They threw him into a small bare room with a plastic-covered mattress, and locked the door. When Ragen heard the door slam, he got up to break it down, but Arthur froze him. Samuel took the spot, dropping to his knees, wailing, “Oy vey! God, why have you forsaken me?” Philip cursed and threw himself to the floor; David felt the pain. Lying on the mattress, Christene wept; Adalana felt her face wet in the pool of tears. Christopher sat up and played with his shoes. Tommy started to check the door to see if he could unlock it, but Arthur yanked him off the spot. Allen started calling for his lawyer. April, filled with desire for revenge, saw the place burning. Kevin cursed. Steve mocked him. Lee laughed. Bobby fantasized that he could fly out the window. Jason threw a tantrum. Mark, Walter, Martin and Timothy raved wildly in the locked room. Shawn made a buzzing sound. Arthur no longer controlled the undesirables.

Through the observation window, the young Ward 5 attendants watched Milligan bang into walls, spin around, babble in different voices and accents, laugh, cry, fall to the ground and get up again. They agreed that they were witnessing a raving lunatic.

Dr. Caul came in the next day and gave Milligan a shot of Amytal, the one drug that had a calming and restorative effect. Billy felt himself coming together into partial fusion, but something was missing: Without Arthur and Ragen, who stood apart, as they had before the trial, he was the unfused Billy, empty, frightened and lost.

“Let me go back upstairs to AIT, Dr. Caul,” he begged. “The staff on the open ward is afraid of you now, Billy.”

“I wouldn’t hurt anyone.”

“Ragen almost did. He had a broken glass. He was going to cut the security guards. He was going to break my bones. The hospital staff has threatened to go out on strike if you’re brought back to an open ward. They’re talking about sending you away from Athens.”

“Where to?”

“Lima.”

The name frightened him. In prison he had heard stories of the place. He remembered Schweickart and Stevenson fighting to keep him from being sent to that hellhole.

“Don’t send me away, Dr. Caul. I’ll be good. I’ll do whatever they say.”

Caul nodded thoughtfully. “I’ll see what I can do.”

(2)

Continuous information leaks from somewhere in the Athens Mental Health Center kept the headlines sizzling. On April 7, the Columbus Dispatch proclaimed: Milligan in Security Ward After Faked Drug Overdose.

The Dispatch’s attacks on Milligan were now also directed against the Athens Mental Health Center and Dr. Caul. Caul began to receive abusive telephone calls and threats. One caller shouted, “How could you stand up for that rapist, you jive no-good dope-fiend motherfucker? I’m gonna kill you!” After that, Dr. Caul always looked around carefully before getting into his car, and he slept with a loaded revolver on the bedside table.

The following week, the Dispatch reported Stinzianos protests against the attempt by the Athens Mental Health Center and hospital superintendent Sue Foster to find a new hospital for Milligan.