I had lunch in Ward Two and laid down the law: no cats on the table. I sat across from Mrs. Archer, who was now taking all her meals in the dining room. She was flanked by prot and Chuck. Both were talking animatedly with her. She looked uncertainly from one to the other, then slowly lifted a spoonful of soup to her, mouth. Suddenly, with a sound that could have been heard clear up in Ward Four, she slurped it in. Then she grabbed a handful of crackers and crumbled them vigorously into her bowl. She finished her meal with half the soup smeared all over her leathery face. "God," she said happily, "I've always wanted to do that."
"Next time," said Chuck, "belch!"
I thought I saw Bess smile a little, though it might have been wishful thinking on my part.
After the meal I returned to my office and asked Mrs. Trexler, who had regained her composure, to cancel all my appointments for the rest of the day. She mumbled something unintelligible about doctors, but agreed to do so. Then I went to find prot.
He was in the lounge, surrounded by all the patients and staff from Wards One and Two. Even Russell, who had experienced some sort of revelation after he understood that it was prot who had been responsible for Maria's deciding to become a nun, was there. When I came into the room he exclaimed, "The Teacher saith, My time is at hand." The corners of his mouth were caked with dried spittle.
"Not just yet, Russ," I said. "I need to talk to him first. Will everyone excuse us, please?" I calmed a chorus of protest by assuring them he would be back shortly.
On the way to his room I remarked, "Every one of them would do anything you asked them to. Why do you suppose that is?"
"Because I speak to them as equals. That's something you doctors seem to have a hard time with. I listen to them being to being."
"I listen to them!"
"You listen to them in a different way. You are not as concerned with them or their problems as you are with the papers and books you get out of it. Not to mention your salary, which is far too high."
He was wrong about that, but this wasn't the time to argue the matter. "You have a point," I said, "but my professional manner is necessary in order to help them."
"Let's see-if you believe that, then it must be true. Right?'"That's exactly what I wanted to talk to you about." We came to his room, the first time I had been there since his earlier disappearance. It was virtually bare except for his notebooks lying on the desk. "I've got some pictures and documents to show you," I said, spreading the file out on its surface, gently shoving aside his still-unfinished report. A few of the photographs I held back.
He looked over the pictures of himself, the birth and graduation certificates. "Where did you get these?"
"Giselle sent them to me. She found them in Guelph, Montana. Do you recognize the boy?"
"Yes. It is robert."
"No. It is you."
"Haven't we been over this before?"
"Yes, but at that time I didn't have anything to prove that you and Robert were the same person."
"And we aren't."
"How do you explain the fact that he looks so much like you?"
"Why is a soap bubble round?"
"No, I mean why does he look exactly like you?"
"He doesn't: He is thinner and fairer than I am. My eyes are light-sensitive and his aren't. We are different in a thousand ways, as you are different from your friend bill siegel. "
"No. Robert is you. You are Robert. You are each part of the same being."
"You are wrong. I'm not even human. We are just close friends. Without me he'd be dead by now."
"And so would you. Whatever happens to him also happens to you. Do you understand what I am saying?"
"It is an interesting hypothesis." He wrote something in one of the notebooks.
"Look. Do you remember telling me that the universe was going to expand and contract over and over again, forever?"
"Naturally."
"And you said later that if we were in the contraction phase, time would run backward but we'd never know the difference because all we would have would be our memories of the past and a lack of knowledge of the future. Remember?"
"Of course."
"All right. It's the same here. From your perspective Robert is a separate individual. From my perspective the truth is perfectly logical and obvious. You and Robert are one and the same person."
"You misunderstand the reversal of time. Whether it is moving forward or backward, the perception is the same."
"So?"
"So it makes no difference whether you are correct or not."
"But you admit the possibility that I'm right?"
His smile widened markedly. "I'll admit that, if you'll admit it's possible that I came from K-PAX."
From his point of view there wasn't the slightest doubt about his background. Given several more months or years I might have been able to convince him otherwise. But there was no more time. I pulled the pictures of Sarah and Rebecca from my pocket. "Do you recognize them?"
He seemed shocked, but only for a moment. "It is his wife and daughter."
"And this one?"
"This is his mother and father."
"Giselle is trying to locate your mother and sister in Alaska. She is going to try to bring your mother here. Please, prot, don't leave, until you talk to her."
He threw up his hands. "How many times must I tell you-I have to leave at 3:31 in the morning. Nothing can change that!"
"We are going to get her here as soon as we can." Without looking at a clock he said, "Well, you have exactly twelve hours and eight minutes to do it in."
THAT evening Howie and Ernie threw prot a bon voyage party in the recreation room. There were many gifts for their "alien" friend, souvenirs of his visit to Earth: records, flowers, all kinds of fruits and vegetables. Mrs. Archer hammered out popular tunes on the piano accompanied by Howie on the violin. Cats were everywhere.
Chuck gave him a copy of Gulliver's Travels, which he had lifted from the bookshelves in the quiet room. I recalled prot's telling me that the (Earth) story he liked best was "The Emperor's New Clothes." His favorite movies, incidentally, were The Day the Earth Stood Still, 2001, ET, Starman, and, of course, Bambi.
There was a great deal of hugging and kissing, but I detected a certain amount of tension as well. Everyone seemed nervous, excited. Finally, Chuck demanded to know which of them was going to get to go with him. With those crossed eyes I wasn't sure whether he was looking at me or prot. But prot answered, "It will be the one who goes to sleep first."They all lined up immediately for a last tearful embrace, then dashed to their beds, leaving him alone to finish his report and prepare for his, and hopefully their, journey, each trying desperately to fall asleep with visions of yorts dancing in their heads.
I told him I had some things to do, but would come to say good-bye before he left. Then I retired to my office.
At about eleven o'clock Giselle called. She had found Robert's sister's address in Alaska. Unfortunately, the woman had died the previous September, and his mother had gone on to live with the other sister in Hawaii. Giselle had tried to reach her, but without success. "It's too late to get her to New York in time," she said, "but if we find her, she might be able to call him."
"Make it fast," I told her.
For the next three hours I tried to work to the accompaniment of Manon Lescaut on my cassette player. In Act Three of that opera Manon and Des Grieux depart for the New World, and I understood at last why I love opera so much: Everything that human beings are capable of, all of life's joy and tragedy, all its emotion and experience, can be found there.