JOHNNY WEMBLEY was on his way to the mental asylum and it bothered him deeply. He was sitting on the backseat of a police car, next to a police officer. If he had his way, he would have chosen to go to jail; but the investigating judge sent him to the mental asylum, and there was nothing that he could do to prevent it.
Johnny was indeed bothered. Someone in the asylum, he believed, would be delighted to see him; and, surely, it would not be good for him. Almost a year ago, he was asked to testify regarding an incident where an old man fell from the fourth floor of an unfinished building by the pier. He told the investigating judge how the poor old man fell off the building and who was responsible for his fall. However, the man whom he testified against was not sent to jail. Instead, the man was ordered to spend time in the mental asylum. Johnny was puzzled. When he inquired why the man was not sent to jail, the investigating judge told him that she found reasonable doubts in his testimony. Reasonable doubts? He was disappointed. To him, it simply meant that he did lie, and he resented it so intensely.
"Well, well, what do we have here..." the male nurse behind the receiving desk uttered as he perused the commitment papers that were turned over by the police officer, "another one of them... invincible men." The tone of his voice hinted his ridicule. Then he looked at Johnny and said, "Follow me."
Johnny, holding a few clothes in a plastic bag, followed the nurse as he headed to the stairs. Johnny readily noticed the pungent smell ammonia as he walked farther into the colossal building.
When they reached the stairs, they climbed up the second floor, then onto the third, and finally onto the fourth. The nurse proceeded towards the last door on the left side of the stairs and then opened it. Johnny saw four men inside the room. Three were lying on their own beds, while one was sitting by the large window, staring out into the woods. The room contained eight beds, Johnny noticed, with four beds arrayed next to a wall on his right and another four beds arrayed next to a wall on his left.
"Good afternoon, gentlemen," the nurse smilingly greeted the men inside the room. "Meet invincible Johnny Wembley."
"That's him!" the biggest man in the room exclaimed. "That bastard is the reason why I was dumped into this nut house!"
Johnny hid behind the nurse, fearing that the men might come and attack him.
"Easy, Jack..." Eli Olsen, the oldest among the four, cautioned the big man, "...you don't want to get into deeper mess, do you?"
Jack listened to the old man and calmed down. Jack Straw had a high regard for Eli. It was Eli who revealed to him the path to invincibility when they met at the pier several years ago; and, from then on, Jack would like to believe, his life had changed for the better. In the mental asylum, he saw Eli again for the first time in years, and he was filled with mixed feelings. On one hand, he was happy to see the old man, still in good shape as if he did not grow older in the years that had come to pass. On the other hand, he was sad that, of all places, he and the old man were reunited in a disgraced place like the mental asylum.
"He is one of you, so you better treat him well," the nurse warned the four men and then left.
The four watched Johnny as he walked towards one of the vacant bed and put down the plastic bag that he was carrying.
"Really invincible, are you?" Troy Green asked as he examined Johnny with his inquiring eyes. Troy was the handsomest among the four. With his good looks, he used to have an ego that was too lofty to the liking of the people around him. However, his ego crumbled when his girl left him for another man. He lost his girl, lost his ego, and, ultimately, lost his sanity; so, he found himself in the mental asylum.
"I swear I am," Johnny replied.
"From where did you get your invincibility?" asked Troy.
"From the moon," Johnny revealed. "I howl at the moon whenever it is full?"
"Well then!" Eli expressed his gladness. "You are one of us!"
"My brother," Troy extended his hands towards Johnny, "there's a welcome here... a brotherly welcome here."
"Thank you," Johnny replied as he stole a glance at Jack Straw who, with his sharp stare, still appeared to be angry at him. "You are all so kind."
Then Johnny looked towards the man who was by the window, staring out into the woods. Johnny became curious. The man didn't seem to care on what was going on inside the room.
"He's Dan Forman," Eli spoke as he gestured towards the man by the window. "Doesn't talk a lot. A military guy."
"He suffered from terrible shock, I heard," Troy added, "...in a firefight."
Then Eli asked, "How did you end up here?"
