Chapter 8
“IT’S GOOD TO HEAR FROM you,” Kaya said over the phone. Since she had started her junior year in high school, her voice sounded more mature, even more confident. “It’s been a few weeks. I tried to call you last week, but you weren’t home.”
“Was everything okay?” Graham asked, the old familiar worry coming back into his body.
“No, everything’s fine,” Kaya said. “I’m—I just wanted to check on you.”
“You could have called my cell phone,” Graham pointed out.
“I did try your cell,” Kaya said. “But you haven’t set up your voicemail so I couldn’t leave a message.”
Graham conceded that point. “I know. I have to figure out how to do that. I’m sorry I haven’t called. I’ve just been really busy.”
“With Gina?” Kaya asked. Graham could hear the laughter in her voice.
“Fine. With Gina,” Graham said. “She had this thing . . .”
“I don’t want to hear about Gina’s thing.”
“Very funny,” Graham said. “No, she had a presentation, and I helped her get it ready and then stayed to watch. She got an A, so that was good.”
“You two are a cute couple.”
“We are,” Graham said. “Any cuteness in your life these days?”
“No.” She sighed. “I just haven’t found Mr. Right yet. Which I guess is okay since I’m only sixteen. But there is a new teacher at Wisteria named Mr. Wright. But he’s really Mr. Wrong. Plus, he’s like forty and married.”
Graham laughed. “How’s cheerleading going?”
“We’re starting to talk about who’s gonna be captain for senior year.” She paused. “I think I’m gonna win, Graham. It’s what I’ve been waiting for the last three years! If I get to be captain, I get to do most of the choreography. I mean, there are certain rules and stuff, but I have a lot of leeway. I think if I become captain, I’ll make Bailey my co-captain. She’s really good, and she’s a good team member. Did you know that she had a crush on you for, like, a couple of weeks when we were freshmen ?”
“Really?” Graham remembered the one time during practice when Bailey smiled and waved at him. “I guess I’m not surprised. She was really cute back then. But I already had it bad for Gina.”
“I know,” Kaya said. “Remember? I knew before you did.”
“No, I knew,” Graham said.
“Have you decided if the two of you will live together next year when you’re juniors?”
“I’d like to,” Graham said. “She’s gonna talk to her parents about it. We have to figure out the financial part of it all.”
“Yeah, that’s tricky,” Kaya agreed. “You know I’ll probably end up going to State, too, right? I’m hoping for an athletic scholarship.”
“They have cheerleading scholarships?”
“They do,” Kaya said, “and Miss Green already said she’d support me. She’s getting good videos of me now so I’ll have a portfolio. I have to keep getting good grades, too, though. And I’ll have to audition.”
“I hope you get it,” Graham said. “It would be great to have you here.” He secretly thought that it would be good to have Kaya nearby so he could keep a closer eye on her.
“You just want me near you so you can keep an eye on me,” Kaya said intuitively.
Graham laughed. “Are you reading minds now, too?”
Kaya paused. “Too?”
Graham put his hand to his mouth. “Ky, I didn’t mean anything by that.”
“Sure, Graham.” She hummed for a moment. “So I’m crazy in more ways than one.”
“Or you’re clairvoyant,” Graham teased.
Kaya laughed. “Okay, I managed to stay mad at you for five seconds this time. New record. But really, Graham. Nothing’s changed.”
“Is Bailey still humming?”
“I haven’t heard her hum for a long time.”
“Have you ever asked her about the humming?”
“No.” Kaya paused. “Not for a long time. Do you think I should? She doesn’t think she does it anymore.”
“I’ve been learning a lot more about this stuff,” Graham said. “Auditory hallucinations usually have a negative content. And sometimes, they give people commands. Have you ever had those?”
“Are you studying me for a term paper?”
“Maybe,” Graham said. “If what you say is interesting enough.”
“No,” Kaya said. “The voices never tell me to do anything. It’s almost like it’s a commentary. What else did you learn?”
“Voices are often repetitive, like people have a few that they recognize. Sometimes they hear them when there are other people around, and sometimes, when they’re lying in bed at night, all alone. Sometimes they’re loud, and sometimes soft. They can each have a different feel to them.”
