"In my life, there were very few cases where the subject yielded nothing inspite of being dug into so much. I am Philip Wagner, the only psychiatrist of this prison, or as they call it 'correctional institution'. Among the 29 psychos out here behind the bars, Lily Rose, a girl of 22 accidentally twisted her mom's neck as she was hugging her, or more precisely this was what she claimed before the jury. But this ain't about her. The person I'll be referring to is Nick Jones, a young fellow whose apparent crime is quite common and had been thrown behind the bars being caught red handed, yet what makes it interesting is the motive being unknown. Having tried direct confrontation, deflection and what not, nothing yielded much, the only way left was to empathize with him which I left as the last option, after resisting so long as to deal with yet another criminal personally. Nick was very different from all others, so I had decided to deal with him differently. I decided to pay him a visit with a plan jotted down. I'd have to play the victim card in front of the vicious and timid lad of the kind of him. Going into his cell, purposefully, the first thing I asked him was 'Nicky, what's the date today?'.
'The 29th of Feb, sir', answered he with a grin on his face.
Telling the jailer to leave the room to us, I whispered, 'see, I've been bothering you long bout this but today I have something to confess. You're inside the room and I'm outside but both of us are somewhat similar in our deeds.'
'Proceed', he said as I caught a spark of interest in his gloomy eyes.
'Deep down you must agree that the society has its roots behind any unrest, it has to poke normal people to get into real mess. I still don't see a problem loving him. I mean why can't someone love someone of their own choice..'
'Then?' asked Nick.
'Rudy and I eloped after being together for six long years. I still remember each and every impulse of his. We cried, we drank, we slept together until those bastards found us making out one day. Dragging Rudy away from my hands, the fuckers from the orphanage authority we grew in, forcefully made him tie a knot with the girl next door, or that's what seemed to me at that point.' 'It was until last year when I discovered that him with the girl at the same place I used to be. On approaching him, he not only acted as me being yet another stranger bashing onto his girl and spat on me, but kicked me in the balls so hard publicly that I can still feel 'em aching sometimes.'
'Haha, I can see what's coming..', whispered Nick.
'I had to wait for three long years after that till his wife passed away of a massive cardiac arrest as was proven, the reason unknown. Being a student in the Warwick School of Medicine, I still suspected the slow poisoning of the Wolf's Bane growing in the very garden she spent the most of her time..'
'Not sure if a criminal should comment on crime but this was pretty nasty from your side..', said Nick as he winked at me.
'Had no other option man.. She guarded him all the time. I was desperate to wish him a last goodbye.'
'Got the chance?', asked Nick.
'I was on a vacation when I came to know that Rudy's going to visit the meadows of Yorkshire the next week to mourn the death of his wife. Being with him so long, I knew that he had none of his own which means his permanent departure would be yet another 'man went missing case'. I followed him on a foggy night and grabbed him tightly from the back and after standing on his balls for a minute straight, while hearing him yelling, which might seem funny, sliced him open and burnt him to the ashes.', I paused and waited for a response.
'Hell of a way to pay tribute to someone you love I must admit', said Nick, smiling.
'I can't live without him. See these, I still take him along wherever I go.' I pulled a packet out of my pocket from which I produced and showed him the fine ashes of the cigar I smoked this morning. 'I put my heart out to you man.. No living soul till date knows my deeds except you and me.. I might have sounded emotional but I am what I am.. It'll be a mutual sharing if you tell me yours. You and me are same mate, just bring what you have long hidden inside, tell me why you did what you did..'
'Sir, I'm going to tell you the long suppressed truth today and I swear not telling anyone about what you told me.'
I sat upright and while he said it and turned on the recorder hidden beneath my shirt, without him noticing it.
'It was yesterday in the yard time when I don't know why but I went crazily close to Lily and pinched her in the ass. The blank look that the lonely lady gave me after that is what I can't forget sir.. Why did I commit such a heinous crime that has not let me sleep the whole night!’
‘Believe me sir, I haven't told this to anyone except you', said he, with a grin on his face, yet again.
Now I couldn't control myself.
'You fucking rat? Why won't you break! I'll let the jailer fuck all the 29 freaks of you again and again till you break down on my boots?. Each and every one of you? I swear to God..' I stood up and walked down the corridor hastily, my hands and legs shaking with yet another attempt of failure while I could hear a shrilling and familiar voice laughing and shouting 'twenty nine plus one sir, you included..' The voice fainted away slowly?."
Well well well, I can see you guys trying hard to process what just happened. Let me clarify. I am Philip Wagner, yet another young lad charged of burning a man down, the motive being unknown for which they call me a psycho killer here and I'm happy with that, no complaints.. I was just trying to walk in the shoes of my psychiatrist, Dr. Nick Jones who keeps on asking me the reason behind me doing so while I really have no answer to it, trust me. I think I just liked doing it that day. Probably the weather provoked me to do so. Anyways, here comes Mr. Jones, rusty as always walking up the corridor in his heavy boots, opening the door of the cell I'm in. Let me stand up and wish him a very good morning.
"Good morning, sir."
"Philip, see I don't like torturing you every day just to get a simple answer. Anyways, just to begin on a lighter note, can you please tell me today's date.."
"The 30th of February sir?", I said, breaking out into laughter.
The only thing that came to my ears after that was Jones yelling out to the jailer, "Bring in the wires, Jack! Yet another day of treatment. Why won't these fuckers break!"
