Chapter 19
Six o’ clock came early the next morning as Edward lurched his way out of bed. He was a bit stiff, but as he got up he quickly learned that the couch was not for sleeping on. After showering and dressing, he went downstairs for his morning coffee. Ajna had already left for work. She worked four ten hour shifts – usually in a row. As he finished his coffee, he realized that he had two appointments to keep. There would be no point in going to work if he had to leave twice in the same day. Edward decided to call out sick and save a day of running around. Besides, he needed a break and even one day away from work was still a break. After he got off the phone, he checked the time for his counseling appointment. Two o’ clock seemed rather far off this early in the morning. He didn’t think that he’d be at the screening center very long – perhaps fifteen minutes at the most. So, with his counseling appointment likely being about an hour long, Edward considered his day to be, more or less, wide open. Knowing that he had to be at the screening center before noon, Edward thought that ten o’ clock would be a good time to show up. He poured another cup of coffee, sat on the couch and spent about thirty minutes of channel surfing. The only time he ever got to watch television in the morning was on the weekends. It didn’t take much time for him to decide that morning television was a waste of airtime. After finishing his coffee, Edward thought that as long as he wasn’t going to work he might as well take a short nap. In spite of how his back felt, he decided that as long as he was already on the couch he would stretch out and sleep for a while. Two hours later, Edward was abruptly awakened by an especially loud commercial. He wiped the sleep out of his eyes and checked the time. It was now nine thirty and he found himself rushing out the door.
He got in his car, backed out into the street and headed toward Marginal Way. The war zone was always quiet in the morning, so Edward felt fairly comfortable being in that part of town. He soon found himself turning into the parking lot of the screening center. As he was about to turn off his car, he saw one of the ambulances leave the back of the building with its lights and siren running. He remembered what the technician told him – ‘this is a medical screening center’. He watched the ambulance leave as it headed in the direction of Maine Medical Center. Walking through the double doors, he saw the same woman sitting at the desk from his screening two days ago. As soon as she saw him, the woman pushed a button that had been mounted under the edge of the desk. Her face was devoid of any expression and left Edward feeling a little tense.
“Hi, I’m…,” he started.
“Edward Drake,” she interrupted. “You’re here about the results of your screening.”
Her face was still blank and she looked at him with piercing pale blue eyes as though she had discovered some deep, dark secret about him.
“Yes,” he replied. “I got a phone…”
“You were notified by phone,” she interrupted again. “I know. If you would go down the hall and have a seat, the technician will be with you shortly.”
As he walked down the hall, Edward’s steps became slightly hesitant. He began to feel that something about this place may not be all that it appeared. But, the only evidence he had was a feeling and lately, Edward’s emotions were proving to be somewhat misleading.
He sat in one of the wooden chairs and waited. He found it strange that there were no other people waiting with him. In fact, there wasn’t anyone else there at the time of his screening either.
“Edward!” The technician again seemed to have appeared out of thin air. His sudden presence startled Edward into a sweat.
“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to startle you.”
“It’s o.k.,” Edward said. “I’ve just got a busy day ahead of me, that’s all.”
The technician paged through Edward’s file while nodding in acknowledgment.
“O.k.,” the technician said. “C’mon in.”
Edward got up and walked into the same room he had when he first arrived for his screening. The pictures of abused children, now branded on his brain, flashed through his mind. The technician sat down across from Edward, opened the folder and continued scanning through its contents.
“Um, I have an appointment this afternoon, so…,” Edward began.
The technician lifted his face from the folder.
“An appointment?” he interrupted.
He calmly closed the folder and slid it several inches away from himself.
“You’re not going to your appointment, Edward.” He placed his hands flat on the table, one atop the other.
“Excuse me,” said Edward.
He spoke in a state of disbelief.
“Let’s start from the beginning, shall we,” the technician said. “You’re not comfortable with any of this, are you Edward? You don’t like the idea of people telling you what to do or how to live your life. You’re easily frustrated. You’re prone to becoming anxious to the point of almost overwhelming paranoia.”
“What’s your point,” Edward asked impatiently.
The technician’s description of him could not have been more accurate.
“Ah, you see Edward? There’s that agitation again,” the technician teased.
“Listen! I came down here because you called me!” Edward yelled. “So, let’s get on with this so I can get the fuck outta here!”
The technician looked at him calmly.
“Edward, you don’t have a clue, do you?” he said. “Do you know why you’re here? The real reason you’re here?”
Edward tried to hide his growing fear.
“You’re afraid,” the technician said. “That’s o.k. It’s only natural to be afraid.”
The technician’s words were calm, almost sympathetic. Yet, there was something menacing about the way he spoke.
“Nobody has ever figured it out, you know that?” the technician said. “Even when they know it’s over, something inside them just won’t let them believe what’s happening. But let’s get back to you.”
Edward sat with terror and uncertainty.
“Edward, I know you’ve got a pretty good education. You’ve got a good job as a banking analyst. We don’t care about those things and let’s face it Edward, your psych test isn’t exactly a shining star of normalcy.”
The technician paused to fumble with the folder. “I meet a lot of people just like you, Edward. You’re a liability, just like the others.”
“Ya know,” Edward began. “I think we’re done here. I don’t know who you think you are and right now I don’t give a fuck about your program.”
Edward got up from his chair and continued ranting.
“If you ever bother us again – even a phone call – my attorney will be all over you.”
Edward turned to leave and found himself faced with two large men in suits. One of them was drawing up ten C.C.’s of Haloperidol – a powerful sedative.
“Edward,” the technician said. “Your attorney won’t be coming here”.
Edward knew that something terrible was about to happen to him and decided that he would not go down without a fight. He turned back and charged at the technician. Knocking him to the floor, he raised a fist. But before Edward was able to take a full swing he felt a sudden stabbing pain in his right shoulder. The large bore needle penetrated deeply into his muscles with an almost paralyzing pain. The injection was quick and effortless. Edward was not able to fight them off as they held down to the floor. And within two minutes, he had fallen into a dreamless, drug-induced sleep. The technician got to his feet. Bending down, he grabbed Edward by his left shoulder and rolled him on his back.
“Why do they always do that?” he said.
The men in suits stood silent.
“Alright,” the technician said. “Get him outta here! And don’t fuck it up this time! I don’t want the administrator up my ass about getting another piece of dead meat!”
The men strapped Edward firmly onto a wheeled stretcher and prepared to move him to a loading dock where an ambulance waited.
“Hey!” the technician yelled. “Did you fuckin’ hear me!? We need him breathing! Now, loosen those goddamn straps a bit!”
The straps were loosened slightly and Edward was loaded into the ambulance. The men disappeared as two more took their place. They were dressed in green surgical scrubs and trained in advanced life support. The stretcher was placed in a clamp that was built into the inside of the ambulance to keep it from rolling. After everything was secured, the driver started the engine and turned on the ambulance’s lights. As Edward lay in a drug-induced twilight, the driver pulled out onto Marginal Way and drove north. The attendant in the back monitored his vital signs and started an I.V. This would later be used as a means of chemical control.