The Institution

by Kristen Rose

I jumped as my phone began to ring. Scrunching my face, I leaned over me desk and answered it.

  ‘What?’

  ‘Good morning Jenny.’ Mathers.

  I groaned. ‘What?’ I repeated.

  ‘It’s Mathers.’ He said cheerily

  ‘I know. What do you want?’

  ‘You have a visitor!’ He barked through the phone.

  ‘Hhhh … huh?’

  ‘A visitor!’ He repeated loudly.

  ‘Are you sure?’ I felt my forehead crease.

  ‘Yes. Aren’t you glad? I thought you would be glad. I mean, you’ve never ever had a visitor.’

  ‘Oh, yes, well… It’s not that it’s just, I’m terribly busy right now. It’s most inconvenient. Tell them to come back another day.’ I brushed a wad of hair out of my face.

  ‘Sorry Jenny, I can’t because …’ He stopped.

  ‘Because?’

  ‘You’ll see. Any who, I’ll be up in ten to escort you down to the visiting rooms. Just wanted to call and give you a heads up so you were presentable and everything.’

  ‘Well, at least you did something right.’ I sighed. ‘Okay, fine, I guess I will just have to do my work later.’ I slammed the phone down.

  Turning in my seat, I gathered a pair of red sneakers and jammed them onto my feet. I then pulled my hair out, and began to brush it furiously. It’s nearly down to my waste again. I examined this look in the mirror, nodding to myself with approval before putting on a jumper.

  There was a knock at the door. Mathers opened it and poked his head through.

  ‘You said ten minutes!’ I stared at him blankly.

  ‘I know, sorry, I’m just so excited.’ He danced on the spot. ‘A visitor! I mean, you haven’t had a visitor … ever. I was actually supposed to come and get you an hour ago but Dr Fuller stopped me.’ He scratched his head. ‘She said she needed to give approval in order for you to have visitors, but then Dr Baker said that was nonsense and you were perfectly sane enough to see any visitor as long as they wanted to see you.’ He paused. ‘Well, they had a bit of an argument but Dr Baker won out in the end and here I am. I can’t imagine what your visitor must be thinking right now, left to sit all alone for an hour.’ He finished with a light chuckle.

  ‘Who is it?’ I said suspiciously.

  ‘Your visitor? I have no idea … I’m just supposed to collect you and take you down to the visiting rooms.’ He leaned against the door.

  ‘No one asked me if I wanted to have a visitor you know. I don’t, for the record. I’ve changed my mind. Go back downstairs and tell them I simply refuse to see anyone. I mean, my hair is an absolute mess and white is most definitely not my colour. I can’t have anyone seeing me in this state.’

  ‘Oh, come on Jenny. Don’t be a pain today.’ He moaned. ‘This is your first ever outside visitor, I mean who cares what you look like, I’m sure they won’t.’

  ‘That is a terrible thing to say. I care what I look like and I won’t allow anyone to see me looking at my worst.’ I glared at him.

  ‘But you look fantastic. You’re in great shape, your hair is casually stunning and regardless of what you say I think white suits you very well.’ He complemented.

  ‘Right, and this is coming from a guy who has the same haircut as Mr Martin from Hey Dad.’ I rolled my eyes.

  ‘Come on, aren’t you just a little bit curious as to who might have come all the way down here to see you after all this time.’ He sung, walking further into my room.

  ‘Well, maybe a little ... but that’s not the point! I’m a very busy person you know. I don’t think I could possibly spare the time.’ I turned back to my book.

  ‘But they’ve been waiting a long time to see you.’ I felt his eyes staring down into me.

  ‘I don’t care.’

  ‘Well I do and I’m not going until you agree to come with me and see them.’

  ‘You’re going to regret this.’ I glared at him again.

  ‘Jenny, you’ve been saying that to me the entire time you’ve been here and you’ve never once done anything to me to make me regret saying or doing anything to you.’ He sat down on my bed, I cringed.

  ‘That’s because I’ve been too busy to plan my revenge, but one day you will regret everything you’ve done to me.’

  ‘Does that mean you’re going to come down and see your visitor?’ He smiled.

  ‘Well I can’t possibly get any work done with you sitting on my bed can I? I suppose I will have to go and see whoever has come to visit but, it better not be one of my parents.’ I threatened.

  ‘What’s wrong with your parents?’ He frowned.

  ‘Everything.’

  ‘Okay, well, I don’t think it’s one of your parents because I heard Dr Fuller going on about how they weren’t your relative so they shouldn’t be allowed to see you. It must be one of your old friends.’ He said.

  ‘That’s impossible, I have never met a single person on the outside that was worthy enough to be my friend.’ I closed my notebook.

  ‘Oh come on, I’m sure that’s not true.’ Mathers stood up.

  ‘Yes, it is.’ I snapped.

  ‘Well, maybe they were your friend but you just didn’t realise it, you know. I always get a surprise when someone I’ve known for a short amount of time introduces me to someone else as their friend and I never even considered them to be my friend in the first place.’

  I scoffed. ‘Look, even if anyone thought I was their friend there is no way they would come to see me.’

  ‘How do you know that?’

  ‘Because my parents are the only people who know I’m here and I’ve given them strict instructions not to tell anyone else my whereabouts. I mean, it’s embarrassing! If they’ve blabbed then they’re going to be in so much trouble they will really wish they never made me come here.’

  ‘Well, maybe someone looked you up in the hospital files and found you.’

  ‘That’s impossible because …’ I stopped.

  ‘Because …’ He prompted, rolling his hand in a sideways circle gesturing me to continue.

  ‘Because … just because, okay?’ I got up out of my chair.

  ‘Okay. Well, we better get going, you don’t want to keep them waiting any longer do you?’

