Dr Carson read the notes from the folder her colleague had sent to her. The patient is a forty-one year old male displaying episodes of amnesia with delusion. Clinical tests revealed no drugs or alcohol in his system and no signs of physical trauma. The patient recently suffered a collapse when he discovered another family occupied the house he claimed belonged to him and his wife. He did not regain consciousness from the collapse for two weeks, entering a full comatose state during that period. According to the details provided by his brother, he was already displaying the delusional behaviour before his collapse. The patient claims he is married and living with a woman named Lauren. The claims are totally unsupported by his brother, his only living relative, who knows of no such person ever having been a part of his life. There is no evidence at all to support his claim and all relevant records show he has been living alone in a house he has owned for the past five years. His tax records list him as a single person living at the address stated by his brother to be his home. He has been registered with a general practitioner for the past ten years. His medical history is unremarkable reporting that he has had a few prescriptions for chest infections and a course of physiotherapy for an ankle injury sustained while snowboarding. The patient is not considered dangerous. All indications suggest his symptoms have been triggered by psychological or emotional trauma rather than anything physiological.
The Dr Carson scribbled some notes at the foot of the report and returned it to the folder. She left her office with the folder under her arm and headed for the room where the patient was being treated. When she entered the room, the patient was sitting up in bed thumbing the keypad of a mobile phone.
Stuart looked up to find a tall, slim, athletic looking woman in a white coat entering the room. She had long, straight black hair reaching just below her broad shoulders. She managed to look strong without appearing masculine. She approached the bed and shook his hand firmly by way of introduction. “Hi, I’m Dr Carson, thank you for agreeing to see me.” He took her hand and shook it.
“Hi doctor, Stuart Milton, resident crazy person.”
“Let me be the judge of that Stuart.” She smiled a warm disarming smile.
“I’ve read your file but in order to make a more evaluated assessment I’d like to ask you a series of questions. Some of them will seem a little strange but it is important you answer them honestly based on what you believe to be true, not what other people have told you is the truth. Now if at any time you don’t feel comfortable with answering or you begin to feel unwell just ask me to stop.”
Stuart shifted in his bed to make himself upright in preparation for her questions. He had been mentally preparing all morning and now she was here he felt quite nervous. They obviously didn’t believe he had a wife with whom he shared a home or they would be sending the police to investigate his claims not a psychiatrist. He composed himself and declared his readiness. “Ok doctor, fire away.” She took out a clipboard from the folder and wrote something down before firing a number of short questions at him in quick succession.
“What is your full name?”
“Stuart Milton.”
“How old are you Stuart?”
“Forty-one.”
“Are you male or female?”
“Err, male,” he answered with intonation on the male.
“How do you know you are male Stuart?”
“I have a penis doctor.” He watched for her reaction to his matter of fact answer but she just jotted something down as with the previous answers and moved on to the next question. “What is your home address?”
“11 Cromwell Road,
Croydon,
CRO 2JZ.”
“Do you live on your own at that address?”
“No, I live with my wife Lauren.”
“How long have you and your wife been together?”
“Seven years, married for four of them.”
“Do you have any children?”
“Not yet but my wife is pregnant.”
“How do you feel about being a father?”
“I can’t wait. Lauren and I have been trying for over a year and we only found out she was pregnant two days—” he paused for a moment before correcting himself, “well, over two weeks ago now I suppose.”
He shifted uncomfortably in the bed.
“Where is Lauren now Stuart?”
“I don’t know but I need to find her, she’ll be worried.” The doctor noted that he had become agitated. “As far as she’s concerned I’ve been missing now for over two weeks.”
“Do you work Stuart?”
“Yes, I’m a zookeeper.”
“What animals do you work with?”
“Tigers.”
She removed something from the folder and showed it to him. “What is this?”
“It’s a dog.”
“What is it doing?”
“It looks like its barking.”
She showed him another picture of a dog. “What is this dog doing?”
“Nothing, it looks dead.”
