- Are you OK..?
He asked "Sarah" while giving her his band to stand-up.. She depended on his hand to rise, smiling at him..
- Never been better..
He remembered her story that lead to her being here.. Her stepfather kept harassing her, especially when they were home alone, the story that ended with her losing her nerves one day and murdering him, and escaping, then spending time waiting for her lover who got hit by a speeding car when he was on his way to meet her, the story ended up with her trying to commit suicide to escape everything after the discovery of her stepfather's dead body.. After she was saved they found that the shock was too much for her, and her memory erased the last part from her mind completely, so, every day she goes to sit beside the window waiting for her lover, reliving the whole situation from the very start.. Her mind couldn't stand the shock of him dying on his way to meet her.. So she keeps sitting, waiting for hours.. The sun goes up and down and she would be still waiting.. There was one time when he saw her in the last scene (the suicide scene) and she was picking a toothbrush, imagining it as a sharp blade, and trying to kill herself with it..
He watched her as she approached "Yousry", another patient that seemed interested in her, but had a slightly different story.. The brain concussion that happened to him after an armed robbery caused a complete damage of his memory, and his wife couldn't stand to live with a husband who couldn't remember her name for one whole day.. And since his case was hopeless, she decided to get rid of him in this mental hospital..
“Youssef” watched in pity "Yousry's attempts to get "Sarah's attention, but his main problem was not being able to express his feelings clearly.. So he got used to write in a note that he used to hold in his hand all the time.. Write in a paper, then cut it, before handing it to "Sarah" that does her best trying to read his shaky handwriting, before answering him with few words, while picking up a flower from the garden smiling, then he writes more in another paper that he hands her again and so on.. The problem was that "Youssef" knew that all of this will start again from zero tomorrow, as if they never knew each other.. "Yousry's memory wouldn't be able to keep all of these memories, but let's not rush things..
Feeling the place too gloomy, he decided to pull the curtains up, and while the golden afternoon sunlight invaded the place before his eyes and covered everything with a golden overlay, he watched the group sitting next to the wall as they separated silently.. He turned off the gramophone that was still on “Edith Piaf" songs, to have little quietness to be able to concentrate with the patients.. Most of them seemed annoyed on closing the songs, specially "Sarah", but she didn't comment..
He chose " Edith Piaf" songs because he noticed that the patients were mostly relaxed with her type of songs, which would be in the favor of the experiment, and he chose the gramophone, to complete the whole old distinctive character of the place, because he thought this would help calming them down, with almost nothing belonging to the present around.. Old songs.. Gramophone.. Vintage advertisements and photographs from the past.. Even the furniture and the wooden walls belonged to the same era..
He looked smiling at an old black and white photograph of "Hind Rostom" - a famous Egyptian classical actress - sending a kiss to him, before looking back at the patients.. Many of them seemed to him most of the times more human than many people out there assumedly considered (normal).. "Youssef" remembered many times of himself getting angry, and he would then be more crazy than this whole bunch in front of him altogether..
He took a deep breath, remembering the details that started this whole experiment.. Weird experiment it was certainly.. They were a group of hopeless cases, because ordinary treatment methods didn't work out with any of them.. Besides, none of them had relatives or friends that cared for them or cared if they were alive or dead from the first place, and for sure they wouldn't object on what Dr."Youssef " had in mind.. All of them either were from rich families that got rid of them in that mental hospital, or had a large bank account that allowed them being here..
None of them had a visit from any of their relatives for almost three years, and some of them for even more.. All their lives became pivoted about being in this hospital, so he managed through doing a little effort to convince the hospital manager to give him permission to try a new method of treatment with them, a method that he had read about in an American scientific science journal..
The place was prepared for carefully selected cases, to look like a classy vintage café, where the patients would be able to have the nearest possible version of real life, and through time and reaction that would soon happen between the patients, in addition to medicines added to the beverages they have, the doses are adjusted and changed regularly to ensure the most efficacy, together with using some new under experiment drugs that have shown good results in the American version of the trial.. He named it the "Bianca" trial, the same name of the American version, which was named after the Italian American doctor "Bianca Masso" who first thought of it..
(all previous and following information about the " Bianca" trial is complete fiction)
Expenses of preparing the place and furniture and everything was to be added to the patients bills, paid regularly and without any kind of delay from the legal authorities responsible for the money in some cases, or the relatives in the other cases, which encouraged the manager of the hospital to approve the secret trial.. They were hopeless cases anyway, so why not give that enthusiastic young doctor the chance to try something different with them..?
At the beginning of the trial he allowed the most stable cases, like "Sarah","Dalia", and "Yousry", and he kept watching them closely all the time, as he couldn't just leave a group of mental patients With each other with no supervision.. Not yet..
But the first results were good, and no case had any kind of relapse, which encouraged him to add more cases to the place, like "Kareem", “Nadine ", and "Moataz "..
And at the end he added the most doubted cases that had frequent relapses, like "Mahmoud", "Sameer" and "Hassan" who insisted that everyone call him the “Boss"..
