Never Street Read Online Free PDF

violating anything if you told me when was the last time you saw him.”
    “He left Balfour House February fifteenth of last year,” he said. “I looked it up after you and I spoke. I haven’t seen or heard from him since.”
    “I know a little about his case. I won’t ask you to interpret his dreams. I need answers to some general questions about his particular psychosis.”
    He frowned pleasantly and cocked the hand holding the cigar; the tolerant judge allowing an irregularity to continue until he decided to throw it out of court.
    “He’s a classic crime film buff,” I said. “His wife says he’s loony on the subject. Day before yesterday he disappeared after bingeing on Bogart and Dick Powell and Fred MacMurray in the movie room in his basement. Mrs. Catalin thinks he’s gone off to live the life of a Hollywood hero. How’s that square with your experience and training?”
    “That would be a classic schizophrenic reaction to a traumatic episode. Wish fulfillment. Freud coined the term. After he had subjected a series of his patients’ recurring fantasies to analysis—”
    “Doctor.” I spoke gently. “I have a flight out in seven hours.”
    The eager gleam faded out behind his glasses. He drew in a chestful of smoke and watched it find its way back out. “Don Quixote complex. It predates the invention of the motion picture by several thousand years. Cervantes put a name to it when he wrote about his demented knight-errant. Whether because of abuse, sudden trauma, or longstanding feelings of inferiority, the victim decides that his own life has become unbearable, and so co-opts the life of someone he admires, preferably a creature of the imagination, since the genuine article is often a disappointment. We’ve all known the urge. James Thurber’s fictional Walter Mitty represents us all, daydreaming while stuck in traffic of winning the big game, saving the great man’s life, impressing the beautiful woman with one’s swordsmanship; the sword, of course, representing—”
    “Wilkinson razors. I’m not out to cure the guy, I just want to find him and bring him back to his wife.”
    “That would be a Sherlock Holmes complex. Another manifestation of the same obsessive compulsion.”
    “Yeah. Fortunately, mine pays the bills.” I was beginning to have had enough of Dr. Naheen; a new record.
    I went fishing.
    “How often does Walter Mitty actually put on armor and duke it out with windmills?”
    “Almost never. In fifteen years of practice I have yet to encounter an authentic case. If Mr. Catalin has begun to exhibit classic schizophrenic behavior, I hope he consults me. I’d like to publish a paper.”
    “So you think it’s possible his wife is right.”
    “I didn’t say that.”
    The water was too cold for worms. I threw it away and tried a spooner.
    “You said it could have been triggered by a traumatic episode. Do severe business problems qualify as traumatic?”
    “Only if you use the term very generally. By definition, trauma refers to life-threatening incidents. Freud to the contrary, the will to survive is much stronger than the human sex drive.”
    “That sounds like your pet theory.”
    He waved the cigar. “I’ve written upon the subject for the psychiatric journals.”
    “What about sex?”
    “It has its importance. It isn’t paramount. If you want my opinion, I think dear old Sigmund needed desperately to get laid.”
    I smiled; not for the reason he thought. A professional man who has been bitten by the competitive bug is already sniffing at the lure.
    “A man struggling hard to avoid bankruptcy,” I said, “whose marriage is in trouble because of an affair; could that make him suicidal?”
    “In some cases, yes ...”
    I jumped in ahead of the but with waders on. “So his life can be said to be threatened.”
    He shook his head, trying to spit out the hook. “You speak as if the situations were simultaneous, when in fact six months—” His pleasant expression