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

 

Extracted

By Karen Singer

 

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

 

Twenty minutes after he walked out on the psychiatrist, their car drove up the circular drive to the front door of the family’s New York home.

“Are you going to be alright?” Bill asked the congressman.

“We’re fine,” Mike Stiller replied.  “Thanks for all your help today.  I’ll see you in the office tomorrow.”

With that, everyone got out of the car and Stephen followed them all to the front door and into the house.  He found himself in a large beautifully decorated formal living room.  As soon as they got inside, Mike turned to his wife.  Wanda held up her hand and said, “I’ll talk to her.”

Mike nodded.  “Thanks,” he said, then turned and walked off.

Steve automatically knew they were talking about him.  As Emily stood watching, his new mother turned to him.  “Can you find your room alright?”

Find his room?  She had to be kidding.  This was obviously a large house.  He had no idea where it would be, except perhaps upstairs somewhere.  “I’ve got no clue,” he told her.

“I can show her, Mom,” Emily offered.

“No.  I’ll take her,” Wanda told her older daughter.  “This way,” she said as she turned and headed further into the house.  Steve followed her, and Emily followed him.  With every step he took, Steve tried to take in everything he could see of the house.  Like his own house, it was large and well decorated.  But he was guessing that a congressman would need a house like this.  The staircase was located near the back of the house.  He noticed part of the kitchen in the distance as his new mother led the way onto the stairs and up them.

At the top of the stairs, he was surprised when his mother turned left instead of right.  He paused a moment to look in that direction.

“Problem?” Emily asked.

He shook his head.  “Where I live, my room is that way.”

“Where you live,” Emily said nastily.

He just looked at her.

“Your room is this one,” his new mother said as she stood in front of one of the open doors in the hallway.

Afraid of what he might be walking into, he headed that direction and stood in the doorway looking in.  Just as he had feared, he was staring at what he could only describe as a little girl’s room, complete with a plethora of stuffed animals and ballet pictures.  He chanced walking in and was immediately assaulted by the smell.  Yuck!  It burned his nose.  “It smells in here,” he complained.

“That’s your fault, I’m afraid,” his mother replied.  “You seem to have a thing for perfume lately, and you tend to use too much.  Way too much!”

“Trust me,” Steve replied.  “That won’t be a problem anymore.”  He had no interest or intention of using perfume…or any other girly stuff.

There were a few clothes strewn around the room, but no matter how he looked at it, the room was far neater than his own bedroom at home.  There was one other major factor that he noted as well that might prove to be a problem in the future.  The bed was neatly made.  He couldn’t remember ever making his bed at home.  He rarely even changed the sheets except when his mother recommended that he get it done again.  His mother at home rarely went into his room, declaring it a war zone and a safety hazard.  Something told him that his new mother, and probably his new sister as well, would be in his room often.  He didn’t like that.  His room should be his world.  He looked around the room again.  This though, obviously wasn’t his world in any way, shape, or form.

As he looked around, he noticed another thing he wasn’t happy about.  He had a bathroom attached to his room at home.  He didn’t see one here.  Where was it?  Close, he hoped.  In fact, he knew he would be needing it soon, maybe just as soon as these strange people left him alone for a while.

His new mother sat on the bed and patted the bed beside her, wanting him to sit next to her.  He sat and looked at her, waiting.  “What did you discuss with the doctor?” she asked.

“I thought that was all supposed to be private,” he replied.  He noticed that she didn’t look happy with his answer.

“If you insist.  I’m your mother, whether you think so or not, and you have no idea how concerned I am about what’s going on here.”

“Just imagine how concerned I am,” he countered.  “I’m so confused I don’t know which way is up.  I’m not a little girl.  I’m not Nancy.  Sorry about that, but it’s just the way it is.  I have no memory of being Nancy in my head at all, and believe me, I’ve been trying to find even one little thing.  But there’s nothing there.  Nothing!”

“Is that what you told the doctor?”

“Pretty much,” he replied.

She nodded.  “I’ll leave you to look around and get some rest then.  After being in the hospital, rest may be the best thing for you.  Dinner will be in about an hour, don’t be late.”

“I’ll make sure she remembers,” Emily told her.

Wanda nodded and turned back to Nancy.  “If you need me, I’ll be downstairs.  Or if you have any memory of being Nancy at all that hits you, come find me immediately!  Right now, that’s the biggest thing I’m praying for, for you to come back to me and remember being my little girl again.”  She suddenly reached out and hugged her daughter tightly.  “I miss you Nance!” she whispered.  “Come home!”  With that she suddenly let go and ran out of the room, crying.

