Straightjacket by Meredith Towbin Page A

here.” The attendant grabbed him violently by the arm.
    “Easy,” Caleb snapped, trying to rip his arm out of the hand, but the attendant held on even tighter.
    “What did I tell you? Behave yourself.” He pushed Caleb out, down the hallway, and with the swipe of an ID badge, the double doors to the ward opened for them. They waited at the elevator, and when the doors slid open, an elderly woman stood inside. She had a sweet smile on her face in anticipation of another passenger, but when she saw his face and, shortly after, the attendant’s hand on his arm, her smile evaporated and she moved cautiously to the side.
    The doors slid closed as the attendant pressed the button. Caleb sensed that the woman’s eyes were on him. Although he stayed focused on the numbers over the door, he could see that she had shifted her purse to her other shoulder, away from him. So he was a dangerous freak. Part of him wanted to show her just what she expected. Maybe he could start howling or shake his tongue wildly at her. That would freak her out. But no, he wanted to maintain some dignity, so he just kept staring at the numbers. When the doors opened, he put out his hand, motioning for her to exit first. She gave him a startled smile and moved outside without turning back. The attendant jerked him forward and to the left.
    “Can you stop with the shoving? I’m coming.”
    “Shut up.” The attendant yanked him even harder. When they came to an exam room, he pushed him inside.
    “Go sit on the bed. And don’t move .”
    Caleb did as he was told, but not before curling his lip up at him in disgust. The Bouncer positioned himself outside the room with his massive back pressed up against the window.
    Caleb caught a glimpse of himself in the mirror. He blinked a couple of times, not believing the reflection was his own. He knew his eye was swollen, but the skin around it had bloated to massive proportions. Dried blood was smeared under his nose and on his cheek. A bruise had already formed on one side of his jaw.
    Not wanting to look at himself anymore, he started searching for something to read. There were no magazines, only pamphlets on heart disease and hepatitis vaccines. There was a large poster, a diagram of the human body, to his left. It showed all the muscles with each of them labeled. His eyes started at the feet and moved upward. It looked like a man. The red tissue stretched over a bony frame as the figure flexed his arms, stomach, and back. The man was hairless, skinless, sightless—and repulsive. The doctors saw that when they looked at him: just a collection of bones and muscles and body parts. A name for everything. And if his body and brain didn’t match up to their diagrams, it was their job to fix him. He couldn’t stand to think of it.
    Still sitting on the bed, he stretched out his arms. Out in the hallway everything started moving fast. A doctor seemed to bolt into the room, followed by a nurse in green scrubs. He didn’t want to be bothered with listening to them. He felt them touch him, tug on him, but he ignored it and instead tried to focus on what he knew would happen next.
    “What were you thinking?” Samuel said.
    Although his arms remained stretched out in front of him, the tension dissolved and peacefulness settled over him. In an instant he found himself in the blazing bright room without walls.
    “Shut up.” Although Caleb was annoyed with Samuel’s tone, he had made the loneliness go away and brought him closer to home.
    “Caleb, what did you think you were doing?”
    This time Samuel hadn’t come with the golf club.
    “What do you mean? That guy was gonna kill her.”
    “You didn’t just protect her. The way you pounded that guy—you were trying to kill him . I warned you. I warned you not to get so wrapped up in this.” Samuel paused, trying to gain some control. “You’re not doing your job.”
    “Really?” Caleb barked. “It’s not like you gave me a handbook on how to do