Extracted - Chapter 7 – The Psycho and Delic Hallucination – Part 1 of 2

 

Extracted

By Karen Singer

 

Chapter 7 – The Psycho and Delic Hallucination – Part 1 of 2

 

In the New York hospital, Steve looked dejectedly out through Nancy’s eyes.  He was being sent to a shrink.  He wasn’t sure if that was the right answer for him or not, but one fact stood out perfectly clear.  He needed help!

He was leaving the hospital now.  Being thrown out.  They couldn’t help him, so they were making him leave.  He was seventeen years old and a strong boy, at least on the inside.  He was a football player who could handle anyone who came up against him.  It was just his new physical body he seemed to have that he couldn’t handle…not to mention the life that this body might entail.  Like it or not, he had to admit, just the thought of leaving the safe confines of the hospital, scared him.

Despite his physical appearance that he could still only put down to some kind of hallucination, he wasn’t a young girl at all.  But as the hallucination seemed to continue with no seeming end in sight, he didn’t know what he could do about it.  He wasn’t going start trying to act like a girl, especially a little one, he knew that much for sure!

But now they were making him leave the hospital, and his whole strange new family was there to make sure of it.  He was unfamiliar with his new hallucinogenic body.  He was unfamiliar with his new family.  He was unfamiliar with New York.  He was unfamiliar with everything he could think of.  But mostly, right at that moment, he was unfamiliar with the clothes they had just handed him to wear.  They had to be kidding.  Everything they had set on the bed next to him was…tiny.  He guessed like his new body.

This strange mother figure who called herself Wanda…what a dumb name…helped him remove the hospital gown he had been wearing, exposing the girl’s panties he had just put on underneath.  Then came a little off-pink thing that kind of looked like some kind of little bra that was pulled over his head and down his chest, covering the tiny bumps that were all the breasts he had.  Dumb and stupid.  And what was the point of all the lace on the thing?  Tiny shorts that left his legs mostly bare soon covered his panties.  After that, a tiny shirt covered the bra he could see no use for and that felt weird underneath the shirt.  And finally, tiny sneakers where the original laces had been replaced with a double set of pink and yellow ones, making them difficult to tie and making the bold mixed colors stand out.  Why?  It was all so dumb.

He thought he was ready to go, but his replacement mother had other ideas.  She grabbed him and started attacking his long unwanted hair with a hairbrush, brushing it over and over again before pulling it back.  Emily handed this new mother something and he felt her doing something different with his hair that eventually left it in what he could only guess was a ponytail.  At least it was out of his face now.  The ponytail felt annoying back there as it seemed to move around with a life of its own, brushing the back of his shoulders and back.  He also wasn’t happy about the constant feel of every bit of the hair on his head being constantly pulled back so tightly.

“There’s my little girl,” his replacement father said with a smile.

His little girl?  That’s what he thought.  Steve had other ideas on the subject.

“Let’s go,” Daddy told everyone.

Steve was put into a wheelchair and one of the hospital aides wheeled him all the way down and out through the doors.  As they went out, Steve got the impression that these doors were not the front main entrance to a hospital.  There was a man in a suit waiting for them just outside.

“Congressman,” he greeted the man claiming to be his father.  “Mrs. Stiller,” he greeted the woman claiming to be his mother.

There was a car pulled up to the curb and the man in the suit opened the passenger doors.  Steve was ushered out of the wheelchair and directly into the backseat of the car.

“Push over a bit,” Emily said as she got in next to him.  His supposed mother hurried around to the other side and got into the backseat with them, leaving him in the middle.  The man who claimed to be his father got into the passenger side of the front.  The man in the suit got behind the wheel and in seconds the car was pulling away from the hospital.

“Anyone notice you?” Mike asked his aide.

“Not that I could tell.  I think we’re okay.”

“Good!” the congressman replied.  “How about the psychiatrist?”

“All arranged.  They know to expect us as soon as we get there and they know that discretion has to be their main concern.”

“Thanks Bill,” Mike told him.

“Any improvement?” Bill asked.

“Not yet,” Mike admitted.