"The undertaker informed the cops of my stealing flowers from someone's grave. I was arrested this morning and then brought to the investigating judge." Johnny narrated as he avoided Jack's sharp stare. "The investigating judge recognized me as the one who previously testified about a murder and a full moon. She asked me a lot of questions; and, at the end, she told me that I need medical intervention. So she ordered the cops to bring me here."
"Did you admit that you stole flowers from someone's grave?" asked Troy.
"Yes, I did," Johnny answered.
"Silly!" Troy expressed his disappointment. "Why did you admit it?"
"I can't tell a lie," Johnny explained. "My invincibility urges me to always tell the truth."
"The truth?" Jack butted in. "You can't recognize the truth!" His wavering voice gave away his hidden rage. "It was your skewed truth that brought me here, you half-wit!"
"Easy, boy...." Eli again cautioned Jack. "Your rage couldn't help you one bit."
"Let bygones be bygones, brother," Troy advised Jack. "The moon will be full tonight... let us become one in welcoming the moon." Then, Troy helped Johnny get settled.
The night eventually came. The five stood by the large window and waited for the moon to emerge from behind thick cloud that was gliding across the night sky. They were filled with excited anticipation.
Before long, the moon appeared in its fullness and flaunted to the men its glory.
"Invincibility¦ " Troy cried out, "take it, my brothers, it's yours!"
The men then howled at the moon, and howled to their full satisfaction. While they were howling, however, Johnny noticed the howls of a man from another part of the building.
"Who's the man howling with us?" Johnny asked Eli.
"We don't know who he is yet," Eli replied. "Perhaps soon, we'll be meeting him."
It was the third time that the four, Eli, Troy, Jack and Dan, had heard the same howls from the man; and they had been wondering who the man could be. Eli had been expecting the man to be brought to their room and be made to stay with them, just like what the nurses did to Troy and Dan.
A few years earlier, because of his howling at the full moon, Eli was brought up the fourth floor of the building and was made to stay alone in a room. The physicians in the asylum thought that Eli should be separated from the rest of the patients, because the other patients might follow him and start howling at the moon too. However, his isolation did not prevent other patients from imitating his strange conduct, and those found howling at the full moon were transferred to his room and made to stay with him. It was Troy who first joined Eli in the room. One night, while Eli was howling at the full moon, he, to his surprise, heard someone howled at the moon too. The next morning, a nurse brought Troy to Eli's room and was made to stay with Eli, his howling brother. Several full moons later, Dan also started howling at the moon; and, consequently, was brought up the fourth floor and made to join his howling brothers.
Satisfied with their howling, the men, one after another, then went to bed and rested. When the morning came, the men went down to the dining hall to have their breakfast. They were feeling high and well.
On their way to the dining hall, however, they passed by a man who was being restrained on a mobile bed by four male nurses. It appeared that the man had a nervous breakdown. The man was shouting, "I swear I saw a woman last night! She was standing by a grave, howling at the moon! ... this town has gotten darn creepy!"
Johnny was able to recognize the man, "That's the undertaker. He's the one who turned me in."
"Is he now?" Jack couldn't resist sounding his sarcasm.
"A woman howled at the moon last night?" Eli was curious. "Could it be for real?"
Troy's eyes were glimmering. He did like what he heard from the undertaker. "She's the one! She is the woman sent for me by the moon," Troy professed. "I've been asking for her for while now. I have to meet her ... got to have her."
"Hold your horses, brother," Jack tried to put reality back into Troy. "She might not feel the same way as you do, you know."
"With my invincibility, no sane woman could ever resist my charm." Troy unwaveringly answered. With the time that he had spent in the asylum, he somehow managed to rebuild his self-confidence. "I am not worried... not worried at all."
"She might just be a ghost," Johnny raised a point.
"Haah! A ghost?" Jack dismissed what Johnny had said. "Invincible men don't believe in ghosts!"
Shortly, the men reached the dining hall and had their breakfast. They were silently chewing up their hams and eggs when Troy spoke, "Her looks... I can imagine she's gorgeous... a stunningly healthy body,...angelic face ... a face that could launch even the most daring escape."
Then, Troy leveled his sight on Jack across the table and asked, "Will you escape with me, my brother?"
Jack paused for a while. He did not expect that Troy would lead the conversation to the object of escaping. He was not too keen on meeting the howling woman, but the idea of freedom aroused his interest. "Yes, brother, I will escape with you," Jack said without hesitation.