  ‘If they want to see me this much I’m sure they won’t mind waiting a few more minutes whilst I straighten up my hair and find some more appropriate shoes to put on.’

  ‘Sure thing. I’ll just wait outside then.’ He walked out of the room whistling.

  I tried to stay calm, selecting my royal blue sneakers instead and gently tying them onto my feet in place of the red ones.

  ‘Ready?’ Said Mathers once I walked out of the room

  ‘As ready as I can be with absolutely no time to prepare and no decent beautification products.’

  ‘Great. Let’s go then.’ He chuckled.

  We headed towards the elevator. Mathers pushed the down button and started whistling again. Today his tune of choice was the theme from Cheers. His hands were behind his back and he was swaying backwards and forwards to the tune.

  The elevator arrived, empty like it usually is. We hopped in and Mathers pressed the button for the first floor.

  The elevator stopped on level one and we got out.

  ‘Alright, ready to face your visitor?’ Mathers tapped me on the back.

  ‘Yeah, sure.’ I crossed my arms, un-impressed.

  I strutted behind him for the entire length of the hallway and when we arrived at the steel door at the very end I stopped and casually leaned against the wall. Mathers swiped his security card in the mechanism beside the lock and then punched in a code on the key pad. The door made a loud buzzing noise and the light on the lock changed colour from red to green. Mathers turned the handle and opened the door.

  I walked out and turned my head towards the left. Freedom. I could see the big glass double doors across the reception area that led to the outside. In front of them was the waiting area with abo
ut twenty chairs, half of them occupied and in front of them, right up against the wall was the thin, long wooden reception desk.

  On the wall behind the reception desk, written in gold letters, was the name Grove Hospital and next to, also in gold, a picture of a little tree.

  I barely managed to breathe in the atmosphere of the entrance when Mathers ushered me to a door a few metres opposite the one we had just exited.

  This door was steel as well and it was locked in the same way but instead of being one solid mass of steel it had a little window in the top half. Mathers swiped his card and entered in a pin code just as he had with the previous door and we entered.

  To the right of the door was a guard I had never seen sitting behind a desk with a bunch of monitors on one side. He was middle aged with blonde curly hair and was sipping a cup of coffee when we entered.

  ‘Rodney, you were ages mate.’ He spat a few drop of coffee onto his desk as he spoke.

  ‘Yeah, we needed a little convincing before we were ready to come down.’ Mathers said nodding his head towards me.

  ‘Excuse me, I’m right here.’ I said.

  ‘This blokes gettin’ a bit annoyed. He’s come out about ten times asking me how long it’ll be. Says he doesn’t have all day.’ Said the guard.

  ‘Well, he doesn’t have to wait any longer.’ Mathers said smiling at me.

  ‘Nope. Alright, Miss …’ He picked up a sheet of paper sitting on the desk in front of him and trailed his eyes along a list of names, ‘Miss Parson.’ He smiled. ‘Your visitor is in room 1G. Come on, I’ll take you there.’ He turned to Mathers. ‘Thanks Rod, I’ll let you know when you’re needed again.’ He got up.

  ‘Sure. Good luck Jenny.’ Mathers patted me on the shoulder. I let out a noise of disgust and whacked his hand away. He laughed to himself before turning and walking back out the door, closing it quietly behind him. I turned and faced the new guard.

  ‘I’m Grant.’ He said. ‘Don’t think I’ve seen you here before, are you new?’

  ‘No.’ I did my best to avoid his eye contact.

  ‘Right,’ he paused, ‘well, come on then, the room’s just down the corridor.’ He led me down a narrow plain white corridor on my left side that was about seven metres long. There were four doors, two on either side, with standard metal handles. We passed room 1D and 1E simultaneously and reached the end of the corridor where rooms 1F and 1G were staring at each other.

  ‘Okay. Now I’m guessing this is your first time here?’ He asked me.

  ‘Yes.’ I said flatly.

  ‘Alright then. Now, there’s no time limit with visiting, you can stay as long as you like but when you’re finished there’s a green button right next to the door on the inside. Press that button, sit tight and I’ll come and collect you, okay?’

  ‘Collect me?’ I raised my eyes at him. ‘Okay ...’

  ‘Now, I’ll also be keeping an eye on you on the monitors from my desk so no funny stuff alright?’ He winked at me.

  ‘What! I’ve got higher standards than that thank you, besides I don’t even know who the person sitting on the other side of this door is.’ I gave him a disgusted look.

  ‘Oh yeah? Well he sure knows who you are.’ He sung. ‘Gave us quite a hard time when Doc Fuller said she didn’t want you to see him.’ He grinned.

  ‘Yes, well … just open the door so I can get this over and done with. I’m a very busy person and I can’t afford to waste any more time. This visitor has proven to be quite an inconvenience.’

  ‘An inconvenience?’ He looked a little dumb founded.

  ‘Just open the door moron.’ I folded my arms.

  ‘Okay okay, calm down. They told me I might get a bit of attitude from you.’ He brushed his hands down his creased security pants.

  ‘Oh, and who exactly are they?’ I stared him down.

  ‘The old men in white jackets of course.’ He chuckled. ‘Anyway, the door’s unlocked, you can let yourself in. I’m just the escort. It’s my job to make sure you go to the right room, although it’s not like it’s very hard to get lost in this ant farm.

  ‘Remember, the green button. Not the red one, that’s for emergencies only.’

  ‘Yeah, I get it.’

  He held his hands up pretending to defend himself and turned away with a laugh, walking back down the corridor.

  I stood facing the door and took in a deep breath before putting my hand onto the cold steel handle. Slowly I forced it down, pushing the door open at the same time. I pushed my way into the room in my same old dramatic fashion.

  #14 Short-Term Ignorance