Юхан Теорин - The Asylum

Jan stares at her. ‘But he used to work there, surely? In the laundry?’

The woman nods again. ‘Later on, yes. But they have former patients working there, as I understand it... They’ve got quite a mixture of nutcases and doctors up there.’

His neighbour sighs yet again, and carries on down the stairs with her laundry basket.

Jan follows her and quickly collects his own laundry. Then he goes back upstairs, and notices that his door is ajar. He forgot to close it.

Did Legén hear the entire conversation with his neighbour?

He stops in the doorway, wondering what to do, but eventually he walks in.

Legén is still sitting at the kitchen table; he has topped up his coffee cup. He looks at Jan. ‘You’re back, then,’ he says.

He has also lit his pipe, but he doesn’t look happy. ‘I heard what the old bag said. The whole bloody place could hear her.’

Jan doesn’t know what to answer; he can’t stop looking at Legén’s hands, holding the pipe and the coffee cup. The hands that held the knife when he ran amok in the street.

At last Jan opens his mouth to say something. ‘Were you happy up there at the hospital?’

Legén continues to suck on his pipe, so Jan goes on: ‘I mean... you were there for a hell of a long time.’

‘My whole life,’ says Legén, puffing on his pipe. ‘But I didn’t murder anyone. No, nein, nyet... I was in there because of my mother.’

Jan looks at him.

‘My mother was immoral, as they said back then... in the thirties she had children by several different men, and she liked to party in the street, if I can put it that way. And she wasn’t ashamed of it. So she was the one they locked up; in those days St Patricia’s was a mental hospital and a kind of general institution. I was a child, I was just taken in with her. And that’s where I stayed.’

‘So you never... stabbed anyone?’

‘That’s just gossip,’ Legén says. ‘People will always talk... there’s no end to it.’

Jan nods without speaking. Trust people , he thinks.

He sits down at the table. ‘I’ve got a question. If the fire alarm goes off up at the hospital, what happens in the laundry?’

‘We’ve practised this,’ Legén replies, as if he still works there. ‘We know what to do... If the smoke doesn’t kill us, we turn off the machines and go up to the main entrance.’

‘You don’t use the lift?’

‘No one uses the lift. Not if there’s a fire.’

After a brief silence, Legén puts down his pipe and takes a litre bottle of pale-yellow wine out of his plastic bag. He places it in front of Jan. ‘Try this,’ he says. ‘It’s not the best batch I’ve ever made, but it’s not bad... And it all ends up as piss anyway.’

‘Thanks.’

‘Are you going to get someone out?’ Legén asks after a brief silence.

‘Not at all.’ The denial is automatic. ‘No, I just want to—’

‘If you do,’ Legén interrupts, ‘choose someone who deserves it. Some of the people in there ought to be allowed to change places with some of the lunatics out here.’

Rami’s escape attempt didn’t succeed — Jan knew that as soon as he heard screams and shouts and the sound of breaking glass out in the corridor.

He listened but did nothing; he just stayed in his room and carried on working on his comic strip about the Secret Avenger. The shouts and screams were followed by a huge crash further down the corridor, then the sound of running footsteps.

Jan went over to the door. He heard another door slam shut, then even more loud voices. A whole chorus of them.

Then silence.

Jan waited a little while longer before peering cautiously into the corridor. Everything was quiet and deserted, but when he went and knocked on Rami’s door, there was no reply.

This time he knew immediately where they had taken her, so he went down to the cellar. To the locked door of the Black Hole.

‘Rami?’ he called.

He could just hear her voice through the door: ‘Yes.’

‘What happened?’

‘One of the ghosts saw me and told on me. So I hit her.’

Jan assumed she was talking about the pale girls. ‘So they caught the squirrel,’ he said.

‘They caught me straight away,’ she said. ‘I didn’t even manage to get outside... I bit them, but there were four of them. Just like your gang.’

Jan didn’t know what to say. We can’t win, Rami . That was what he always used to think, at least before he met her.

‘How long do you have to stay in there?’

‘They didn’t say. Years, maybe... But it doesn’t matter, because I know what I’m going to do when they let me out.’

Jan didn’t ask any more questions, because he knew that Rami would never give up. He sat outside the door and waited, just to provide support. Eventually he spoke again. ‘If you do it again... I’m coming with you.’

‘Are you?’

‘Yes.’

And it was true — he didn’t want to leave the security of the Unit, but he would go anywhere with Rami.

‘Do you know where I’m going to go?’

‘Where?’

‘To Stockholm. That’s where I have to go... my older sister lives there.’

‘OK,’ Jan said.

‘We’ll form a band when we get there. We can play in Sergels Torg in the city centre, and use the money we get to make recordings... and we’ll never, ever come back here.’

‘And what about the pact?’ Jan asked.

Rami seemed to be thinking things over. ‘You can fulfil your part of the bargain later... and I’ll fulfil mine, if you give me your address.’

‘OK. I have to go now, Rami... I’ve got a counselling session.’

‘With your psychobabbler?’

‘Yes... but it’s OK, he listens.’

‘I listen too,’ said Rami.

‘I know.’

‘Will you come and see me tonight? If they let me out?’

‘I...’ But he couldn’t go on. He could only say the last three words silently to himself: love you, Rami .

‘Why do you lock us up?’ Jan asked.

‘Lock you up?’ Tony said.

‘Down in the cellar. There’s a locked room.’

‘It’s only if someone is violent. For their own sake... so they don’t harm themselves. They just have to stay in there for a little while, until things calm down... just as everybody has to stay in here for a little while.’

Jan didn’t respond, so the psychologist leaned forward. ‘How are you feeling now, Jan?’

‘Fine.’

‘Have you made some friends here?’

‘Maybe.’

‘Good. And what about those self-destructive thoughts you were having? Have they gone now?’

‘I think so,’ he said.

‘So maybe it’s time you went home, then?’

They wanted to get rid of him, Jan realized. He had been here for a little while . They probably needed his room for someone else. ‘Don’t know,’ he said.

‘You don’t know. But you can’t stay here, can you?’

Jan didn’t answer.

But if Rami’s escape plan didn’t work, it was a tempting thought: to stay behind the fence for the rest of his life, never have to face the world again. Never have to face the Gang of Four.

‘It’ll be good to get home,’ Tony said. ‘You can go home, go back to school... make friends and start living. And think about what you want to be.’

‘What I want to be?’

‘Yes... what kind of job would you like to do?’

Jan thought this over. He had never really considered it, but he replied, ‘Maybe I’d like to be a teacher.’

‘Why?’

‘Because... I’d like to look after children. To protect them.’

After the session Jan drifted around the corridors. It was almost time for dinner, and he could hear voices from the TV room. He went down to the cellar, but the door of the Black Hole was wide open. They had let Rami out.