Castle on the Edge (11 page)

Doctor Calloway: “Yes. It happens once a year, and at the same time. It always begins on October 30th and ends on November 1st.”

Doctor Lederer: “Does it commence and terminate at the same hours as well?”

Doctor Calloway: “The duration of Patient Ramsey’s psychotic dream per se is perpetually the same; however, it’s predicated on when it starts. In other words, it will commence on the evening of October 30th, usually anywhere from five to seven p.m., and last forty-eight hours, always forty-eight hours to the minute. You see, the exact time it ends is based on when it begins; but it’s always exact.”

Doctor Lederer: “Very interesting.”

Doctor Calloway: “Cyrus Ramsey was admitted to this very sanitarium seven years ago, exactly seven years ago the day before yesterday. The date was October 30th, 1930. Also, it happened to be our first year in operation. By a strange coincidence or maybe not so strange, but quite bizarre, none the less, it was precisely one year to the day that he murdered his identical twin brother Alex, on October 30th, 1931, when it really all began. The court judged him criminally insane. There was no trial; that’s why he’s still here. I’m glad that you were able to come, Franz, and see for yourself.”

Doctor Lederer: “As you know, Niles, Alex was a student of mine. I believe he would have been a fine psychiatrist, had he lived. He used to talk to me about his family, particularly his brother, Cyrus. Alex told me when they were kids in Oklahoma, about ten years old, I think he said, they were playing by an old abandon dried-out well. Cyrus decided he wanted to look inside it. When he leaned over the edge, he lost his balance and fell head first to the bottom; Alex told me it was at least an eighteen-foot drop.

“Immediately after the accident, he ran to fetch his father. About fifteen minutes passed by the time the father and son came back to the well with some rope. Alex and his father securely tied one end of the rope to an adjacent tree, and the father climbed down into the well while Alex watched to make sure the rope wouldn’t loosen from its anchor. When his father was at the bottom, he could barely breathe. In fact, he had to climb almost half way back up in order to inhale a couple of deep breaths, then hold the last one, go back down and rescue his unconscious son Cyrus.

“If Alex weren’t there, both father and Cyrus surely would have perished, because it was Alex who not only pulled his brother out first as his father was losing his grip, but he then had to help his father out as well, because the father, was beginning to falter, even though he was already at the top of the well, and without the weight of his son. Remember, the father was clutching the inert boy, as well as pulling himself; so he was severely weakened as a result of the strain, and of lack of oxygen. It’s a miracle Cyrus survived at all.”

Doctor Calloway: “Yes, I know the story. And in addition to oxygen deprivation, young Cyrus received an acute concussion on the crown of his head, from the head-first fall to the bottom of the well. It’s amazing that alone didn’t kill him; and no bones were broken, probably because of his young age. By the way, did you know the accident happened on October 30th, 1920, around five p.m.? Both boys were ten years old then. And Cyrus was in a coma for forty-eight hours. He came out of it on November 1st, at five o’clock, p.m. the same number of hours his ‘annual’ psychotic dream lasts.”

Doctor Lederer: “However, Alex never told me his brother Cyrus, was his identical twin…the likeness, it is incredible. Did the dream actually start the very next year after the accident?”

Doctor Calloway: “No. However, after the accident, the boy’s personality rapidly changed. He became confused and did poorly in school, whereas his brother Alex excelled in all his subjects; and he was very popular with his fellow students. Cyrus wasn’t. Both boys were in the same one-room schoolhouse class. Their teacher always lauded Alex as a sterling example of what a pupil should be and constantly criticized Cyrus…and always in front of the other kids in the class. And everyone made fun of him, including his own brother, Alex…at the time.

“Even at home, Cyrus’s parents and other siblings would badger him when he would bungle something while doing his share of the chores, for example. None of his family, or anybody else, for that matter, took any consideration with regard to Cyrus’ horrible accident as the cause of his problems. One would think they’d be grateful he survived at all. And as you could well imagine, Franz, the poor boy became moody, morose, and difficult.