Bill looked over at his boss, then back at the road.  He didn’t know what the girl’s exact problem was, only that it was some kind of mental problem.  But any kind of problem like that could turn out to be very bad for the congressman.

In the backseat, Steve tried to follow what little had been said between the two men in the front seat.  They weren’t happy about something.  They weren’t happy, but he was the one who was really unhappy with this situation.  Not to mention, he was unhappy about the way his damn ponytail kept hitting the back of the seat so that he couldn’t really lean his head back.  It was more annoying than the feel of the tiny fake bra thing he was wearing under his shirt.

Bending his head forward so the ponytail wouldn’t poke the back of his head was difficult because  all his hair was trapped behind him and it had his head literally tied back.  He leaned his entire body forward and reached around, grabbing the ponytail.  He pulled it over his shoulder and left it there.  Much better!  Well, not really, but at least his dumb hair no long kept his head from moving.  Annoying!

With his head free, he turned it to look at his new supposed mother.  She was looking at him.  Watching him.  He wanted to say something nasty to her, but decided against it.  Something told him it would do no good.

He turned to look at the girl who claimed to be his sister.  He never had a sister or brother before, and considered his life as an only child to be perfect.  A brother or sister would probably get in the way of all the time he and Melody had gotten it on in his bedroom while his mother was out of the house.

Now, according to what they had told him, he was on his way to see a psychiatrist before going home.  A shrink.  Just then he wanted something to shrink all his problems down to nothing and let him be himself again.  He still could only consider this to be one big hallucination because he simply didn’t have any other explanation for it.  Maybe the shrink had a better idea of what his problem was.  He could only hope.

The drive from the hospital was fairly long, but eventually the car pulled off the road and up to the front entrance to a building.  Steve noted that Bill was quick to get out of the car and open the door for his fake mother, but everyone else opened their own car doors.  It seemed like Bill and his new father were trying hard to usher everyone inside the building as fast as possible.

They were met inside by two people, an older man and an older woman.  Nothing was said at all as the two people led them directly into an office.

“Congressman,” the man said as he shook Michael Stiller’s hand.  He turned to Steve’s new mother.  “And Mrs. Stiller,” he said as he shook her hand.  “It’s a pleasure to meet you.”  He turned to the woman with him.  “This is Doctor Isabella Montcliff.  She’s agreed to look into your daughter’s little problem.”

“Thank you,” the congressman told him.  “You are aware of our need for strict security on this issue.”

“We were told,” the man who hadn’t introduced himself replied.

“You have no idea what something like this could do to my position in the government,” the congressman said.  “If people find out that my daughter has mental problems, that could easily reflect on me and cause a lot of trouble with my entire constituency and the things I’m trying to achieve in congress.  If anyone finds out that she’s having problems, people could think that maybe I might have those same mental issues as well.  Or, since she was kidnapped, they might think that I’m being blackmailed over something.  So please, nobody must find out.”

“I…we…understand,” the unknown man assured him.  “We’re a psychiatric clinic.  Discretion is one of our primary concerns.  In this case, I can assure you that we’ll be extra cautious.”

“I agree, and understand,” Doctor Montcliff told them.

The congressman nodded.  “Thank you,” he said.  “How do we proceed from here?”

“Since this is our first meeting,” the doctor said.  “I’d very much like to just have a quick talk with your daughter here.  Even with children I prefer to do this alone, but since she is a child, very often at least one of the parents or at least some kind of guardian is present as well, so I have no problem with either or both of you sitting in with us.  As I said though, I prefer to do it alone simply because I don’t want the issue of parents getting in the way of anything she might want to tell me.”

The congressman considered that.  “I can see that,” he agreed.  He turned to his wife.  “Do you want to be there?”

“Yes!” Wanda told him.  Then she added, “But no.  If she feels it would be better to talk with Nancy alone, then I’ll agree, but only so long as someone tells me what went on.”

The doctor looked at her.  “Possibly!” she said.  “That’s all I can tell you.  I do need to build up a degree of trust.  That’s important in any kind of work that I do.  However, I already know that before long I’m going to want to sit down with you alone, and maybe your husband as well, and get your thoughts on whatever her situation is and how it’s affecting the rest of you.”

