The Rose (standard:drama, 4212 words)
Author: Puck	Added: Sep 27 2000	Views/Reads: 3687/2335	Story vote: 0.00 (0 votes)
This is a story about a the year a man spent as a psychologist in a mental institute.

Click here to read the first 75 lines of the story


I could feel Ted’s grip on my jacket tighten. “No pills Mister. I’m
fine. Poison. Pills won’t help.” 

“I’m Jack Collinsworth, the new psychologist here. I believe this is one
of my patients and...” 

“I don’t care whose patient he is,” she interrupted, “he needs to take
his medication.” 

“I understand that, but he seems to be frightened right now, so maybe I
can give it to him in a few minutes, OK?” I held my hand out. 

“Look Mr. Collinsworth, if he won’t take them from me, what makes you
think he’s going to take them from you?” 

“Trust me. He’s just afraid right now. Once I talk to him and get him to
calm down, he’ll be OK.” I kept my hand out. 

She let out an exasperated sigh. “Fine Mr. Collinsworth, give it your
best shot. But when he won’t take them, don’t expect me to help.” She 
handed me the paper cup and disappeared around the corner. 

I quickly dumped the paper cup into my pocket and turned around to face
Ted. 

Ted was about six feet tall, with large dark eyes. He looked like he
should be at least my age, if not older. Yet, quite common with 
retarded patients, his actions and speech resembled that of a 
five-year-old. 

“Thanks Mister. Poison. That lady wants me dead. Pills don’t help.
Poison.” 

I smiled at him. “She’s not as bad as you think Ted. She’s just trying
to help you out pal. I’m Jack.” 

“Hi Jack. I’m Ted. My name is Ted. Ted.” 

I was used to the jumbled “word salad” of mentally retarded individuals,
so his repetition of certain words didn’t confuse me. “Well nice to 
meet you Ted. Why don’t we go sit down on that couch over there?” 

Ted grabbed my hand and led me over to the couch, plopping down next to
the boy engrossed in the television show. I sat down next to him. 

“Hey Jimmy. Jack. This is Jack. Saved me. Jack.” 

The boy did not respond. He didn’t even blink. 

“Jimmy! This is Jack. He saved me. Jack!” Ted was shouting now, though
it didn’t seem to have any effect on the boy. He never moved his eyes 
away from the television. 

“Shut up Ted. Jesus, you know he isn’t listening to you.” The girl
sitting on the brown chair said. 

Ted gave her a dirty look. “Yes he is Kelly!” He shouted. “You just have
to talk loud. He can hear you then. Talk loud.” 

Kelly rolled her eyes. “Yeah, OK, Ted. Whatever.” She resumed her
picking. 

“Jimmy! Jimmy!” Ted was screaming so loud now that I was surprised when
Jimmy didn’t even flinch. 

“Hey Ted, why don’t you let Jimmy watch TV, OK?” I reached my hand into
my pocket and pulled out his pills. “I have something for you.” 

Ted’s eyes widened when he saw the pills. He began to tremble. “No
pills. I’m fine. Thought you liked Ted. No pills!” He began to get up. 

“Hang on a minute Ted. I do like you. And these aren’t just ordinary
pills, these are Ted pills. They make you feel better. Like magic.” I 
held out the pills in my hand. 

“Ted pills? Won’t hurt me? Ted pills? Magic pills? Make me feel better?”
He carefully picked up the pills out of my hand. 

“Uh huh, Ted pills. Just for you. Go ahead, take them. I promise I am
not here to hurt you, I’m here to help you.” I smiled at him. 

He looked me up and down, then placed the pills in his mouth and
swallowed. He grinned at me. “Ted pills!” he shouted. 

A loud buzzer went off, causing Ted to jump. 

“That means we go now Jack.” Ted said. “That means we go see Doctor
Wiler.” He got up and ran over to the double doors. 

“Hey, Jack,” The thin girl in the brown chair got up and walked over to
me. “I’m Kelly, in case you didn’t get my name from Ted there. That 
buzzer means it’s time for our group therapy session with Dr. Wiler. We 
all have to go now. I don’t know why, it’s not like he ever helps us. 
You are the guy replacing him, I hope.” Her frail body looked like it 
needed a ‘Fragile’ sticker on it. She gently reached down and took 
Jimmy’s hand. The boy seemed to understand what was going on. She led 
him over to the doors behind Ted. I followed them over. 

“Yes Kelly, I’m going to be your new group therapist. I take it you
don’t like Dr. Wiler?” 

