bladder, I am the master of my own bladder,’ over and over again until it was my turn to use the facilities. I was so desperate that I didn’t even notice the foul smell or see the shit smeared on the stall door. I just hovered over the bowl and pee’d until there was no tomorrow. When I was finished, I pulled my tracksuit bottoms back on and felt for my phone. I couldn’t remember much of the night before but it was slowly starting to come back to me.

With my bladder empty I wrapped my knuckles on the nurses door in search of my phone. I was greeted by a stern-faced nurse who said I will get it back upon my departure. That made me smile…my departure! I returned to my bedside and started to stuff my things into the bag, my bag which I had stowed away on top of the wardrobe. Just as I was finished, ‘breakfast!’ reverberated through the dorm. I couldn’t help but have a smile on my face knowing that this was the last meal I was to endure in this hell hole.

I followed the ants once more and was served a dollop of what could only be described as goo. I scrunched my nose up as the dinner lady mumbled, ‘porridge’. I made my way down the table to the edge of the bench and for the first time since I had gotten there had time to play with my food. I could have sworn it was moving. I watched as the others were eating it down as if it were delicious, when really it was the case of having to eat whatever was served before old Trunchbull stopped you.

After breakfast we were directed into the activity room where we all sat in a circle and did a crossword. That bitch who spat at me the day before mouthed to me, ‘you’re dead!’ and made a slicing action with her finger across her throat. I just smiled back nervously. I couldn’t imagine what I had ever done to her to make her hate me so much. It must have just been the fact that I was fresh meat.

Two long, tedious hours passed before I was called out of the room. My mom was here. My heart leapt with joy when I saw her smiling face. I made sure I got my phone and iPod back before I collected my bag and was escorted out of the building by none other than Ms Trunchbull. She smiled at me and simply said, ‘until next time!’ before I turned my back on her and made my way towards the black Volvo. My stomach returned to its proper place when we started down the gravel path towards the canopy of trees. I looked behind me as the old building vanished from view. I vowed never to go back to that hell hole ever again…well…until the next time anyway.