“Of course,” Wanda agreed.  “Anytime.”

“Then maybe we should get started,” the doctor suggested.  “If you want to wait in here, I’ll take…I understand her name is Nancy?”

“Yes,” Wanda confirmed.

“I’ll take Nancy to my office so we can chat.”  She turned to the young girl in the room.  “Come on dear.  Let’s let our hair down for a bit.”

Steve followed the psychiatrist out of the room they were in, down the hall, and into another office.  The office looked very nice.  Comfortable.  The doctor sat down in one of the chairs and picked up a notepad and a pen.  She motioned toward the seat across from her and Steve sat down.  The doctor sat there staring at her, saying nothing.  Steve stared back for a few moments then said, “What?”

“Do you want to tell me about your problems?  Your mother said your name is Nancy.  Can I call you that?”

“I’d rather you didn’t!” Steve said nastily.

The doctor was surprised.  “Then what would you like me to call you?”

“How about my real name.”

“And what’s that?”

“Stephen.  Or Steve.”

That threw the doctor, but only for a moment.  “And why do you think…”

“Oh for heavens sake!” Steve exclaimed angrily.  “You’re another one.”

“Another what?”

“Another part of this big hallucination!”

“Hallucination?  What hallucination?”

“This life I’ve got.  This stupid little girl body I’m stuck in.  It’s not mine and nobody can seem to understand that.  The entire world is now one big hallucination, and I can’t find my way out of it!”

“A hallucination.  Tell me about it.”

“Tell you what?  I’m not this little girl named Nancy.”

“You said your name is Stephen.  Can you at least tell me about Stephen then?”

“Ask me anything you want.  I can tell you anything and everything about him.  What I can’t tell you about is who the hell this stupid little body I’m in actually belongs to.”

Doctor Montcliff considered that.  “Okay,” she finally said.  “Tell me about Stephen.  I guess you’ve got parents.  Who are they?”

“Easy!” Steve declared.  “My dad is Henry Marsh.  He’s the Philadelphia D.A..  My mother is…”

“D.A.?” Isabella asked.

“District Attorney.  He’s the Philadelphia District Attorney!”

“Okay,” the doctor replied.  “Just making sure of what we’re talking about here.”  The mention of district attorney seemed strange.  Would a girl that young know what a district attorney was?  “And your mother?” she continued.

“My mom’s name is Agatha.  Agatha Marsh.  She doesn’t work.  She likes to throw a lot of dinner parties for my dad’s friends and political associates.”

“Dinner parties,” the doctor said, the word associates sticking in her head.  Obviously this girl used an advanced vocabulary.  There was something else about the way she was speaking as well.  What was it?  “Political associates?” she asked.

“Yeah.  My dad’s got tons of them.”

“I see,” the doctor replied.  “Any brothers or sisters?”

“Nope.  Just me.”

“Okay, tell me about you.”

“Like I said, I’m Stephen Marsh.  I’m actually seventeen years old and I’ll be starting my senior year of high school in a few weeks.  Next week in fact, I’m supposed to be going to football camp to get ready for the season coming up.”

“You like football?”

“I love football!”

“Do you have any friends?”

“Friends?  I’ve got tons of friends.”

“Who’s your best friend?”

He laughed.  “My girlfriend, of course.  Melody.”

The fact that he claimed to have a girlfriend and even had a name for her surprised her, but only a bit.  Obviously this fantasy world was more complete than she originally thought it might be.  “And how often do you see her?”

“Huh!  All the time.  We hang out together every chance we get.”

“And what do you do when you hang out?”  She was surprised to see the look on his face change as he sat there saying nothing.  “I see,” she said.  “So you don’t know because you don’t really have a girlfriend.”

“What?  Of course I do.”

“Then what do you like doing with your girlfriend.”

“If I answer that, will you tell my parents?  I mean, my real parents?”

“Nancy, I promise.  I…”

“Don’t call me Nancy!  Please,” he added more contritely.  “I’m not Nancy, no matter how much you think I am.”

The doctor looked at him for a moment then continued.  “I won’t tell anyone.  What is it you do with your girlfriend, although I can pretty much guess what you’re going to say now.”

