Page 109 of The Happy Month

“Ido. Ivan is fabulous.”

“Fabulous…”

“Patrick, who went with you to see the set?” I asked.

“It was so big. There were ten janitors to clean the floor when it got dirty. It couldn’t be dirty. It would ruin the shot.”

Junior began humming. That made Patrick smile. Junior stopped, and said, “That was the set for ‘I’m Too Blue to Be Blue’ wasn’t it?”

I think that was for my benefit.

“Who was with you when you went to see it?” I asked again.

“Vera and…”

He stopped. A blank look came over his face.

“Was it Gigi? Was Gigi with you?”

Fear filled his face and then terror. “No! No, don’t hit me! Stop!”

“It’s okay, darling. No one’s going to hit you.”

“Help! Help me!”

The nurse we’d walked by before rushed into the room. Junior was thrilled.

“We haven’t done anything to him. Not a thing.”

“It’s all right. Mr. Gill has these episodes.” He raised his voice, “Patrick, everything’s okay. No one here is going to hurt you.”

Patrick was shaking, tears coming down his face. He looked terrorized.

“Can you tell me who hurt you, Patrick?” I asked as gently as I could.

“Vera,” he whispered. “I killed Vera.”

“No, dear, you didn’t,” Junior said.

“I did.”

CHAPTER THIRTY

August 13-18, 1996

In the lobby, I noticed Mrs. Carper at the reception desk. I stopped and asked, “Are things any better with Mr. Gill?”

“Yes and no. He’s still up to his tricks, but Mrs. Karpinski sent the loveliest basket of muffins and that went a long way to smooth things over. Was that your idea?”

“No, no, not at all,” I lied. Sheila had to deal with these people, so it was better they think the kindness a hundred percent hers.

“Patrick had an episode. He became quite frightened and began to yell. The nurse said it happens frequently?”

“I’m aware of that, yes.”

“It seems like he’s remembering something. Someone hurting him.”

“Well, I’m not sure you should put much stock in that. Patients like Patrick can be reliving things that happened to them, that’s true. However, they can also be fantasies. I know it’s hard for families, but the elderly can get caught invery negative dream worlds. Losing touch with reality would be easier if it were always a lovely reality they escaped to… but I’m afraid it’s not.”