Billy was unprepared for this. He had obeyed the hospital rules, kept his word and broken no laws since his illness had been diagnosed and treated. Yet now his privileges had been taken away.

Saddened, the Teacher gave up and left the spot.

When Mike Rupe came on duty at eleven o’clock, Milligan was sitting in a brown vinyl chair, huddled and rubbing his hands as if frightened. Mike wondered if he should approach him. He had been warned of Milligan’s fear of males, he knew about Ragen, and he had seen Dr. Caul’s training tapes about multiple personalities. Up to now, he had just laid back and let the patient be. Unlike a lot of others on the staff who thought Milligan was faking, Mike Rupe believed the diagnosis. After reading the history and nursing notes, he just couldn’t imagine that all those professional psychologists and psychiatrists could be taken in by a young man without even a high school education.

Milligan usually seemed stable to him, and that was all he really cared about. But for the past week, ever since the Dispatch headlines, he had gotten more and more depressed. Rupe felt bad about those lousy headlines and the fact that Milligan had been shafted by the politicians.

Rupe came around from behind the counter and sat on a chair near the terrified boy. He had no idea how Milligan would react, so he had to be as easy and as subtle as possible.

“How’re you feeling?” he asked. “Anything I can do for you?”

Milligan looked at him with frightened eyes.

“I can see you’re upset. I just want to know if you need someone to talk to, that’s what I’m here for.”

“I’m scared.”

“I can see that. Do you want to talk to me about it?”

“It’s the younger ones. They don’t know what’s happening. They’re frightened too.”

“Would you tell me your name?” Rupe asked.

“Danny.”

“Do you know me?”

Danny shook his head.

“I’m Mike Rupe. I’m the mental health technician on night duty. I’m here to help you if you need it.”

Danny kept rubbing his wrists and looked around. Then he stopped, listened to an inner voice and nodded. “Arthur says we can trust you.”

“I’ve heard about Arthur,” Rupe said. “You can tell him I appreciate that. I sure wouldn’t do anything to hurt you.” Danny told him he thought Ragen was very angry about what was happening with the newspapers and all, and wanted to end it by killing himself. That frightened the younger ones. Rupe could tell by the fluttering lids, the drifting glazed eyes, that Milligan was switching again, and then a little boy cringed and sobbed and looked as if he was in pain.

The switching went back and forth, and they spoke until two in the morning, when Rupe led Danny back to his room.

From that time on, Rupe found he could relate to several of Milligan’s personalities. Though the male RN was pretty strict about bedtime (eleven-thirty weekdays and two o’clock in the morning on weekends), Rupe knew that Milligan slept very little, and he spent long night hours talking with him. He was pleased that Danny and the unfused Billy would seek him out to talk, and he began to understand why Billy was so difficult to deal with. Billy, he realized, felt that once again he was being punished for someone else’s crimes.