“As the years passed, he developed a deep jealous resentment for his model twin brother Alex, to the point of disassociation with reality. Although Alex would try to make amends for his earlier teasing, Cyrus wouldn’t forgive him.

“After Alex graduated from the University of Zurich at the young age of twenty, he arrived here to take on a position as an associate psychiatrist with me at this very sanitarium. Only twenty years old. That was in 1930. I wouldn’t have taken on someone so young were it not for your letter of recommendation.”

Doctor Lederer: “Alex was a highly gifted student. He was only sixteen when he came to Zurich. He won a four-year scholarship that paid for his trip and studies at our university. He was the youngest student I ever had.”

Doctor Calloway: “I know. And it was because of Alex I permitted Cyrus to be committed here, as his own family could no longer handle him and of course they never would have been able to afford the cost to put him in a private sanitarium. We put him on a regimen psychoanalysis and electrical shock treatment and chemical sedation. Of course he blamed Alex for his condition and for having him ‘locked up’ as he would say, and taking his life away. During his first year here, he brooded with anger, an anger that turned into hatred for his successful young psychiatrist brother Alex, who was only trying to help him. At the same time Cyrus created his own world, with delusions of grandeur, until one day he completely snapped. That was on October 30th, 1931.

“On that fateful day, while on the first floor, in the dining room, he walked into the kitchen, unobserved by any staff personnel, and managed to get hold of a kitchen knife. It was the dinner hour, at five p.m. With the knife hidden under his gown, he, nonchalantly, walked up to the second floor nurse’s station, knowing full well that Alex and Mary would be there…alone. You see, he knew everyone’s schedule; so he plotted everything out well before hand. So when Cyrus saw them together, bodies tightly embraced, faces with expressions of ecstasy but eyes closed, mouths opened, lips stretched, tongues locked in such a contorted mesh, he was not even able to tell one from the other. He saw the exhibition of passion again, as he had many times before. It always enraged him to a level of madness that would make chaos seem calm, but this time he was going to do something about it. Alex and Mary didn’t notice Cyrus, who by now was behind them. Mary was in front of Alex…but again, she didn’t see him, behind Alex.”

Doctor Lederer: “So at this point, Alex is literally between Mary and Cyrus?”

Doctor Calloway: “Exactly. And as Mary and Alex were lost in abandon, Cyrus pulled out the knife from his gown with his right hand, lifted it up and back, tightly clutched, and drove it into the middle of Alex’s back, with such force, that it pierced his heart. He must have died instantly from that alone. We’ll never know for sure because after the stabbing, Mary ran screaming to get help.

“It was at that point Cyrus opened the floor panel and tossed Alex’s body through it. It fell forty-six feet to the hardwood floor in the recreation room below. Mrs. Dudley was in there at the time. She said the body hit the floor headfirst.

“Cyrus’ first dream began minutes after the murder, when he took over the personality of Alex. You see, Franz, he concocted this whole illusion as an escape. He never recalls the murder because Cyrus is Alex, in his mind, of course; and when he comes out of it, he’s goes into a total collapse, virtually a vegetable, until the next year, for another forty-eight hours. Aggressive electric shock treatment has yielded no significant results, nor has guarded injections of Methyl amphetamine and Pentothal. A lobotomy is out of the question because of his dominant lethargic state all year.

“It is only these two days out of the year that we have to tie him down in his bed, in a straight-jacket. While he is speaking this fantastic story, over and over again, for the forty-eight hours. His bodily movements are violently erratic. There’s a point in the tale where he regurgitates. It’s always at the part where he says Mary said she couldn’t breathe and smelled a pungent vomit. He also uses the word “decomposing.” He’s actually choking on, as well as smelling his own vomit.