“Huh,” Kaya said thoughtfully. “That doesn’t sound at all like my voices. Mine are never the same people. They’re usually the voices of the people standing next to me. They have the personality of that person. The volume is always around the same, and I never hear them when I’m alone.”
“Your voices are weird,” Graham said. “It’s like you don’t fit into a category.”
“I’ve always known I was unique,” Kaya joked.
Graham’s phone beeped. “My call waiting is going off,” he said. “It’s got to be Gina. Would it be okay if I take it? I promise I’ll call you in a week.”
“Who am I to get in the way of true love?” Kaya purred. “Love you, big bro. Talk to you soon.”
Graham pushed down the plunger on the phone. “Hello?”
“Hey sexy.”
“Madonna? I told you never to call me here,” Graham said.
Gina laughed. “That never gets old. What are you up to?”
“I just talked to my sister,” Graham said. “I need to be better about calling her. You know, I forgot to remind her that tomorrow is our father’s birthday.”
“Really?” Gina asked. “You still acknowledge his birthday after he’s been gone over two years?”
“He’s still my father,” Graham said. “I guess it just gives me a chance to think about him. I’m not gonna eat cake for him or anything. We used to do that for my Uncle Jake. Every time his birthday came around, my mother would make peanut butter chocolate chip cookies. It was what my grandmother used to make him on his birthday when they were kids. I like the idea of having a special food on your birthday. What would yours be?”
Gina laughed. “Guess!”
Graham thought about it for a moment. “Chocolate cupcakes with marshmallow frosting and graham cracker crumbs sprinkled on top.”
“That’s not what I would have said, but it’s what I’d say now!”
Graham laughed. “That’s what I’ll make you next month. We’ll be home for Christmas break by then and we’ll have no work to do. I might have to have my mom help.”
“What’s yours?” Gina asked.
“Well, you know I like mint chocolate chip ice cream,” he said. “So I guess mint chocolate chip ice cream.”
“How should I give it to you?” Gina asked. “A cone? A bowl?”
“A bowl,” Graham decided. “And maybe some chocolate sauce poured over it.”
“Whipped cream?”
“Yes, and on my ice cream, too.”
Gina laughed again. “You sound like a guy that needs a little loving,” she said. “Do you want to come over? I’ve got the place to myself tonight. All night. And I’m cold and lonely.”
Graham smiled. “Have I told you lately that I love you?”
“Yes,” Gina said confidently. “You told me this morning. You can tell me again in just a bit. And stop on the way for whipped cream.”
Graham walked into his Abnormal Psych class and took a seat close to the front. He did that deliberately so that if the professor looked out, he would notice him awake and alert and not dozing off like some of the students who sat in the back. This was the most important class he had. It was the only one that really applied to him, at least in the first two years of school. He paid close attention and did all the assigned readings. He was learning about the symptoms, causes, and treatments of mental illness, as well as some information about medications, too, but he would have to take a Psychopharmacology class to learn more. To get into that class, he would need to take an Intro to Chemistry class. After he was done with all of that, he might as well major in psych. He figured he would have a lot of credits toward it already. Plus, he enjoyed learning about the subject. He just didn’t know if he wanted to be a psychologist. That was a dilemma.
Class started, and the subject of the lecture was the mind-body connection. The professor, Dr. Blake, was passionate about the subject, but sometimes ventured off onto tangents. Graham found it all fascinating and took meticulous notes.
After class, Graham followed Dr. Blake, man of about sixty wearing a tweed jacket, back to his office for his office hours. He had been meaning to stop by for quite some time, but he had been preoccupied with falling in love with Gina. The call from Kaya the night before had reminded him to make a better effort. He waited outside the office until his teacher got settled, and then he knocked on the door and walked in. “Professor Blake?”
Dr. Blake looked up from his desk. “Oh, hello,” he said. “Are you here for office hours? I so rarely get anyone here until it’s time for exams. Have we met? You look familiar.”
Graham smiled. “I’m in your Abnormal Psych class. You know, the one you just came from. I’m Graham Reed.” He reached out his hand.
Dr. Blake looked at his hand with an amused smile and then accepted it. “Nice to meet you, Mr. Reed. Have a seat. How can I help you today?”
“Um,” Graham said, shifting uncomfortably in his chair. “I wanted to talk to you about something of a personal nature.”
