St. Dyphmna: Home For All The Insane| Chapter 2.1

I had been sitting on that cold metallic seat for about an hour now. Dr Lazarus had made sure I knew she expected punctuality even in my appointment letter and yet there I was, just sitting idly, trying my best to avoid eye contact with Rose because every time I looked at her, she took it as her cue to start a new conversation. Staring at my phone was not helping anymore either, I had no signal, I wasn’t about to ask Rose for the Wi-Fi password and risk having to pretend to be interested in listening to the story of how she found out what Wi-Fi was, or something and my battery was nearly dead. Nonetheless, I continued swiping thoughtlessly on my home screen itself, marvelling at how many apps I had never noticed before this.

‘Sorry to have kept you waiting, I was rather busy.' I recognized that husky, monotonous voice from my interview.

‘Not a problem at all Doctor.’ I smiled and stood up. At that moment I couldn’t help but compare the tall, thin and upright figure of Dr Lazarus to that of my companion for the past hour. The latter was short and plump and was very carefree, even in her movements, I don’t think the doctor even realized how much she was straining the muscles in her body to look that stiff. Rose was always grinning, at least she was every time I looked up from my phone to give my neck a break. The doctor on the other hand made it seem like she would lose her reputation if she even cracked a smile.

I think I would prefer to sit with Rose for the rest of the day.

‘I believe you have transferred here from Father Muller?’

‘Yes, I have. I worked there as a psychiatrist for about six months before being promoted to head of the Psychiatry Department’

‘Hmm, Head of the Psychiatry Department with six months of experience? Father Muller has never had the appropriate number of doctors, have they? Anyhow, if you’ll follow me, I’ll show you around the facility. I suspect you’ve had a long journey so I shan’t burden you with your duties just yet. You may move into your quarters and begin work tomorrow. Your patients will be assigned to you and their files are given to you, in the morning’ she said as she walked ahead.

She moves fast.

The tour of the campus didn’t last very long, she stormed through every single building, barely stopped at the important rooms long enough for me to peep into them and stormed right back. At least I knew how to get from my room to the cafeteria, that’s the only distance I was expected to travel for the day.