Chapter 3 Happy Clappy Lizzie
Chapter 3
Happy Clappy Lizzie
Lizzie Taylor paced up and down the waiting room like a hungry caged lioness. Her eyes fixed on the closed door handle. When released open, her confinement would free her and find one whose attention would be tested. That was how she worked when she was high. Today was one of those days. She was approaching the peak of her parabolic mental health problem.
Tony found the woman to be in her early forties when he opened the waiting room door. She wore an open coat showing a glimpse of her cobalt blue jersey and its internal contours and a patchwork skirt with woollen brown stockings and a pair of well polished brown leather boots, with solid block heels. Her face etched agitated concentration.
‘Lizzie Taylor, please. This way.’
‘Tell me, are you a doctor or a psychologist?’ she asked clinging to her overcoat, rolled up in a ball.
‘I am a specialist in mental health. I am a psychiatrist but also a psychoanalyst.’
‘So I am mad? That’s what the Court said.
Wasn’t it? Tell me, wasn’t it?’
‘Lizzie let me take your coat and hang it up. You have a seat over there, opposite my desk,’ said Tony in a slow methodical instruction. It had no effect on his patient.
‘Do I lie on the couch? I mean that’s what psycho...psychotherapists want don’t they. I’ll take my boots off.’
‘No need. Have a seat. So this incident took place on Good Friday I see. Tell me about it.’
Lizzie was glad to be given full control of her reply. ‘I’ve never been charged by the Police before you know,’ she began.
‘That does not matter. I just want you to tell me what happened that morning around mid-day.’
‘Glory be to God. Was it not the most sacred day of the year, Good Friday?’
Tony scrutinised the charge paper.
‘It was, yes 12.07 on Good Friday.’
‘Yes, I was driving a van. Not my van of course. I don’t have a van. It’s Billy Craig’s van. He let me use it. It’s a nippy little thing. Guzzles through the petrol mind you. Oh no, diesel it was. Mine’s petrol. Yes, mustn’t get them muddled. That would be a problem, not so? A really big problem. I’ve got a Golf Polo. Nippier to drive than a van. Good for the town, when it’s busy.’
‘Lizzie, let me stop you there. I want you to concentrate on what happened. Tell me what happened immediately before the Police arrived.’
‘Oh yes. Well, I had an accident, you know. But the police did not come for at least another eight minutes, I think it.....’
‘Lizzie take a breath. Yes, I mean take a breath, a deep breath. Now stand up, I’ll show you.’
Tony stood in front of Lizzie and closed his eyes.
‘Now you close yours too.’
‘Oh don’t do anything I won’t like,’ she intoned.
‘Quiet Lizzie, concentrate. Now a deep breath. Fill your lungs and hold it......hold it...now breathe out. Now again, a deep breath.....’
Every time Lizzie pursed her lips ready to let out another uncontrollable outburst, Tony silenced her with his ram-rod index finger. The exercise went on for about another two minutes. A short interval for most events but it had a calming effect on Lizzie and Tony too.
‘Now sit down. I want you to tell me how the accident occurred and nothing else, at this moment in time. Only the accident. Understand?’
Lizzie nodded briefly, then continued to take a deep breath, held it in, then exploded it out. ‘Shall I start to tell you now?’
‘Yes. Now Lizzie. Take your time and tell me only about the accident.’
‘Well, it was Easter. You know, the day Christ was hung on the cross then rose to the heavens?’
Tony gave a nodding approval but kept his thoughts to himself. Was this the start of another aside?
‘In the past, we walked around town holding the wooden cross we made. But I felt we were not converting as many as we should so I suggested we had a larger cross and if someone could donate a van, then we’d be able to tour the town with the cross on the back of the vehicle. Be seen by more people that way, not so? Getting the message across, that’s what I was doing.’
Tony followed her narrative like a shadow reluctant to be following her laboured progress. But he persisted and just nodded. He was following.
‘So I got to drive a blue van with the cross secured upright in the back of the van. But oh dear, I’m afraid that’s what led to the accident.’
‘An accident? So it wasn’t a deliberate act? One that led you to a Court appearance?’
‘I’ve not told you yet. Oh yes, it was really serious you know. I’ve never been in a situation like this before. I have always trusted God to keep me on the straight and narrow.’
‘I see,’ said Tony glancing at his wrist watch.
‘Yes, it was quite silly of me. I did not remember how low the bridge was. I heard a snapping crack and slowed down immediately of course. Too quickly in fact. That’s when the following car bumped into me. It was my fault I know but unfortunately the cross snapped and it broke the other driver’s windscreen.’
‘How injured was he?’
‘Oh, not at all. But I had to reprimand him, quite severely.’
‘You did?’
‘Yes. His mouth should have been washed out with soap there and then. His language was quite unforgiveable, certainly not Christian. I had to tell him, you know. We can’t encourage such foul mouthed swearing, can we now? It’s such a bad influence on the young.’
Tony’s eyes narrowed and stared at Lizzie. ‘I must say I’d have some sympathy for a driver who has to break suddenly and have his windscreen penetrated by a wooden cross,’ suggested Tony. ‘If it were me in the following car I’d let out a few expletives too. The driver must have been in a state of shock.’