Dr. Blake’s face went blank. “Are you having some mental health issues, Mr. Reed? Because if you are, I need to tell you that I’m not a psychiatrist. You’ll need to go see someone at the health center. Have you been there? It’s on the west campus. They’re very nice over there.”
Graham shook his head. “No,” he said. “I don’t have any symptoms of mental illness, but thank you for your concern. I do have a family member who has some very puzzling symptoms, though, and she has been seen by a psychiatrist, and put on medication, but she’s off them now. I’m trying to learn as much as I can about her condition, and that’s what got me interested in learning about abnormal psych.”
Dr. Blake nodded. “I’m willing to bet that ninety-nine percent of people in the social service business got involved due to some personal connection. Me, it was my grandfather. Bipolar disorder. Made my mother’s life miserable as a child. I swore I would make it up to the world by learning how to beat it. It turns out you can’t beat it. You just have to find the best way to treat it. Not the best news. What’s the deal with your relative?”
“Voices,” Graham said.
“Schizophrenia?” the professor asked.
Graham shook his head. “No,” he said. “Just voices. And really weird voices. Nothing like what I’ve read about.” He outlined the symptoms to his teacher.
“I’ve never in my life heard of anything like that,” Dr. Blake said. “Are you sure that’s what’s going on? She’s not making things up, or lying to you? Could she be minimizing other symptoms she has?”
Graham shook his head again. “No, she’s not lying. She’s been really consistent for the last two years. I’ve seen her when it happens. She really believes that people are saying these things. And usually they’re just conversational. Except for the one time that the girl was threatening her. And what’s weird is that one of the things that she said she heard actually happened the next year. She heard the girl say she was going to put a laxative in hermilk, and then later, the girl did something similar to someone else.”
“She must have heard her say it to someone else another time, and just forgot.”
Graham shook his head. “No, she didn’t. The girl didn’t tell anyone. Kaya never heard anything else talk about it except the one specific time, but no one else heard it. Kaya’s friends with everyone. I mean everyone. Someone would have told her if they had heard her being threatened.”
“She’s friends with everyone?” the professor asked. “Huh. She really doesn’t sound like your typical psychotic. Yeah, I’m stymied. I would love to get my hands on her medical records. What was her diagnosis?”
“Auditory hallucinations.”
“That’s not a diagnosis,” Dr. Blake said.
“I know,” Graham said. “I told her the same thing. I think the psychiatrist didn’t want to give her a diagnosis that she really didn’t fit into.”
“Can I meet your sister?”
Graham shook his head. “She’s in Wisteria.”
“Oh, that is a problem. Damn. She would make a wonderful research paper. Tenure, you know.”
Graham nodded. “She might come here in two years,” he said. “Maybe you can meet with her then. If she’s up for it. She’ll probably be really busy. She’s a cheerleader.”
“Of course she is. Huh.” Dr. Blake shook his head. “Wow. Well—”
There was a knock on the door. Both men looked up.
“Professor?” a woman asked shyly. “I have a question about the term paper?”
“I’ll be with you in just a moment,” Dr. Blake said, waving her back into the hallway. He turned back to Graham. “Imagine that. No one has come to my office hours all month. Now two in one day. Young man, we need to talk more about this. Maybe we’re on to something. There’s not usually anything new in the world of mental health. It’s pretty much the same things over and over, with slight variations from person to person. Nothing like what you’ve seen, or if there is, I haven’t seen anything published about it. I want to get to the bottom of what’s going on with this young lady. I want to keep in touch. How can I find you?”
“Uh, in your Abnormal Psych class on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons. I sit near the front. I never miss a class.”
“Right,” Dr. Blake said, getting to his feet. “Today’s Thursday. So I’ll see you on Tuesday. I’ll be talking about biological aspects of mental illness. If anything new comes up with your sister by then, let me know. In the meantime, take notes. If this all works out, I might let you coauthor the paper with me.”
“Or maybe we could find a way to help my sister,” Graham said.
“Oh yes,” the professor said, nodding. “That, too.” He reached out to shake Graham’s hand again. “It was a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Graham.”
“It’s Mr. Reed,” Graham corrected. “First name Graham.”
“Yes, it is,” Dr. Blake said. “Don’t you forget it.”