Down the hall and over the broken glass again and into the living room. Miss Welish was with Dr. Boyd beside the
bookcase in one corner. When he went to them, Dr. Boyd came protectively between Dr. Rhinehart and the girl.
`What now, Luke?' he said.
`I am deeply sorry for the insane attack I made on you, Miss Welish. I sincerely regret it. Only now do I see the true
meaning of love.'
Miss Welish, round-eyed, peeked around her escort's shoulder.
`Oh come off it, Luke,' Dr. Boyd said.
'You are beautiful; you are both beautiful, and I deeply regret having marred this wonderful evening.'
'I hope I didn't hurt you,' Miss Welish said.
'My pain was the initial source of my seeing the light. I can't thank you enough.'
'Any time,' Dr. Boyd said. `Come on, Joya, let's leave.'
`But I have to. . ' The voice of Miss Welish was lost behind the retreating figure of Dr. Boyd.
`You are better, true?' Dr. Krum said suddenly from below and beside Dr. Rhinehart as the two others moved away.
The min, elderly former Big Deal was with him, and so was a fiftyish Important Person puffing on a pipe. As they
began talking, Dr. Weinburger, president of PANY, the chubby middle-aged woman joined them.
`I am whole at last,' Dr. Rhinehart replied.
'What was this about the dice man, hey? Vas interesting.'
`The Dice Man is a deeply sick concept, totally lacking in love.'
`Seemed a bit schizophrenic the way Dr. Krum described it,' said Dr. Weinburger.
`But the idea of destroying the personality: is interesting,' Dr. Krum went on.
`Only if it shatters the shell which hides our love,' Dr. Rhinehart replied.
`Love?' Dr. Weinburger inquired.
`Our love.'
`Vat has love to do vith anything?' asked Dr. Krum.
`Love has something to do with everything. If I do not love I am dead.'
`How true,' the woman said.
`My whole recent life has been thrown away in a cold, mechanical dicelife. I see that now as clearly as your beautiful,
handsome faces.'
'Luke, I'd like you to come outdoors with me for a few minutes now,' Dr. Ecstein's voice said at Dr. Rhinehart's side.
`I will, Jake, but I must explain something first to' Dr. Krum.'
He turned to the little man beside him with a warm, pleading expression.
'You must stop your work with pigeons and work only with man. You can never approach what is essential to man's health and happiness through torturing chickens and pigeons. Schizophrenia is a failure to love, a failure to see loveliness. It will never be cured by a drug.'
`Oh, Dr. Rhinehart, you are being sentimental like poet,' Dr. Krum said.
`A single line of Shelley tells us more of man than all your chicken pigeon droppings ever can.'
`People haf been spouting love two thousand years. Nothing. With chemicals we change the world.'
'Thou shah not kill,' Dr. Rhinehart said.
We do not kill, only make psychotics.'
`You do not love your chickens.'
`Is impossible. No one who works with chickens can ever luf them.'
'A spiritual man loves all with a spiritual love that is never selfish, possessive or physical.'
`Oh, for Christ's sake, Luke Dr. Ecstein said.
`Precisely,' said Dr. Rhinehart. `Excuse me a moment.'
With the eminent physicians looking on, Dr. Rhinehart consulted his watch case. He groaned.
`Is late?'
Dr. Krum asked.
Dr. Rhinehart's eyes swiveled over the room like artillery radar seeking its target.
`I didn't know Dr. Rhinehart was an existentialist humanist,' the woman said.
`He's a nut,' Dr. Ecstein said, `even if he is my patient'
`Meetcha outside in five minutes, Jake. So long fellas,' Dr. Rhinehart said and strode off toward the entrance hall, but
after passing a cluster of people behind the couch he veered to his right and went down the same hallway again.
As he crunched over the broken glass he saw Miss Welish and Mrs. Ecstein emerging from the room opposite the one
he had been carried to. They stopped at the end of the hall and looked at him warily.
