Castle on the Edge by Douglas Strang Page B

Lederer: “Very interesting.”
    Doctor Calloway: “Cyrus Ramsey was admitted to this very sanitarium seven years ago, exactly seven years ago the day before yesterday. The date was October 30th, 1930. Also, it happened to be our first year in operation. By a strange coincidence or maybe not so strange, but quite bizarre, none the less, it was precisely one year to the day that he murdered his identical twin brother Alex, on October 30th, 1931, when it really all began. The court judged him criminally insane. There was no trial; that’s why he’s still here. I’m glad that you were able to come, Franz, and see for yourself.”
    Doctor Lederer: “As you know, Niles, Alex was a student of mine. I believe he would have been a fine psychiatrist, had he lived. He used to talk to me about his family, particularly his brother, Cyrus. Alex told me when they were kids in Oklahoma, about ten years old, I think he said, they were playing by an old abandon dried-out well. Cyrus decided he wanted to look inside it. When he leaned over the edge, he lost his balance and fell head first to the bottom; Alex told me it was at least an eighteen-foot drop.
    “Immediately after the accident, he ran to fetch his father. About fifteen minutes passed by the time the father and son came back to the well with some rope. Alex and his father securely tied one end of the rope to an adjacent tree, and the father climbed down into the well while Alex watched to make sure the rope wouldn’t loosen from its anchor. When his father was at the bottom, he could barely breathe. In fact, he had to climb almost half way back up in order to inhale a couple of deep breaths, then hold the last one, go back down and rescue his unconscious son Cyrus.
    “If Alex weren’t there, both father and Cyrus surely would have perished, because it was Alex who not only pulled his brother out first as his father was losing his grip, but he then had to help his father out as well, because the father, was beginning to falter, even though he was already at the top of the well, and without the weight of his son. Remember, the father was clutching the inert boy, as well as pulling himself; so he was severely weakened as a result of the strain, and of lack of oxygen. It’s a miracle Cyrus survived at all.”
    Doctor Calloway: “Yes, I know the story. And in addition to oxygen deprivation, young Cyrus received an acute concussion on the crown of his head, from the head-first fall to the bottom of the well. It’s amazing that alone didn’t kill him; and no bones were broken, probably because of his young age. By the way, did you know the accident happened on October 30th, 1920, around five p.m.? Both boys were ten years old then. And Cyrus was in a coma for forty-eight hours. He came out of it on November 1st, at five o’clock, p.m. the same number of hours his ‘annual’ psychotic dream lasts.”
    Doctor Lederer: “However, Alex never told me his brother Cyrus, was his identical twin…the likeness, it is incredible. Did the dream actually start the very next year after the accident?”
    Doctor Calloway: “No. However, after the accident, the boy’s personality rapidly changed. He became confused and did poorly in school, whereas his brother Alex excelled in all his subjects; and he was very popular with his fellow students. Cyrus wasn’t. Both boys were in the same one-room schoolhouse class. Their teacher always lauded Alex as a sterling example of what a pupil should be and constantly criticized Cyrus…and always in front of the other kids in the class. And everyone made fun of him, including his own brother, Alex…at the time.
    “Even at home, Cyrus’s parents and other siblings would badger him when he would bungle something while doing his share of the chores, for example. None of his family, or anybody else, for that matter, took any consideration with regard to Cyrus’ horrible accident as the cause of his problems. One would think they’d be grateful he