Steve could only watch her go.  He saw Emily, still standing in the doorway watching his new mother run off as well.  A few seconds later, Emily turned back to look at him, then came in and sat down on the bed where his mother had been.

“I can’t believe you don’t remember us,” she said.  “I can’t believe you don’t even remember who you are.”

“I don’t believe it either,” Steve told her.  “As far as I’m concerned, my entire life right now is one big hallucination.  I even told the doctor that.”

“What did she say?” Emily asked.

“I’m not sure I understood it all.  Something about which way I was looking at things.”

Emily looked at him for a moment then said, “In the hospital, a few days ago, you said you would date me.”

Steve was surprised.  “I did?”

“Yes.  Do you remember that?”

Steve considered that.  “Oh yeah,” he said a moment later as that memory returned.  “It was right after I woke up the first time.  I didn’t know who you were.  I didn’t know who anybody was.”

“But if you’re really Steve, like you claim to be, and you’re really an…older guy…”

“I’m actually seventeen,” he told her.  I’ll be a senior this year.”

She nodded.  “But what I mean is, you said you would date me.  Would you?  Really?”

“Huh!  If I was a guy again, of course.  I love pretty girls.  A lot!”

“Do you have…a girlfriend?”

“Oh yeah!” he said lecherously.  “Melody.  She’s…fantastic!”

“Fantastic.”

“Oh yeah!”

“Can you tell me about her?”

“Melody?”

“Yes.  What’s she like.”

“Like I said.  Fantastic!”

“No.  What does she look like?”

“Oh.  Let me see.  She’s really pretty with long, silky hair that she recently had colored all black.”

“Do you like it better that way?” Emily asked.

He shrugged.  “It’s good both ways.  I don’t really care.  Like I said, she’s pretty.”

“How does she dress?”

“I don’t know.  Nice.  Real nice.  And sexy!”

“Sexy?”

“Yeah.”

“But you can’t give me any details?”

“Why?”

“Because…I’m girl!  Maybe I want to do something similar.  I’d love to have some guy interested in me.”

“Oh.  Well, why wouldn’t they now?”

“Because of…look.  You and…I mean Nancy and I, we go to a private school because of…Dad.  The boys there are all great, and rich, but…I don’t get to go out with any of them.  But Mom said that now that I’m sixteen she’s going to start letting me date, but so far….”

“No luck.”  He chuckled.  “Shit, I’d date you in a minute.  Trust me.”

“But you’ve got a girlfriend.”

“Huh!  That doesn’t exactly stop me.  What she doesn’t know, can’t hurt her.”

“Or you?”

“Nope!”

She sat and looked at him for a moment before she said, “Tell me something.  Honestly!”

“Okay.”

“When you look at me, do you have any kind of…um…”  She rolled her eyes around looking for a polite way to say it.  Finally she blurted out.  “Do you have any kind of sexual interest in me?”

He was surprised by the question.  Oddly, he had to sit and consider it for a few moments before he could answer.  “The strange thing is,” he said.  “I should.  I know for a fact I normally would.  But right now…”  He shook his head.  “Somehow, I just don’t.  Not now.  And I don’t know why.”

Something in what he said angered her.  “Why don’t you look in the mirror, dummy.  Maybe that will clue you in.”  With that she walked out.

Emily hurried down the stairs.  She found her mother making dinner in the kitchen.  “That’s not my sister upstairs,” she declared angrily.  “It’s not Nancy!”

Her mother nodded.  “I’m not sure what’s going on,” she told her older daughter.

“Well I can tell you for a fact that it’s not Nancy.  Not at all!”

Wanda nodded.  “Yeah, I know.  And it’s eating a hole in my gut like you wouldn’t believe.”

Upstairs, Steve’s eyes fell on something bright and pink and shiny.  Something that looked like it was covered in sequins or something.  It took him a moment to figure out what it was.  A cellphone!  Did he dare?  Did he dare pick it up and phone his real mother and father in Philadelphia?  That’s what he wanted to do.  That’s what he yearned to do.  But what would he say?  What would he tell them?  That he was somehow trapped in some weird little girl’s body?  Nobody here believed him, why should they?

And then another thought hit him?  What if he really was home in Philadelphia?  What if the real Steve was there in the house with them?  What then?

Should he call?  Or not?

He sat staring at the phone.  Wanting to call, but too afraid.