'Lil's been given a pill and is resting,' Mrs. Ecstein said. `I don't think you should disturb her.'
`My God, Arlene, your boobs make my mouth water. Let's go into the john.'
Mrs. Ecstein stared at him for a moment. She looked sideways at Miss Welish and then back to the doctor. Then, still
staring at her mentor, she shook her tiny purse up and down three times, opened it a crack, and peeked in. Closing the
purse, she said: `I love your big prick, Luke. Let's go: Miss Welish looked in awe from one to the other.
`You too, baby;' Dr. Rhinehart said to her.
`Come along, Joya,' Mrs. Ecstein said. `It'll be fun.'
She touched Miss Welish lightly on the breasts and went into the bathroom to her left. Miss Welish watched Mrs. Ecstein leave and then found herself face to face with Dr. Rhinehart again.
`Most beautiful body in the world, baby, except your knee. Let's go.'
She stared at him.
`But here?' she said.
`Here and now, baby, that's all there is' He moved around her to the bathroom, held the door open and waited. With a swift backward glance up the empty hallway she walked toward the bathroom.
`You people are really amazing,' she said. `Are all psychiatrists' parties like this?'
`Only Dr. Mann's,' Dr. Rhinehart said and followed her in.
Chapter Forty-three
[Being excerpts from Dr. Ecstein's case history entitled, `The Case of the Six-Sided Man'.]
After R had erratically broken off his conversation with the three psychiatrists, he left the party area. The three discussed the situation briefly and then were joined by Dr. M. after further discussion it was decided that R ought to be taken immediately to a private clinic. M telephoned the Clinic and asked for an ambulance. M and Dr. E. then went along with Dr. B to locate R.
He was not outside, nor was he in M's office, but it was soon ascertained that he had locked himself in the bathroom. At first the doctors were concerned for R's life, but were reassured by the sound of other voices from the room. He called to those inside, but received no answer. B banged loudly on the door until E warned him it might be dangerous to excite R. For two minutes M tried to talk rationally with the patient but E, B and M heard only grunts in reply. B wanted to break the door down and enter, but M and E urged caution considering R's bulk and strength. An ambulance with attendants would soon arrive. Then female screams were heard from within the bathroom, and it was ascertained that the women with R were in all likelihood A and JW, female acquaintances of E and B. The door was broken down. It was disclosed that R had been in the process of raping the two females. The clothes of both were in extreme disarray and R's genitals were exposed and tumescent. He stood in the center of the room slobbering lasciviously and grunting. He seemed to have regressed to the bestial state. He could answer none of our questions and resisted our efforts to separate him from the females only in the most clumsy and ineffectual way. He had become docile.
The two females seemed in a state of shock and could not explain their delay in calling for help. Whether it was the threat of R's great strength or some inexplicable hypnotic power occasionally exerted by the mentally imbalanced has never been determined. B had a different theory: Eventually, both females emerged from shock and burst into tears.
`It was horrible,' said A.
`The things he tried to make us do,' said JW.
R only slobbered and grunted. The doctors had to dress him themselves, since he seemed incapable of it himself. K and M both advanced the hypothesis that the patient had subsided into a catatonic state. E, however, even at this early date, was able to postulate that R's breakdowns were random and sporadic and that a spontaneous remission of symptoms should be expected.
Such was the case. Ten minutes later as all sat quietly and in great fatigue waiting for an ambulance, R began talking again. He apologized sincerely and realistically for his behavior, praised the doctors for the gentle and intelligent way they had handled a difficult situation, reassured them that he was now at last completely himself again, and after twenty minutes or so had most of those present laughing at the whole situation, then abruptly, just as the ambulance arrived, he threw himself on the only woman left in the room. Dr. F, and seemed, to be attempting coitus. The attendants and doctor arrived, he was pulled off, an injection was administered and the patient was taken to - Clinic ….