“No, its eyes are open but they’re lifeless.”
“What does that make you feel?”
“Nothing really, it’s not my dog or any dog I know.”
“Do you and Lauren have a dog?”
“We talked about getting one but we both work so it would be stuck on its own all day. It’s not going to happen now with a baby on the way.”
“Do you have any family Stuart?”
“Yes, I have a younger brother David. Our parents both died when we were in our twenties.”
“What about Lauren?”
“Well yes of course, she’s family too.”
“No sorry, I mean does Lauren have any family?”
“Oh I see, yes she has her mother, Margaret who lives in Croydon. I need to contact her, she’ll know where Lauren is.”
“Where does Lauren work?”
“The Natural History Museum, she’s a curator.”
“Is she working today?”
“I don’t know, what day is it?”
“Then she should be working but she’s probably worrying about where the hell I am.” He felt the anguish rising again but he knew he had to stay calm if he was to convince them he was not crazy.
“When I came in you were messing with your phone. Whose numbers do you have on there?”
“It’s not my phone. I’ve lost mine. I do recognise two numbers on this one, my brother’s and our receptionist at the zoo.”
“Tell me about your house in Croydon.”
“Err, well it’s a three-bedroom semi about ten years old. There’s a small open front garden and a fenced in back garden. There are no carpets downstairs just laminated flooring with the odd rug. We have a wood effect gas fire in the living room, a table and four chairs in the kitchen and a large conservatory on the back of the house…”
While he was answering her questions, Dr Carson took out her phone and began thumbing the keys before interrupting him mid-sentence with another question. “Is that what you saw when you visited there with your brother two weeks ago?”
“No, it was completely different but I’ve thought about that. I was really hungover at the time and I think I may have taken him to the wrong house.”
“Stuart, I have the number for the Natural History Museum here. Would you like to call and see if Lauren is in work so you can tell her you’re ok?” She offered the phone to him and he took it eyeing the number on the display. “Thanks doctor, I was trying to find the number for the museum on that phone…” he pointed to the handset he been holding when she came in, “but I couldn’t get connected to the internet.”
He pressed the call button on her phone and waited. It rang for a few seconds before a man answered introducing himself as the main reception. Stuart asked to speak to Lauren Milton in the Mammal Section. There was a pause of around two minutes before the receptionist came back on and announced there was no one employed at the museum with that name. Stuart asked him to try Lauren Bell thinking she might still be listed under her maiden name. There was a further pause before the man came back on announcing there was no one of that name either. Stuart started to get annoyed with the man informing him he must be mistaken as Lauren had worked at the museum for over ten years and he had called her there several times. The receptionist informed Stuart he was unable to assist any further and if Stuart required more information he should write or email to the enquiries department. Stuart was not ready to give up. He remembered another name, John Lawson, he asked the receptionist to put him through to him. The man asked him to hold again. While he waited, he informed Dr Carson that John Lawson was a colleague of Laurens and a good friend. After around two minutes a voice sounded on the phone that Stuart recognised. “Hi John, its Stuart Milton. Sorry to bother you but I don’t suppose you know where Lauren is do you?”
“Lauren? Sorry mate, no one here of that name I think you must have the wrong number. I’ll just pop you back through to reception.” Stuart could not believe what he was hearing. “No John wait, it’s me Stuart, Lauren’s husband, Lauren Bell? We’ve met loads of times. You know Lauren, you’ve written papers together.” He was beginning to sound frantic and he knew it. “Sorry Stuart, you have the wrong guy, I’ll just…” Stuart ended the call and handed the phone back to the doctor. He knew from the look on her face he did not need to tell her what he had just found out. He thought for a moment about what this latest revelation meant.
“I’m a rational man Doctor and I can understand why you and everyone else think I’m crazy. All the evidence suggests that none of what I claim is real and I have no idea what the hell is going on. But for me to accept that I am sick and Lauren is just a symptom of that sickness, well that’s crazy.”