Partly relieved, Troy then directed his sight on Eli, Johnny and Dan. The three were looking down to their plates, trying to stay out of the conversation.
"Is there any one else?" Troy sounded his challenge, "Is there no one else!"
"I'll go with you, brother," Dan spoke softly to the surprise of the other men. Sitting next to Dan, Troy tapped Dan's shoulder to express his gratitude.
Being someone who they looked up to, Eli felt morally obligated to join the three. "I'll go too," he signified his willingness with a little reservation.
The four then looked at Johnny and waited for his decision. Seeing that he was the only one left who had not expressed willingness to join in; Johnny felt that he had no other choice but to go with them too. "I'll go too," he at last sounded.
"You don't want him to come with us, brother," Jack tried to dissuade Troy. "He spells failure."
"Jack, Jack... we are all brothers here," Troy replied. "No one gets left behind."
Determined to escape from the asylum, the five, for several days and nights, planned their escape. They were convinced that the only difficult part of their escape would be going out of the building. After making their way out of the building, they could easily vanish into the woods and then climb over the hidden portion of the high brick fence.
Pretending to be more demented than what they really were, the four, Eli, Jack, Dan and Troy, would enter places in the building where they were not allowed to get in, to look for a sure way out. A few times, they were caught lurking in off-limit places; but, with their 'more demented' pretense, they were able to avoid punishments and were just brought back upstairs to their room. Johnny did not want to have anything to do with the charade. His invincibility forbids him to falsely pretend, he insisted.
With their efforts, the five discovered that the man guarding the backdoor during the night was quite old and was inclined to fall into slumber while on duty. So they resolved to escape at midnight where only a few nurses would stay awake and where the elderly guard would be on duty.
They chose the midnight before the next full moon as the time to attempt their escape. Silently and methodically, they worked their way down to the ground floor and to the backdoor where the elderly guard was. The backdoor was one where supplies, equipment and other things were brought in or taken out.
From behind the boxes of used bedclothes, the five watched the guard to ascertain if he was asleep. The guard was sitting behind a desk near the backdoor. His head was tilted forward.
Slowly, through the dark, the men walked between the rows of huge boxes and towards the elderly guard. Accidentally, however, one of them bumped into something and it fell onto the floor, creating a noise that awakened the slumbering guard. The men, once again, hid behind the boxes.
"Is someone there?" the guard spoke as he directed his searchlight towards the boxes.
At once, the four men looked towards Johnny.
"Quiet Johnny," Eli whispered as he noticed that Johnny had gotten the urge to reply to the guard, just like having the urge to sneeze.
"Not a word Johnny," Troy tried to avert Johnny's urge to speak.
"I'll break your neck, you half-wit," Jack threatened Johnny.
Dan just looked at the others quietly, waiting to see what would happen next.
But like a sneeze that was ready to go, the four failed to avert Johnny's urge blow. Johnny stood up and said, "Yes."
The other four were disheartened. They were convinced that their attempt to escape had failed. So, they also stood up and showed themselves.
"What the hell are you doing down here?" the guard sounded his surprise.
Eli, Dan, Troy and Jack once again started acting as if they were so cracked that they did not know where they were. However, just like before, Johnny refused to go with their false pretense. He said to the elderly guard, "We are going out of here to look for the woman who howled at the full moon."
The elderly guard's face lit up. "Oh, it you!" he spoke with gladness, "The invincible men. It was a true pleasure howling at the full moon with you."
The five were pleasantly surprised. Another one of them, they thought, another invincible man. Immediately, they surrounded the guard and gave him their brotherly hugs. Their gloom was then turned into cheer.
"Ok, ok..." the guard softly offered. "I will let you out of here. But you have to promise me one thing... don't be caught during my watch, otherwise, I will be sacked."
"Yes, brother, we promise you," the five assured their newly found brother.
"Oh, oh... " the guard tried to give his last request as he watched the five walked out the door, "give my regards to the invincible woman."
The elderly guard saw the men waved goodbye and then ran into the woods where they disappeared.
-- End --
Related stories:
- Jack Straw Did It
- Invincible Johnny Wembley