All sharp equipment and pens and similar stuff weren't allowed at all, so that no one of them would use it in any stupid thing.. Even the ceramic toilet covers were replaced with plastic covers, after one of the patients someday removed a toilet cover and was about to break it.. Only the stable cases - " Yousry "as an example, who was considered to be one of the most stable cases around, or at least Won't try to hurt anyone with the items given to him - were allowed to use pens and papers.. In his case those items even seemed like a good solution since he showed interest in writing, because it made him able to express his feelings and thoughts better, besides helping his case recovery for a good extent..
Wasn't only him who started to get better, as many cases seemed to improve to some extent with that new method of treatment, while others didn't differ a bit, not yet at least.. There were plastic useless cell phones to make them feel more like normal people and not just outcast patients.. Just plastic toys of no use more than make them feel human.. Their imagination would be enough to make them real working cell phones that they could use to call whoever they wanted to call..
The patients daily program included waking up at 9 a.m., then breakfast from 9,15 till 10,30 a.m., after that a relaxation period, including several suggestions: either a quite walk in an isolated corner in the near garden which faces the main door in the end of the hall.. Isolated to make sure that no contact happens between the subjects of the trial and the rest of the patients.. Or reading, or watching TV, that to be left open till 1,00 p.m.
2,30 p.m. would be the time for the afternoon snack or drink, to which more drugs are added ..
Lunch time would be between 5,30 p.m. till 6,30 p.m. , then on 8.00 p.m. they watch a light movie during dinner, before going to sleep round 10 p.m.
Trying as much as they could to make it look like a café, in order not to make them feel like patients in an ordinary mental hospital, as
one of the main ideas of the trial was to make them able to merge in real life, in order to prepare them for life outside the hospital.. As one of the main weak points in ordinary mental hospitals was keeping the patients in a perfect world differing totally from the outside one, with no responsibilities and no duties, which makes it difficult for many of the patients after recovery and being released, in coping with the outside world.. "Bianca" trial was supposed to have avoided that point..
Some patients act as customers, while others act as waiters.. The waiters are only allowed to deal with previously prepared drinks or meals, and they serve them only under supervision of D.”Youssef" or his assistant D."Noha" - who was checking things in the kitchen now - as the patients aren't allowed here to deal with knives or boiling water or kitchen equipment, or anything that could be used to hurt someone, even if by mistake.. Besides, stable cases were the only allowed to deal with the kitchen, in the presence of him or his assistant, who check things every hour or less..
He looked at the TV in the corner, switched off from some time now, as it was switched on in certain times only, and when it was on, only broadcasting pre-taped funny programs or sitcoms.. The reason for this was them not wanting to subject the patients to violent scenes or news, fearing they would relapse again.. But an interesting fact he noticed was that many of the patients imagine the TV on in many times it was turned off in, in addition to them seeing imaginary news reports on it at these times.. "Youssef" didn't pass this information to the hospital's management, in fear of them considering this was a sign of the failure of the trial, and call the whole thing off.. Just some time.. All he needed was some time to give them the results they wanted..
He looked at "Dalia", and her daughter "Leila", who were the victims of a car crash that killed the husband and left them with complete amnesia.. He watched them both as they went to sit beside amnesic "Mourad", who reacted well with them, maybe because they shared the same case and all the three of them didn't remember any past life before entering the hospital, which made them imagine a whole story of how they came here, a story that included both of them being in love and about to get married, and "Leila" was the daughter of the people "Dalia" worked for, the thing that "Youssef" didn't like much, but since they didn't annoy any of the other patients, he decided to ignore this in the meantime..
He looked after that at "Nadia" (Schizophrenia) who was keeping her eyes on "Sherif" (Schizophrenia) who was sitting alone beside the window, the thing that made him get worried, but "Nadia's motives probably were only her being lonely, so she used to look at any couple sitting together.. Maybe the resemblance between "Sherif" and her late husband was a reason too, but her not trying to catch "Sherif's attention or do anything to annoy the others, made D."Youssef" decide to give her more time, after all, the shock of losing her husband in a robbery turned her to that silent creature who never got over it..
He looked after that at "Yousry" to see whether he still had those hallucinations about "Sohair", regarding her killing a guy in front of him or not..? As one of the main defects in the damned trial that" Youssef” noticed was that the patients were in direct contact with each other, and listening to the stories of each other.. So "Yousry" heard "Sohair's hallucinations regarding feeling guilty for killing a young guy, and since then he was certain he saw her Committing the crime, and determined to punish her, and sometimes spend hours planning for punishing her.. Naive kind of call-police-on-phone or call-her-on-phone-threaten-her plans.. And since "Youssef" knew that the phones they carried were just dead pieces of plastic, he didn't give the subject much of attention.. In addition to that, "yousry" didn't show any signs of violence, so "Youssef" decided to put him under notice.. But looking at him now showed that his case was getting better, because he didn't look anymore at "Sohair" with the same accusing look in his eyes.. But that point of weakness wouldn't stop bothering" Youssef".. The stories the patients keep repeating to each other all the time, end up overlapping and many of them inspire details from other patients stories that weren't in their stories before..