“Good deduction there.” She rolled her eyes at me. “I’m sick of him
lying to me and telling me I’m not fat. He needs to leave me alone. I 
don’t even belong here. I just need to go home and exercise more. They 
never let me exercise here.” 

I sized her up. The girl couldn’t weigh more than ninety pounds and was
over five and a half feet tall. “Well I’m sorry you don’t like him. I 
hope I can be of more help to you, and your friends here. Though I am 
sure Dr. Wiler is really trying to help you guys out.” 

She scoffed. “I highly doubt it, but I hope you can. You seem nice. A
little slow, but nice. Not to mention you got Ted to take his pills. 
That there is a miracle in itself.” 

The double doors swung open, and an orderly led the trio out and down
the hall. I ran a hand through my short, black hair and retreated to my 
tiny, window-less office to think. 

All that happened on my first day. I was proud of myself for being able
to get Ted to take his medication, and yet I was troubled. I assumed 
Kelly was a victim of anorexia nervosa, an all too common disorder in 
young women her age. Her files supported my thinking. Jimmy was 
autistic. It was obvious to me. He didn’t talk and seemed to be in his 
own magical world. Ted’s files told me that he was mentally retarded. 
His mental age was around that of a first grader. I liked Ted 
automatically. He seemed so innocent. After the incident with Nurse 
Olsen, he seemed to trust me completely. It was hard to not like Jimmy, 
since he never said anything. Occasionally he would utter a word or 
two, but it was quite rare that he ever said something that made sense. 
Kelly was hard to like. She was very spiteful. The girl was thin, but 
if I ever told her I thought so, she would get angry and storm out of 
group therapy, swearing and calling me a liar. I decided to keep my 
opinion of her body size to myself, and just work on getting her to 
eat. My patients, however, were the least of my worries. It was the 
other doctors who drove me insane. Well, one in particular, Dr. Woods. 
He never really came out and said so, but it seemed to me that he 
thought I was less of a man than he was. 

I had been at Gibson for almost two weeks. I had worked with Ted, Jimmy,
and Kelly on a regular basis, usually about twice a week for an 
hour-long group session. I wasn’t making much progress with them, 
although I had gotten them to trust me. It had been a cold morning and 
the brisk walk from my apartment to the institute had woken me up. I 
grabbed a cup of coffee and began looking over my patient’s charts and 
files in my office. 

“Jack Collinsworth, I believe?” 

I glanced up to see a man in my doorway. He wasn’t very tall, yet he
somehow emitted this aura of power. His black eyes were narrow behind 
his wire-framed glasses. Each gray hair was combed perfectly into 
place. His shoulders were wide, and his neck seemed to be stretching 
the seams of his collar. He studied my face, and then stepped into the 
room. 

“Yes, that’s me, can I help you?” I stood and made my way around to the
front of my desk. 

“I’m Dr. Jason Woods, chief psychologist of this place.” He stuck his
hand out. 

I shook his hand, amazed by his grip. “Nice to meet you Sir. I just
started here about two weeks ago. I’m working with Ted Brown, Jimmy 
Welkes, and Kelly Jackson. I’ve only had about four sessions with them, 
but I think it’s coming along quite nicely and...” 

“Listen, Mr. Collinsworth, I know who you are working with, I assigned
them to you. I heard from your superiors in Arizona that you were quite 
good with the patients. It seems that you have an uncanny knack to 
understand them. Dr. Wiler, whom you replaced, was not what I wanted 
from an Ivy League professional with a doctorate. It’s a shame you 
don’t have a doctorate, son. When I was your age, I was still in 
school. I refused to stop until I achieved my goal of earning a 
doctorate. I do hope you plan on returning to a decent school to finish 
up, or are you satisfied with your masters?” He pushed his glasses up 
on his nose and stared at me. 

I swallowed thickly. “Yeah, actually I do plan on returning to school to
finish up. I’m hoping to get into the Arizona School of Professional 
Psychology to earn my doctorate.” I happened to think that earning my 
masters degree was pretty successful, but I didn’t want him to know 
that. 

“I see.” He took a step back. “Well, I must be going now. I have a
brunch with the other doctors. Good luck son.” He turned and was gone. 

I let out a deep breath. “Son.” It’s not like I’m a teenager or
anything. I fell back into my chair. Obviously Dr. Woods is not fond of 
me. I chuckled to myself. It didn’t matter to me. My patients liked me. 
And that was who I was here for. 

Over two months had passed since I had started working at Gibson. My
patients were coming along quite well. We even had a breakthrough with 
Jimmy. Well, what my trio and I would call a breakthrough. 

“OK guys, today we are going to do what I like to call ‘imagining.’ I
want you guys to close your eyes and pretend you are a flower. Then 
when I ask you, I’d like you guys to tell me what kind of flower you 
pretended to be, OK?” I ran a hand through my hair. 

“OK Jack. Flower. Pretend Ted is a flower.” Ted grinned at me. 

“This is lame Jack.” Kelly complained, “I mean, a flower? C’mon?” 

“Look Kelly, this is to help you guys, OK?” I had finally got her
convinced that she wasn’t as fat as she thought she was, although I 
still had a hell of a time getting her to eat more than one piece of 
fruit a day. 

She let out a deep breath. “OK Jack. Fine.” She closed her eyes. 

“Thank you.” I smiled at her. “OK guys, now close your eyes and
pretend.” 

Kelly and Ted closed their eyes. Jimmy stared at me with his wide eyes.
It was like nothing was going on behind them, although I knew in his 
mind, he could never stop thinking. I didn’t expect Jimmy to 
participate in the activity. Yet as I stared at him, I watched him 
close his eyes. 

I let a few minutes go by before I interrupted their daydreaming. “OK
guys, eyes open.” I was shocked to see Jimmy open his eyes. He seemed 
to be listening to me. “OK, Kelly, what kind of flower did you pretend 
to be?” 

She smiled at me. “A rose.” 

“And why a rose?” I said. 

“Because they are the most beautiful flowers in the world, and someday,
I want to be the most beautiful girl in the world.” Her cheeks turned 
pink and she lowered her head. 

“I already think you are Kelly. Good choice.” I winked at her and
smiled. “OK, now Ted, what kind of flower were you pretending to be?” 

“Ted pretended to be a fluffy flower.” Ted’s face was bright red and he
seemed very excited. 

“A fluffy flower? Exactly what kind of flower do you mean Ted?” I was
confused. 

“Ted is the fluffy flower you blow all over. All over. When it’s warm
outside.” He clapped his hands and smiled. “All over. You blow it all 
over and make wishes. Ted made lots of wishes.” 

I was still confused. “Ted, I’m not sure I understand what...” 

“He’s talking about a dandelion Jack.” Kelly said. “You know how they
get all gray and fluffy in the spring and you can blow them away. You 
are supposed to wish when you blow on them.” 

I turned to Ted who was rocking back and forth on his chair clapping his
hands, shouting, “Fluffy flower!” 

Kelly started to laugh and I was soon to join in. Amidst all our
laughing I heard an unfamiliar giggle. Kelly and I immediately became 
silent. I glanced over at Jimmy who was now laughing out loud. Kelly 
and I looked at each other; our eyes wide open in shock. Ted had even 
quieted down. He walked over to Jimmy and lightly patted him on the 
back. 

“Fluffy flowers. I like dandelions too.” Those were the first words I
had heard Jimmy say in the month and a half I had been there. 

My jaw hung open wide, and I couldn’t seem to shut my eyes. Ted just
gave Jimmy a little hug. 

“Me too Jimmy. Ted likes fluffy flowers too.” 

After a year at Gibson, the trio improved quite well, especially Kelly.
She had begun eating and was actually looking better. The trio became 
to be my family. My real family lived in Michigan, in a suburb called 
South Lyon, about forty-five minutes outside of Detroit. Well, my 
mother did, and a few aunts and uncles. My father left my mom and I 
when I was just a baby. My mom didn’t take to it so well, and she quit 
going to school to take care of me. She always made sure I had things. 
She would go without new clothes, just so that I could have the present 
I had asked for. Of course we never had much money, but when you were 
that young, you didn’t understand the value of money. I finally 
realized on my twelfth birthday. 

“Mom, you know what I want for my birthday?” I was tossing a tennis ball
up against the wall of our tiny brick house. 

“What Jackie? And stop tossing that ball against the wall, you are going
to make marks.” She was busy ironing my school shirts. 

“A Super Nintendo! With some games and stuff! My friend Billy has one,
and it’s the coolest thing ever mom!” I held the ball in my lap. 

My mom took in a deep breath. “I don’t know Jack. Those are awfully
expensive. I’d love to get you one honey, but with only working the few 
hours at the clinic that I can, I don’t think I can afford one. Maybe 
next year. Can you think of something else you want?” 

I hung my head. “Yeah, maybe a new baseball glove or something. Whatever
you get me is OK.” 

From that point on, I decided that I would do everything in my power to
make sure that I made a lot of money when I grew up. I wanted my mom to 
be able to have all the things she couldn’t have while raising me. My 
job pays quite well, and I still send my mother money every month, just 
so that she can buy a little something she has her eye on. 

I missed my mother very much. So having the trio around was quite a
comfort to be. They were like my brothers and sisters. So when Kelly 
had to go, I was sad, yet proud at the same time. 

I was sitting in my office when Dr. Woods appeared at my door. 

“Mr. Collinsworth, may I come in?” He stood in the doorway, as if he
were unwilling to enter without my permission. 

“Sure, what can I help you with Sir?” I stood and pulled a chair out for
him. 

He took the seat, and laid a file on my desk. “This is Kelly Jackson’s
file. We have noticed some notable improvements with her Jack. She is 
eating normally now, and has gained well over twenty pounds. She seems 
to be healthy, Mr. Collinsworth. I commend you.” 

I was surprised to hear Dr. Woods telling me I did a good job. Usually
he just snubbed me. “Well thank you Sir. I have become to like her. I 
am glad she’s getting a lot better. It makes me very proud Sir.” 

“I am quite proud of you Jack.” 

That was the first time Dr. Woods had ever said anything remotely
encouraging to me, not to mention using my first name “I appreciate 
that comment very much Sir.” 

“And what’s more Jack, she is healthy enough to be released from here.
Her parents are picking her up in about two hours. The nurses have 
already helped her pack her things. I just wanted to let you know so 
that you wouldn’t be surprised when you don’t see her in group therapy 
today. Job well done Mr. Collinsworth.” He stood and made his exit. 

I was stunned. Sure I was proud that she was getting out of here. Yet, I
was really going to miss her. I headed out to her room. 

The door was slightly ajar when I approached her room. I peered in and
saw her sitting on her bed, next to a sticker-encrusted suitcase. 

“Hey Kiddo. What’s this I head about you escaping this joint today?” I
smiled and sat down next to her. Her head was down and I patted her 
gently on the back. 

She looked up at me, her eyes soaked with tears. “Yeah, my parents will
be here in a couple of hours.” She wiped her tears away quickly, as if 
afraid that I may see her crying. 

I put my arm around her. “What’s wrong kiddo?” 

She turned and wrapped her arms around me. “I’m really going to miss you
Jack. You were the first doctor who cared about me and wanted me to get 
better. Dr. Wiler didn’t care what happened to me. But you did.” She 
let go of me and stood up. “You helped all of us. Me. Ted. And you even 
got Jimmy to say something. Dr. Wiler could never have done that.” 

I stood to face her, trying to hold back the emotion that was surging
through my body. I swallowed. “Thanks a lot Kelly. It means a lot to me 
that you think that. I wanted to be your friend, and Ted and Jimmy’s. I 
also wanted to help you guys get better. I’m very proud of you. You are 
the rose. You are the most beautiful girl in the world.” I smiled and 
winked at her. 

She blushed. “C’mon Jack!” She gave me one more quick hug. “Thanks
Jack.” 

“Anytime Kelly. Listen kiddo, you take care of yourself when you go
home, OK? I have to go to the group therapy session. I’m sure Ted and 
Jimmy are waiting for me. Good luck.” 

“I will Jack, I promise. You make sure and take care of Jimmy and Ted
for me. Tell them I’ll miss them.” 

“I sure will. Take care. Bye Kelly.” I turned and walked out her door,
before she saw the tear in my eye. 

That day in group therapy, I told the boys about Kelly. 

“Ted, Jimmy, I need to let you guys know something.” I sat down in front
of them. 

“What Jack? What do you need to tell Ted and Jimmy?” Ted rocked back and
forth on his chair. 

“Well guys, Kelly had to go home today. Her mom and dad came to pick her
up.” 

“Why Jack? Why Kelly go home?” Ted had stopped rocking in his chair.
Jimmy stared blankly at me and I wasn’t sure he had any idea of what I 
was talking about. 

“She got better Ted. And when you get better, you go home.” I sighed. 

“Ted get better?” He asked. 

I couldn’t help but smile. “Yes Ted, I am going to do everything I can
to help you get better.” 

He grinned and clapped his hands gleefully. “Good Jack. Jack helps Ted.
Jack is fluffy flower too.” 

I began to laugh. 


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