Steve looked at her for a moment then said, “Sex.  We like sex together.  Okay?  Both of us.”

“Mm,” the doctor replied.  “Tell me about the sex.”

“I’d rather not.  And I’d really rather you didn’t let anyone know.”

“Trust me, I won’t.  All these conversations we have are strictly confidential…unless you or your parents say I can divulge that information.”

“But it’s my parents that I don’t want to know about it.”

“Those parents?” she asked, pointing toward the door.

“They’re not my parents!  I really don’t know who the hell they are.”

“Then what are you worried about?”

“My real parents.  My father is the D.A. remember?”

“I remember,” the doctor replied.  “I made a note of it to make sure.”

Steve nodded, satisfied.

“What about your other friends?  Any who are boys?”

“Huh!” Steve grunted.  “I play football, remember?  I weigh almost two hundred pounds.  The entire team are my friends.”

“I know a little about football,” the doctor told him.  “What position do you play, quarterback?”

“No, linebacker, and I’m good at it.  I’ve got a really good chance of being drafted to play on a college team next year.”

“College,” she replied.  “And what college are you hoping to go to?”

“Ohio State.”

“Ohio?  But you live in New York?”

“Actually, I live in Philadelphia, remember?”  Then he shrugged.  “I like Ohio.  And from there I’ve got a better chance of maybe making a pro team.”

“So you’ve got big football aspirations.”

“Absolutely!”

“Except…if you look in the mirror, you don’t exactly have the body for it, do you.”

Steve grew angry.  “This damn hallucination.  I’ve got to find my way out of it!”

“Steve,” she said.  “Did you ever stop to think that maybe this hallucination as you called it, could be the other way around?”

“What do you mean?”

“That maybe you really are a little girl, and the hallucination is this football player named Steve that you’ve dreamed up.  That’s your hallucination.”

He shook his head and stood up angrily.  “I’m not some stupid little girl named Nancy, no matter what you think.  My name is Stephen Marsh, and I’m a big, seventeen year old boy.  And I…want…my…life…back!”  With that, he angrily stomped out.

Doctor Montcliff was left sitting there with no choice but to consider everything that had been said.  She wasn’t sure what she was dealing with here.  One of the things that bothered her the most was the voice inflections.  She would swear they weren’t the voice inflections of a young girl…or an older girl either.  They were more like those of a young adult male.  How would a young girl learn to talk that way?  And there was another thing she had noticed about the voice inflections.  She had grown up in Philadelphia.  Nancy’s accent sounded a lot like a Philadelphia accent.

Was she dealing with a mental he here?  The young girl certainly seemed more like a boy, and an older boy at that.  Not to mention, how had she come up with all those details so quickly.  A linebacker?  She would have thought the girl would pick someone more like a quarterback for her fantasies.

She needed more information.  The girl had said she was seventeen, but she insisted she was a seventeen year old boy, which she obviously wasn’t…physically.  But mentally, she had sounded just like one.

She had to wonder, which way did Nancy’s hallucination really go.  Was she a boy hallucinating that he was a girl, as he claimed?  Or as she had suggested, the most likely and obvious case, was she a girl hallucinating she was a boy?  Except, there was simply too much disturbing detail.  Way too much!  Enough that it really bothered her.  Worried her too.  There simply shouldn’t be that much detail!

The reality of it was that what Nancy, or Steve, believed had happened, was simply impossible.  You certainly couldn’t take someone’s entire personality and stick it into someone else.  It just couldn’t be done.  So what the heck was going on?  But this had been only the first meeting.  She had no doubt that many more meetings would follow, and something told her that right now those meetings needed to be often!  At least two a week, or more.  And the next meeting she wanted to have, needed to be with the mother.  Alone!  Since her father was a U.S. congressman, she had no doubt that getting a session with him was going to be impossible.

In the meantime….  She looked down at her notes and wondered how much information she could find on the internet.  Who really was the Philadelphia District Attorney?  And if it really was someone named Marsh, what information could she find out about his family?  Building a framework for a fantasy would be much easier if all that information was available online.

 

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