Chapter 29

I slept in a warm bed that evening, although it was another psychiatric hospital. If I played my cards right, I could avoid the restraint room and tolerate their medications. God knows I spent six years developing a tolerance for psychiatric medication in San Diego. In the morning, someone knocked on my room door and said, "Breakfast!"

I stumbled out of bed and walked to the dining area of the ward. The hospital used picnic benches of park-quality as dining tables. The tall psychiatric technician wearing a Smokey Bear yelled out the patients' names. He looked like a reject from the Marine Corps.

"Michael Sanglao!" he yelled. I walked up to him, and he handed me a tray of food. Scrambled eggs, toast, milk, orange slices, and a single serving box of cereal were on the tray. I ate my breakfast, while trying to ignore the other patients. One woman had an argument with her imaginary and invisible husband. A man said, "I'm Superman!" Another man said, "No, I'm Superman!" A woman said, "I'm Batman."

"How can you be Batman, Judy?" said the Smokey Bear wearing psychiatric technician. "You're a woman."

When I finished eating breakfast, I dumped my tray like all the other patients did. The psychiatric technician then said to me, "Dr. Ambrosio will see you now."

"Who's Dr. Ambrosio?"

"Your psychiatrist!" said the tall technicians. "Is this the first time you've been in a mental institution?"

A psychiatric nurse named Debbie escorted me to the office where I met the first psychiatric nurse, Sandra. She opened the door, and I walked into the office. There I saw her.

"Dr. Natasha Ambrosio," said the woman to me. "I'll be your psychiatrist during your stay." I closed the door behind me. It was just me and Dr. Ambrosio...

She jumped out from behind the desk and kissed me. Dr. Natasha Ambrosio was actually Monica Cabrerra from the Naval Research Laboratory. "I also go by Dr. Monica Cabrerra," she said after our passionate kiss. "I've been looking for you for years."

As much as I was happy to see Monica again, I had to ask. "Monica, why are you a psychiatrist going by the name, 'Dr. Natasha Ambrosio'? I thought you were studying for Ph.D. in physics at Catholic University."

"I'm with the CIA, and have been for years," she said to me. "I had to pose as a psychiatrist to find you."

"CIA?" I said. "Central Intelligence Agency?"

"Yes and no." Monica reached out her hand to me. "I believe you have something for me."

I placed the rosary bracelet on Monica wrist. "Will you be my girlfriend?" I said to her.

"Always and forever," she replied. She took me in her arms, and again we kissed as new lovers.