“In other parts of his exposition, he talks about falling, not being able to breathe, numbness in his body and not being able to move. I’m sure it is his subconscious mind recalling the fall into the well and the fact there was no air at the bottom. The numbness and not being able to move was caused by the cerebral injury to his head. And the decomposition he smells was most likely from something dead in the bottom of the well, a rat perhaps. And with his constant talk of darkness, the well must have been very dark. If we didn’t keep him bound during that time he would run all over the sanitarium, and probably kill someone else. The rest of the year, he’s completely docile.

“Oh yes, there’s another amazing thing. When his trance commences, as it has for the last six years, he makes one most curious change. He relates the discourse in the actual present year we’re in; it is the only reality he articulates. I have absolutely no explanation for his accuracy of present time. It is the most astonishing case of split personality I’ve ever seen; and we really have no treatment for it.”

Doctor Lederer: “Terrible business. No doubt Cyrus’ psychosis is the result of brain damage due to the accident in the well.”

Doctor Calloway: “Yes, because he was perfectly normal before. Our Nurse Holden witnessed the fatal stabbing, you know. She was only nineteen when she came here. Like Alex she graduated young from high school at fifteen, and got her nursing degree four years later. Mary started working here only one day before Alex came. They soon fell in love with each other. Another thing that makes this so tragic was the fact that Mary Holden was the fiancée of Alex Ramsey; they were going to be married the following week.”

Doctor Lederer: “Horrible.”

Doctor Calloway: “Anyway, it’s good to see you, Franz. I knew you were going to be in San Francisco for the psychiatric convention, and I’m glad I was able to get a hold of you before you returned to Zurich. Because of this case I didn’t go to the convention, the timing wasn’t right and I felt I needed to be here.”

Doctor Lederer: “Yes, the convention terminated on the 30th, the day Mister Ramsey’s other entity steps in for a while. I was going to leave yesterday afternoon, the thirty-first. In fact, I was getting ready to step out the door of my hotel when you called me. So I elected to put off going home and come here at once. After all, I have a personal interest in this case too.”

Doctor Calloway: “That’s funny; this shouldn’t be happening. Patient Ramsey’s pulse, it’s speeding up…rapidly. This shouldn’t be. It should be going down. Nurse Holden injected the sedative. He should be falling into his normal catatonic level. It has always taken no more than fifteen minutes for the patient to come out of the psychotic episode. Franz, now the pulse is exponentially dropping…this can’t be.”

Doctor Lederer: “You’re right, Niles. He’s going into a coma, no it’s cardiac arrest.”

Doctor Calloway: “Nurse Holden. Nurse Holden. Come here at once. Spirits of ammonia. Now.”

Nurse Holden: “No, Insulin a large dose. Over dose. It’s too late, Doctor Calloway. Cyrus Ramsey now lives…because I killed him.”

Doctor Lederer: “It is too late, Niles, Cyrus Ramsey is dead.”

Doctor Calloway: “Why, Nurse Holden? Why? No…I know why.”

Nurse Holden: “Yes, Doctor Calloway. I’ve suffered for six years…
Six Years
. ‘Heaven hath no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned,’ the poet said. He was right, you know. But I also did a humane thing. You see, I’ve put Cyrus out of his hopeless ‘earthly’ misery…As…w-e-l-l…a-s…m-y…o-w-n…”

Doctor Calloway: “Nurse Holden. Nurse Holden. Mary.”

Doctor Lederer: “It’s no use, Niles. She’s dead. Obviously she injected herself with an overdose of insulin too.

Doctor Calloway: “I knew Mary was deeply in love with Alex and I strongly advised her to take a position at another institution. Angnew State Hospital in Napa, California surely would have hired her with my letter of recommendation, but she wouldn’t have it. I shouldn’t have let her talk me into her staying on here…after the murder. I’m just as much to blame.”

Doctor Lederer: “No, Niles, you mustn’t blame yourself. Not trying to sound too philosophical, but maybe everything happens for a reason, even this. I should like to think that all three of them are at peace…now.”

About the Author:

Douglas Howard Strang lives in the Monterey Peninsula.
Castle on the Edge
is his first book.

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