At that moment he was passing beside the two brothers "Omar" and "Sameh" (schizophrenia), who kept arguing almost all the time for different reasons.. He approached them to see the reason of the newest argument.. Last time "Omar" was pretending to be the owner of an illegal building, and "Sameh" was blackmailing him in return of his silence.. He smiled on their too serious attitude and their conviction with what they were doing.. "Youssef" remembered the cases histories.. Since their childhood they had these hallucinations, which most probably had generic origins, because their mother had a history of mental illness in her family..
"Nadine"..? She had obsessive compulsive disorders related to death.. The brain tumor she had made it a risk to try removing it, besides she already escaped another hospital before bringing her here, because the tumor was in a late stage, and had a negative influence on her thinking skills.. Many days she just sits there not talking to anyone, imagining herself waiting for a guy she believed is coming to kill her before the tumor eats her alive.. He watched her as she fixed the veil she wore on her hair, and heading towards the only window in the place overlooking the garden, to look through it blankly, while holding in her hand her favorite beverage: hot chocolate with a lot of sugar..
Passing beside "Moataz" who was sitting alone, he remembered how he ended up here.. The shock of being abandoned by the girl he was about to marry was a lot to him.. Tried to commit suicide then but with no success, and ended up here (because his family wanted to get rid of him) and he just kept reliving the same experience over and over again.. One time imagines the building his girl lives in collapses, and another time he imagines she had an accident that kills her.. Not able to face that she deliberately walked out on him, so his mind kept making those stories..
"Kareem"..? The death of his wife from cancer took his sanity with it.. He imagined his daughter getting kidnapped while he didn't have children from the first place, or imagined himself among a gang about to rob a bank.. But that won't be worse than "Sameer's case who was convinced that he robbed money from a safe he was responsible for, which was the result of the death of his mother because he couldn't collect enough money for an open heart surgery she was supposed to have, that resulted in her dead, and him having the insurance money that only benefited him in entering this hospital..
Next to him was "Waheed" (schizophrenic) arguing with "Mahmoud" (amnesic) about who should be the winner on the chess game they were playing together.. Am argue that stopped when they observed him.. They looked at him for a moment, before returning to their chess game, and the big fat "kamel"(amnesic) returned to cheer for them..
Looking at the far point near the bathrooms, he saw "Hassan" coming.. The brain concussion from the accident he had made him not-that-stable.. Sometimes thinking himself the head of a gang, and other times thinks himself a cop.. He enjoyed the fear he causes to the other patients, which was a dark circle in his record, because he probably would be excluded from the trial because of that, besides no obvious improvement was noticed on him anyway..
Writing more notes in his notebook, he continued his wondering among the patients, thinking about the future of this trial.. Would the management of the hospital agree to continue it till the end, or would they just call it off because the results were too late..?
Then he looked at "Sohair ", who was running from something, and passed beside him smiling at him for some reason..
****
-25-
"Hassan"
- Move on woman..
Pushing her roughly through the corridor, I looked towards its end, where the kitchen door was opened revealing the dark room behind.. "Fawzy" leading the way, and those pale lamps in the ceiling watching us, we walked through the long hall with nothing other than us except our own shadows playing on the walls, the thing that made me even more tens because it looked like someone was following us..
I could see nobody at all around.. Where did all those idiots go
then for God's sake..? I quickly dismissed that thought from my head because we were running out of time.. Each moment counted.. If we didn't disappear quickly then we would be caught and.. That damned "Sohair" took advantage of me not paying attention and pushed me aside.. I poised real quick before falling, telling"Fawzi" I was fine, before we both head to catch her and..
Then I saw "Youssef Elemam", the café's owner that "Khalid" wanted to get rid of, appearing at the beginning of the hall, and smiling at "Sohair" as she passed beside him.. Now he got my whole attention, and I didn't care anymore where would that cheap girl disappear..
Good that he showed up finally.. But where had he been all this time...? And how came I never noticed his presence before..? Never mind.. What was important that he was here, and that he was going to die.. I watched him silently, as I headed towards him, I saw him writing in the notebook he had, looking around him every second.. He came towards me all smiling when he noticed me, so I grabbed the penknife I had in my pocket strongly, and........
The end
Acknowledgments
To my dear mum: Love you, no words will describe my appreciation to you and your efforts with me my whole life.
Special thanks to a couple of few people, their presence in my life was a blessing one way or the other, they helped me, encouraged me in times of doubt.. If they weren’t there, this novel wouldn’t have been published that fast or reached that far, so no thank you can be enough:
Zamzam Saleh
Akram Imam
Amir Hussein
Nancy Abdelaziz
Ahmed Ali
Anas Elkala
Mona Ali
Yasmine Abdelaziz
Link to the promo: