The Heart is a Lonely Hunter

by Unknown

  “Not by any means, not by any means at all would I ever consider suggesting that your daughter is crazy. I prefer not to even use the word crazy since it can imply so many things, none of which I think applies to Sylvia’s situation.

  What I am saying is that the trauma from the rape can cause a myriad of rather unusual side effects, most being psychological. And, as a physician and surgeon, I am not qualified to do much more than heal physical ailments. But what I’d really like to see is your daughter regain her previous form as quickly as possible.”

  But Mrs. Shipp hadn’t heard a word the good doctor had said. She was still hung up around the idea of her daughter being placed in a facility that as far as she was concerned housed nut cases and crazy people.

  “No, no, no! Y’all ain’t puttin’ my baby in no insane asylum!” Mrs. Shipp yelled as the tears flowed down the side of her face. “No! Hell no! Ain’t nothin’ wrong with my baby that some tender, lovin’ care won’t fix.”

  Mr. Shipp was horrified as well but had quickly come to the realization that there was little he could do to help his daughter who it appeared could hardly stand the sight of him. And, if they could help bring his little girl back to normal, well then, much as he hated her being in a mental institution, he had to agree to it, despite his wife’s objections.

  The following day, ranting and raving, despite the injection of Demerol, Sylvia Shipp was transferred to the psychiatric ward of the Christopher Eliot Memorial Hospital. To no one’s surprise, neither Dr. Reid nor the staff appeared overly distraught when they learned of her departure.

  Once admitted to the psychiatric ward, Sylvia’s tirades grew in intensity as well as frequency. Therapy, which she took part in twice a day, did little to quell these disturbances. And special rules were set up just to alleviate some of the friction between her and the staff on duty. Male staff members, for example, were not permitted within ten feet of her unless there was a life-threatening emergency. This was for their own safety; however, as she quickly earned a reputation for attacking any and all the male staff that attempted to approach her.

  One particular evening, she even went so far as to throw her tray of food at a female orderly who sported a crew cut and had a fondness for men’s fashions. All in all, in the months following the operation, there was little improvement. Despite daily counseling and therapy the staff had yet to hear her utter an intelligible word.

  If she was not staring off into space, her gaze usually remained fixed and distant. If, on the other hand, she did appear lucid it would come in short spurts before she would again begin screaming at the top of her lungs. At other times, she would scratch holes in her flesh in an attempt to get whatever it was that she thought was on her off of her.

  On another occasion, a young man about her age, who was finishing his internship at a local university, was assigned to the ward, to accompany the psychiatric patients on their daily walk. Sylvia refused to walk on these daily outings content instead to sit in her wheelchair and collect different colored rocks and stones under the big oak tree. On this day however, she seemed much more enamored by the young intern. Out of the corner of her eye, she watched him as he made his way from patient to patient. When he finally caught sight of her in the distance he could not fathom the idea of someone so young and as beautiful as she being in a psychiatric unit. When he could no longer resist his youthful curiosity drove him to find out first-hand what could possibly cause such an attractive woman as she to be committed to such a dreadful place. Whatever the reason, he was naive enough to believe that it had to have been a mistake of the grandest kind, perhaps a simple case of mistaken identity, or perhaps simply a faulty diagnosis.

  Whatever the case may be, the best method of treatment in most instances was just a matter of exhibiting a heartfelt commitment to the patient and having a caring and empathetic attitude. Armed with these gleaming attributes, the young university intern approached the woman in the wheelchair gingerly. As he grew closer, she appeared to smile. He was sure now that someone, doctors, staff, someone had misdiagnosed her and probably had her committed out of pure jealousy because of her drop-dead good looks. Considering this, he walked over to the old oak tree abandoning everything he’d been taught at the university and much of what he’d been told by the hospital staff on duty.

  Sylvia’s smile brought newfound confidence to the young intern and he quickened his pace. He was now no more than five feet from her when the first rock struck him below the right eye. The second rock cut his bottom lip, knocking a tooth loose. When he dove to grab her hand in an attempt to stop the onslaught, he found himself locked in a grasp like he had never known before. And then came the burning searing pain as her teeth locked on to his earlobe. She swung her head back and forth like rabid dog in heat. He could feel his ear literally ripping apart in her mouth. When he tried to free himself, he found both his arms pinned to his sides. A wrestler in high school, he quickly realized amidst the excruciating pain he felt that he’d never in his life been put in a hold like this. It took two orderlies, a security guard and two nurses to finally untangle the two. When it was finally over, seven stitches were required to reattach the earlobe and close the gash in his bottom lip.

  The nurses in the ward say that despite a sedative Sylvia grinned for the rest of the day. The young intern, on the other had, did not return and it was later learned that he met with his advisor the next day to change his major.

  Following the incident with the intern, there was little change in her behavior. However, her ranting and raving grew less frequent as the days went on. And after a time, she even allowed the male staff to approach. The doctors believed her familiarity with the staff was the reason she no longer went off. She still had a fit when her father came to visit and, though this disturbed him greatly, even he could feel and hear the expectant tone of hope in the voices of the staff.

  Mrs. Shipp, on the other hand, became increasingly unhappy and frustrated with both administration and staff. She saw little progress. And attributed Sill’s less frequent tantrums to her withdrawing further and further into her shell instead of fighting to exorcise her demons. Hell, she was no doctor but she would rather see her daughter screaming at the top of her lungs than just sitting morose, vegetating. Of course, the staff preferred her comatose-like state. She was less work and that in turn made their jobs simpler. However, Mrs. Ship’s complaints were becoming so frequent that the nurses joked about sending Sylvia home and admitting her mother in her stead.

  One day, not long after, disgusted with the hospital the doctors and the staff in general Mrs. Shipp decided it was time for Sylvia to come home. Tired of making the daily jaunt to the hospital following a long tiring day at work she decided to use the month or so she’d accumulated for sick leave to stay at home and cater to her daughters needs. Mr. Shipp who had long ago grown tired of his wife’s bitching and moaning concerning the hospital’s deficiencies also agreed that it might be time for their daughter to be released.

  Arriving at the hospital at a little after six that Tuesday evening, Mrs. Shipp was somewhat surprised to find her husband already there. Not only was he there but he had the unmitigated gall and the audacity to be standing and grinning right along with the rest of the staff. And that good for nothing Dr. Reid stood right next to him probably selling him that same ol’ b.s. about the precarious nature of mental illness and how you couldn’t put a time frame on recovery. It was bullshit. Pure and simple. Nothing more than insurance fraud. Fifteen hundred dollars a day and she still hadn’t seen any improvement, nothing even closely resembling recovery. In fact, it appeared that if anything, Sill was growing worse. In her eyes, the time for idle chitchat was over. If she had to she’d choose her own home remedies to fix her little girl.

  Moving closer to the crowded nurse’s station, her anger rising, Beulah Shipp couldn’t help but wonder what all the commotion was about. After all, her husband hardly ever came onto the ward to visit his daughter. He was always content to wait in th
e lobby or the cafeteria. The mere sight of him had the unnerving effect of sending Sylvia into an uproar and it was far more than he could tolerate. Yet, today, despite vehement objections at having their daughter discharged against everyone’s better judgment, stood her husband. Approaching the nurse’s station, paperwork in hand, she froze, dumbfounded.

  In the midst of the crowd, stood Sylvia, chattering away with orderlies and interns. It was almost as if a former employee had come back to the hospital to visit. Beulah Shipp was spellbound. The moment Sylvia caught sight of her mother standing there she turned and rushed towards her. Hugging her tighter than she ever had before, she whispered into her ear.

  “I believe it’s time for me to go home now, mommy.”

  The ride home from the hospital would have been unusually quiet had it not been for Sylvia’s constant chattering. It was almost as if she were trying to make up for lost time. She had no recollection of the events passed or at least chose not to speak about them. And her parents were so glad just to have her back in the fold that they dared not bring up the incident.

  Before leaving the hospital, Dr. Reid had suggested that Sill continue counseling on an outpatient basis, fearing that if she suppressed the rape, there was a good chance it would show up eventually and perhaps cause a relapse. According to the good doctor, the rape had to be confronted. In due time, Sylvia would have to face the reality that she was the victim of a horrendous crime through no fault of her own. The Shipps on the other hand, were so eager to have their daughter back to her old self that they would have agreed to almost anything at this point but after the first couple of weeks at home, they were as convinced as Sill that the demons had passed. And each time she would come home from those damn sessions, she seemed so morose and distant, so removed from the family that they tended to agree with Sill about the counseling doing more harm than good. Bored out of her mind, it wasn’t long before Sylvia started bringing up the subject of returning to school. Zachary had called several times to apologize and to keep her abreast of the happenings on both the campuses and she was glad for this.

  Meanwhile, the district attorney and prosecutors sought to have criminal charges brought against the alleged assailants but were unable to gather enough evidence for a case and were forced to withdraw the allegations entirely and submit a formal apology to both the school and the alleged assailants. One parent who could not believe her son to be mixed up in anything so ‘vile’ even went so far as to having a lawsuit filed suggesting defamation of character against the district attorney’s office.

  Sill would later find out from the chief prosecutor on the case that Zachary was the only one who had charges filed against him. They were later dropped when the assailants learned that Zachary Phillips either would not or could not testify against them. From the chief prosecutor, who was given the unenviable job of closing the case, the Shipps learned of that terrible night.

  “It seems Chad’s roommate; Zachary Phillips came home quite drunk that evening to find there was a party going on in his room. When he entered, he found seven or eight young men in his roommate’s bedroom, performing intercourse and fellatio on a female, seemingly against her will. Upon witnessing this it seems from all our accounts that Zachary Phillips, a star linebacker at the college and NFL prospect lost it completely.

  Picking up a desk chair, Zachary broke the nose of one young man, the collarbone of another who just happened to be one of his teammates and came close to gouging the eye out of a third student. When he found out that it was Sylvia that had been raped, they say, he broke down in tears but still had the wherewithal to take her to the hospital where he stayed until she was admitted. He then went after his roommate Chad whom, thank God, he never found and whom we are still unable to locate. Lord knows what he would have done if he’d found him.

  For several days after the incident, no one was able to locate Zachary but local police in Raleigh picked him up on a trespassing charge. It seems he went to his roommate’s house expecting Chad to return home. When the boy’s parents told Zachary that Chad wasn’t there, Zachary parked his car across the street from the house where he waited for close to two days. The neighbors were scared stiff. Imagine a six foot five, two hundred and eighty-five pound man standing in front of your house for two straight days. In any case, they had him picked up for trespassing and he remained there until the Raleigh police informed the college who sent someone down to bail him out. By the time, we had a chance to question him it was pretty obvious that the school, the coach or an NFL scout had already gotten to him and scared the beegeezus out of the kid. Must have told him his NFL chances would be ruined if he mentioned anything about the incident. Everybody downtown in our office is sure that this was the case since none of the students he assaulted pressed charges and the trespassing charges in Raleigh were suddenly dropped. They suspended him from the football team and then quite mysteriously reinstated him. Therefore, it is our belief although we can’t substantiate it that someone got to him before we did. He’s a good kid though and we’re certainly glad that he found Sylvia when he did. Otherwise, there’s no telling what those drunken punks might have done. And it may be the closest thing to justice that we’ll see.”

  There would be no criminal charges filed. And Sylvia was opposed to a civil suit against those involved and the university. Her lawyer was convinced that her suit against the college for not providing a safe environment was extremely winnable but she didn’t want to face her attackers or rehash the entire rape scene again. It was enough she had to continue with the damn therapy which went over the same thing time and time again. Truth of the matter was that she was sick of the whole affair and wanted no more than to let bygones be bygones. After all, she was the victim and she was willingly to let it go. Hell, it was time to get on with her life and she just had too much living and too much catching up to do.

  CHAPTER 3

  Out of sheer boredom, Sylvia grabbed the first job that came along and found herself at J.C. Penney’s working as a part-time greeter and received so many compliments for her charisma that before long her supervisor recommended her for a full-time position in customer service. She gladly accepted the position since it allowed her no time to attend those ridiculous counseling sessions at the hospital.

  Feeling better about herself and life in general, she hated being reminded about a situation that somehow had just happened. She missed school, missed her friends and her sorors but working full time kept her busy and before long, she had put together a small nest egg. She knew she was a burden on her parents. They had to double up now since there were three of them working and had only two cars so she made up her mind one day on the way home from work that maybe it was time for her to buy a new car. Heck, she wasn’t paying any rent and Tech had offered her a nice out of court settlement in lieu of her not going forward with a civil suit so a car was not out of the question although she was sure her parent’s would somehow disagree. They had suddenly become very overprotective but a car would certainly give her a sense of freedom. At least she could go even if the fact of the matter remained that she really had no place to go.

  So on Friday, which just so happened to be payday, Sill stopped by the Ford dealership where her father bought his cars and was greeted by a very bright and very handsome young car dealer. It was the first time in Lord knows how long Sylvia had actually felt anything towards the opposite sex without feeling either guilt or some type of animosity towards them. Somehow, he was different. He didn’t seem at all serious or preoccupied with selling cars. There was none of the high-pressure sales techniques employed by your typical car salesmen. In fact, at one point, Sylvia wondered if he were interested in selling her a car at all. But by the end of the day, Sylvia found herself sitting behind the wheel of a brand new royal blue, Ford Escort, complete with rear spoiler, sunroof, CD player—and a date for the evening.

  “No need for you to change clothes, Sylvia, the salesman said. You drive your parent’s car. I’ll follow you in your
car and then we can shoot over to Ruby Tuesday’s for a burger or something before we head to the movies. How’s that sound?”

  Peter Townsend was his name, and Sylvia was to say the least, smitten. He was bright, good looking and working on his Civil Engineering degree at Morehouse in Atlanta. When his grant did not show up on time, he was forced to take a semester off and ended up selling cars for his uncle to pick up a little extra cash until it was time to go back to school.

  Mrs. Shipp loved Peter from the outset. She like her daughter found the young man to be both witty and charming. And she was certainly glad to see her Sill finally getting back into the swing of things so soon after her ordeal. A little more cautious, Mr. Shipp eyed Peter Townsend the entire time he was there as if he were an escaped convict on the lam. When the couple said their good evenings and prepared to leave Sylvia was sure that her father was going to follow them and felt almost compelled to take him into the den to reassure him that everything would be fine.

  The evening turned out to be one of the best Sylvia had had in as long as she could remember. Off the car lot, Peter Townsend was quite different. He was actually rather quiet and unassuming content to listen to Sill babble on about her favorite music groups and college life. Not once during the whole conversation did he even bother to interrupt except when she paused to catch her breath or to laugh at one of her less than funny anecdotes.

  Over the next few months, Peter Townsend and Sylvia Shipp became inseparable attending movies and plays and going off for quiet dinners at quaint little out of the way restaurants. Peter Townsend was everything that Chad was not. Sylvia was quite sure of this when Mr. Shipp, always the evil ogre when it came to her choice of men finally gave Peter his blessing. He even got to the point where he would take Peter fishing with him for crappy on the weekends. Her parent’s could hardly remember a time when Sill had been happier.