Madness and Women
Stories
Poetry
roommates
almost all of his roommates were schizophrenics.
they saw people and heard voices that no one else did.
he’d always be assigned a room with a schizophrenic.
he immediately asked for a room change from his
psychiatrists and clinical directors and counselors and therapists and treatment nurses and case managers and halfway house managers.
they never changed his roommate or room assignment.
eventually he didn’t care.
_____
one of his roommates danced the waltz with someone outside in the parking lot every night at two in the morning.
he didn’t see anyone dancing the waltz with him but there could have been someone there.
eventually he gave all of his roommates the benefit of the doubt someone was there.
_____
another roommate in a halfway house played chess every night with probably the same opponent.
in a while he’d scream checkmate and throw the board and all the pieces into the air.
then he’d go outside and run around the house and scream “oh shit” while he was running.
later in the morning he’d get in his car and say he was leaving for work.
he always wondered how he managed to drive.
he got a chance to see for himself when his roommate asked him one time if he needed a ride anywhere. 29
he said yes and during the drive he thought he was going to die several times.
____
another roommate was in his middle eighties and diabetic.
it took two nurses to hold him down while a third one jabbed his finger to get the insulin blood test sample.
every time they took a sample the roommate screamed and moved his head from side to side and shouted for “someone to call the FBI because they were trying to kill him.”
the nurses left with their sample and then his roommate would give a statement to the FBI agents in charge of his case.
____
now he lives on his own again.
no more roommates.
he misses all of them and their friends.