The Lobotomist's Wife(43)
“All right, time to head to Emeraldine. I am sure the operators will be overwhelmed with calls from hospitals across the country looking to learn how to perform my ‘miracle.’” His smile stretched from ear to ear. “Ready, my dear?”
“Robert?” Ruth gave him a prompting look.
“What is it, dear? You look radiant as always. Now come along; if you want to drive together today, I need to get into the office tout de suite.”
“I’m still in my dressing gown!”
“Ah yes.” He chuckled as he actually took her in.
“I need a few minutes.”
“Sorry, I can’t wait. Work to be done, work to be done.” He picked up his briefcase and gave her a theatrical bow, as if he were tipping his hat, and whistling the seven dwarfs’ song from Snow White, he walked out the door.
Chapter Twenty-Three
“Our socials won’t be the same without you. It’s like we had our very own Andrews sister, right, Albert?” Ruth gave Estelle Lennox a heartfelt smile as she turned to Albert Burdell, one of the inmates with whom Estelle had become very close. “I know you are going to miss your singer a great deal.” He smiled and nodded with tears in his eyes.
Albert had been a patient at Emeraldine for nearly a year now. His family had him admitted for schizophrenia, although it was clear to Ruth that was not the malady he suffered from. Certainly, he’d experienced traumatic stress; that was evident from the scarring on his back and thighs, the flinching behind the eyes at sudden movements, his proclivity for nightmares. Still, he was a highly engaging and competent man. He was quite good-looking, tall and lean with thick brown hair that he slicked into a fashionable soft wave; he dressed impeccably and had an air of sophistication that reeked of generations of wealth. Yet, he was unpretentious. He never looked down upon the hospital’s other patients regardless of their background and was a kind and sought-after friend. He played the piano beautifully and had become Estelle’s accompanist and near-constant companion from the moment they met in the music room. At the monthly socials, all the patients congregated around Albert and Estelle, and the two seemed as if they had been friends for years.
Initially, Estelle’s father worried that they might have romantic feelings toward one another, but Ruth assured him Albert didn’t pay that kind of attention to the women at the hospital. Ruth did not judge Albert for being homosexual. In fact, when she understood that this was why he was at Emeraldine, she tried to convince him that he should leave the hospital to enjoy his life in the world—perhaps in Europe. In spite of what his family thought, Ruth knew all too well that it was possible to rise above that disapproval. She knew that one could still make a good life. Although, thankfully, when it came to her interests, no one had ever tried to “beat it out of her.”
“All right, well, that is the last of it. I’m afraid it is time to say goodbye, Albert.”
Ruth had allowed Albert into the women’s quarters to help Estelle pack, in part because she hoped that with his best friend leaving, he would be more inclined to follow after her.
“Estelle, my beauty, go share that voice of yours with the world.” He gave her a gentle hug.
“Oh yes, I’ll be singing!” Estelle giggled. “Just, now it will be at my new job at the school. I’ll miss you, Albie!” She smiled easily as he walked with her and Ruth to the end of the corridor and then turned left, back toward the men’s wing, while they turned right, to meet Estelle’s father in the front hall.
“I don’t know how to say goodbye.” Estelle fidgeted. She seemed anxious to get the farewell over with and go back to the world.
“You don’t need to. You can come back and visit me. I am very proud of you.”
Saying goodbye to patients healthy enough to be released was one of the pure joys of Ruth’s work, and thanks to lobotomy, she was having more of these moments. She understood that she was not sending her patients home the same as they were before. Estelle’s speech was less sophisticated than it had been before the procedure, and sometimes she had a bit of a twitch, but she could function outside of a hospital. Be with her father. Have a regular life. It was a triumph.
Ruth would genuinely miss Estelle. She had been a challenging patient at first. So capable and lucid at times, and then suddenly deteriorating into moments of unexpected violence. Like that fork incident, which had not happened the day before her lobotomy, in spite of what Robert told the press. Sometimes he was like a carnival barker embellishing and creating drama to intensify his impact. Still, Ruth couldn’t deny that since her lobotomy, Estelle had been just wonderful. Placid, even-tempered, happy. Ruth could see that she had surely been a good nurse at one time. She didn’t have the mental capacity for that kind of work anymore, but the Veterans Administration had helped her secure a job as a music teacher at a small school, and she would be well suited to that.
“Mr. Lennox, we are quite sad to say goodbye to your delightful daughter. But we are overjoyed to be able to return her to you.”
“Mrs. Apter, I don’t know how to thank you.” He shook Ruth’s hand a bit too long, overcome with emotion.
“There is no need, sir. This is my job. Anyway, Estelle’s health is more than enough thanks for me.”
“For all of us. I just can’t believe it. I have my girl back.” He turned to his daughter and she embraced him.