TESSA CASTREE
Page 2 of 3
Double Chocolate
As they walked down the corridor towards the ward, Brian looked at the new art on the walls; it hadn’t been there in his previous hospital stays. An inspiring mountain, a peaceful river, several bright abstract pieces. The ward was just the same though, except Dr Roberts was new, and different from the other doctors, more like a regular guy. Brian liked the way he treated him, as if he was a normal person rather than someone with a mental illness. He was a lot younger than Brian, probably had a nice family and lived in a house like the ones they’d passed in the car.
Janine, who Brian guessed was about his own age, asked him for a cigarette. They were sitting at a wooden picnic table in the ward courtyard. The mid-afternoon sun was drawing attention to the barren surroundings: flowerbeds growing weeds around the edges of the grey concrete; large coffee tins used for ashtrays on the ground beside the tables. Brian pulled his packet of Marlboros out of his pocket.
‘Tailor-mades!’ She exclaimed. ‘How can you afford these?’
Janine always looked nice in her clean blue jeans and T-shirts. Her hair was brown, streaked with a silvery grey, and wavy. She wore it scraped back in a ponytail. Brian had washed his hair that morning and had a shave. He’d inherited his mother’s strong Ngāti Porou body and his father’s Liverpudlian blue eyes. Not bad looking, he hoped.
‘Dr Roberts bought them for me when we went out for a drive and an ice cream.’
‘Drive and an ice cream I scream, put it in a pocket so no one can see, don’t tell tales, you’ll get into trouble, quick, someone’s coming, hide!’ Bang bang bang – one open-palmed hand slapped the table loudly, the other was flapping, and her jaw was thrust forward.
Brian never knew what triggered Janine. It frightened him. It never made any sense. It was as if she went somewhere else and was reliving something terrible. But he liked her anyway. Brian had learned to sooth her by gently repeating, ‘Look at me, Janine. It’s okay.’
At dinner that night Janine said to Brian, ‘Have you heard about Dr Roberts?’
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