The Sleep Room Read Online Free PDF Page B

my shoulder. I was surprised to discover that my senses had been comprehensively deceived. Nobody was there. This was confusing, but not confusing enough to halt my progress. I continued climbing to the top of the stairs and crossed the landing. I was just about to tackle the next flight when, once again, I heard a noise, but on this second occasion it was quite distinct and easily recognized. An initial impact had been succeeded by a second, suggesting that something had dropped onto the carpet and bounced.
    Turning around, I noticed a pen on the floor. I assumed that it was mine, but when I picked it up, I saw that it was only a cheap biro. My own pen, a silver-plated Parker, was still in my pocket. I had no recollection of taking the biro from the sleep room or the wards, but that was surely what I must have done.
    In the study, I set about getting my papers in order. I was placing some drafts of unfinished articles in the bureau when I discovered an air-tight container in the bottom drawer. It contained three scored white tablets. I read the label: Reserpine. Protect from light. I wasn’t familiar with this drug, but at the same time I had an inkling that I had perhaps encountered it, or at least heard about it before. I tipped one of the pills out. It was careless of my predecessor, Palmer, to leave what must have been his own medication, here, for me to find. Particularly so, because I suspected that Reserpine was psychoactive. I was reminded, again, of what Maitland had said about Palmer having resigned unexpectedly. A vague disquiet – like an echo, arising out of silence – made me put the pill back in its container. The room must have been dusty, because my nose felt stuffed up and I couldn’t breathe very easily. I opened the window and looked out across the sea. Its unusual colour was a darker shade of brown in the evening light. I closed the window, drew the curtains, and prepared for bed.

Dr Angus McWhirter
    Maida Vale Hospital for Nervous Diseases
    London W9
    26th February 1955
    Dr Hugh Maitland
    Department of Psychological Medicine
    St Thomas’s Hospital
    London SE1
    Dear Hugh,
    Re: Miss Kathy Webb (d.o.b. 3.1.1937)
          Walsingham House, 26 Lisson Grove NW1
    I would be most grateful if you would see Miss Webb: a young woman with a history of schizophrenia and severe mood disturbance. She was born in West London and is the youngest of four children and her eldest brother, Charles, also has a history of psychotic illness. Her father is a market stall holder and her mother, originally from Dublin, is a housewife. Miss Webb attended a Roman Catholic primary school but was expelled at the age of nine on account of her truancy. Apparently, the nuns were staunch advocates of corporal punishment and she was beaten regularly. In her mid-teens, Miss Webb started running away from home and it was soon after this that she reported hearing voices for the first time, most of which were critical and accused her of committing sins. Her mother believed that her daughter was possessed by the devil and took her to see a priest, who, fortunately, recognized that the poor girl was unwell and made sure that she was seen by a psychiatrist at St Mary’s. Over the next several months her condition rapidly deteriorated and she was transferred to Friern, where she spent over a year as an inpatient and was treated, in my view, somewhat conservatively, with a combination of sedative drugs and occupational therapy. Three months after her discharge the voices returned. She resumed her habit of running away from home and consequently became known to the police, who would discover her, usually in a confused and dishevelled state, wandering around Notting Hill in the small hours of the morning. One must assume that it was during one of these episodes that she was taken advantage of, because in June last year she was declared three months pregnant (although Miss Webb herself claimed to have no memory of being seduced or sexually