The Three Christs of Ypsilanti - Milton Rokeach [97]
Not much happened during this period, except that Leon seemed more depressed than usual and was more openly hostile to the female visitors (Friends Service Committee summer volunteers) who occasionally sat in on the daily meetings; he did not even respond to introductions in his usual polite and often gracious way. He complained that he was tired of having his time taken up with meetings and would rather be left alone to spend it in introspective prayer and silence.
To one of the Friends volunteers Leon explains the meaning of duping, saying that things would be different after the final shaking off, which was imminent. “Mr. Cassel will get what he’s asking for; that is, his transfer and discharge from the hospital. He wants to be himself and so do I.”
August 18. Meeting. After the usual song, and aide comes in to say that Leon is wanted on the telephone. Joseph wonders aloud who could be calling him. Leon returns shortly and when asked who it was says it was a woman who accused him falsely of not being in the ward. He doesn’t go for falsehood, he says, but he isn’t sure whether it was his wife or not. “It will get straightened out,” he concludes.
After the meeting adjourns, we interview the aide who overheard the telephone conversation. After Leon hung up, the aide tells us, he asked Leon who it was. Leon replied that the phone call came from a special person and that if it was who he thought it was he would be happy to see her.
That afternoon Leon stays in his room meditating and praying for almost two hours. He then goes outdoors but, since curfew time is near, returns shortly.
August 19. Leon informs an aide that his wife’s maiden name is Ruth and that he is sorry he missed her on Thursday, when she had come to visit him.
August 20. At the meeting, Leon says that he misunderstood the woman on the telephone, which is why he claimed to be in the ward when in fact he wasn’t. He says that, since he had waited for his wife the “previous Thursday” instead of Thursday, August 4, she was speaking the truth. He adds that he is glad his wife is interested in him.
August 23. At the meeting, the research assistant tells Leon he would like to meet his wife. Would Leon let him know when she’s coming?
“No, I will not let you know. You’re the one that’s interfering with—Mr. Rokeach and the rest of the cohorts.”
—Will Joseph get to meet her?—
“He knows my wife. He sees her cosmic image.”
“I don’t know your wife,” Joseph says. “I’m not interested in you or your wife.”
Later, the aide notices Leon sitting quietly alone in his sitting room, smoking and meditating. When the aide asks if he has heard from his wife again, Leon replies that he has not, but that he expects to soon; he has asked Almighty God to let her appear to him in any form.
August 24. Leon receives another letter:
Dr. R. I. Dung
Ward D-16
Ypsilanti State Hospital
My dear husband,
I am very glad I had the opportunity to speak to you over the telephone last week.
Please accept the little gift I am enclosing since I know by observation of Channel 1 that you need a positive cigarette holder. I think you will enjoy this one since it also has a cosmic boupher.
Sincerely yours,
Madame Yeti Woman
At the meeting we say that the aide told us he had delivered a letter to Leon a few hours before. Leon comments that there might be an infringement on his emotional life, and that he has to wait to find out whether this was really his wife or whether the aide is only trying to amuse himself. He says he is disturbed because she hasn’t come right out and spoken to him; therefore, he has thrown away the cigarette holder.
But, apparently reconsidering the matter, he shortly afterwards retrieves the cigarette holder from the wastepaper basket.
August 26. Leon approaches the aide who delivered the letter and tells him that he saw his wife on the grounds today. He apologizes to the aide for having wrongly accused him of trying to dupe him, stating that it was definitely his wife that the aide had seen.
August 27. At the meeting,