Lizzie’s pooh-poohed his suggestion. ‘He couldn’t have been in shock. Otherwise he wouldn’t have sworn so much. I really had to show him that God was loving and caring for him in his misfortune as well as mine.’
Then Lizzie stopped talking. And neither did Tony talk. It seemed he was playing a game to see how long it would take before the verbal deluge continued. Yet the silence continued. Lizzie looked down at her feet avoiding eye contact. Tony saw her machine gun eye blinking. Inevitably it was Lizzie who cracked first.
‘So what will you tell the Court?’
‘I’m not sure yet Lizzie. Tell me, have you been given any medication from your GP?’
‘Well, there was some ibu..ibule...something when I had a pain in my leg.’
‘Ibuleve?’
‘Yes, that’s the one,’ Lizzie laughed. ‘I believe, yes I believe, do you?’
Tony’s lips parted slightly in recognition of her manic humour. He was not going to be drawn in to her evangelical world. ‘I mean any regular medication?’
‘Lamotrigine, I take that morning and night. My GP gave me that a few days ago. 250 mg in the morning and 200 at night.’
‘Good, that’s right.’
‘Yes, I take vitamin F every day too.’
‘Vitamin F? There’s no such thing.’
‘Oh yes Doctor, Vitamin F is essential. For the believer, it is at the very heart of the matter. Vitamin F for Faith.’
‘I see. So how long have you been an evangelical Christian?’
‘Since the day I was born. Some forty two years ago.’
‘I find that hard to believe. Presumably your parents are Christians?’
‘Of course. My father is now in the realms of Glory while my mother is a hand servant here on earth just as I am. She’s in her late seventies. Not so active physically but mentally she’s right at His side. A faithful servant, if ever there was one.’
‘Being evangelical, does that make you excitable, I mean are you always full of the Spirit?’
Lizzie’s face was suddenly vacant. Gone was the certainty with which she proudly wore her faith on her face.
‘No, not always. Some days I don’t leave the house. I get exhausted. I just stay in bed and speak to Ginge and he comes to sleep on my bed.’
‘Ginge?’
‘My cat, well obvious isn’t it, my ginger cat.’
Tony could have kicked himself. It was so bloody obvious she would have a cat. Dogs respond; cats ignore.
‘And how long do these quiet days last for?’
‘Sometimes as much as a week.’
‘And would you say you are happier when these quiet days are gone?’
‘Oh yes. Then I get so much more done.’
‘Is there a regular pattern of feeling down, then high?’
‘I’m never high as you say. I’m not on drugs. Good heavens no, I don’t smoke either. My body is a temple of God’s creation. It is as pure as I can make it.’
‘I didn’t mean drugs. Moods if I can call them that. Do they come and go?
‘Ummm not exactly. I can go for long periods when all is calm. But then I realise I’m heading up or down as the moment takes me.’
Tony paused to take a breath before continuing.
‘And today how do you feel?’
‘Well I’d say returning to normal. Wouldn’t you? Of course normal is hard to describe but normal, yes I’d say a sort of normal. Not a sort of normal. No, just normal.’ She stood up briefly then sat down again. She got up once more and walked over to the window while washing her hands in thin air.
‘Lizzie, you are here because I have a report to make to the court. That must have caused you some trepidation.’
‘Yes of course. Surely for everyone who has to go through this process. It is the uncertainty of waiting to see if its prison, a fine or goodness knows what.’
Tony opened a new file on his computer and typed Lizzie into his list of clients. As he continued to type he informed her of her illness.
‘As your GP has rightly prescribed, you are suffering from what we call a Bi-Polar condition Lizzie. I suspect your general practitioner told you that.’
‘Bi-Polar? Something to do with the North Pole? I’ve never been north of Aberdeen. The only Polars I’ve seen are in the zoo.’
Tony smiled. ‘You know that’s possibly the best way to describe it. You travel from the North Pole to the South Pole with a few rests in between. You are high up north with no breaks to slow you down and then you have no more petrol in the tank and you are frozen on the South Pole. That’s what we call Bi-Polar. But the treatment will help.’
‘You mean, I am ill?’
‘It’s not an uncommon phenomenon. You might know others who have this but you don’t recognise it. What the medication will do is reduce the highs and inhibit the lows. Make sure you always take your prescribed 250 mg of Lamotrigine tablets; one in the morning and one 50 mg less at night.’
‘Will this be in my Court report?’
‘Yes, because your state of mind is part of my report to the Court.’
‘Hmmm I see. Do you think it will help me to avoid prison?’
‘I hope so. As you are a first time offender, that will count in your favour but it was your fault the man’s car was damaged so I suspect the court will fine you but I’m out of my depth here. I presume you have a good solicitor to represent you?’
‘I’ve an exceptionally good solicitor, one of the very best, yes I’d say the most educated and charming lawyer there is around,’ she said smiling from ear to ear.
‘He gets a copy of my report too. Let me know who he is.’
‘Glad to.’
‘You rate him very highly, don’t you?’ asked Tony feeling more relaxed at the session came towards its end.
‘Oh yes, of course I do. He’s a born again Christian too.’
Tony had noted three of his last five referrals came from the clerical or faith community. It was a committed outlook each had. It was a dynamic he felt required special attention and he would have to put his mind to its influences. He was in unchartered territory.
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Ron