Barry Deeks The Bizarre and Enchanting Life

Chapter 12

General psychiatric wards 2 & 3

Fifty days later I arrived on ward 2 after two weeks in the segregation room of ward 2 the pattern appeared to break down, for a while I didn't keep track of the dates.

I was buddies with different lads at various times, we used to order takeaway meals regularly, pizza's, Indian's and Chinese.

I used to go downstairs for cooking lessons every week, this was good fun, this expanded my culinary knowledge.

One young lad punched me which resulted in my moving to ward two, to protect me, after fifty days on the PICU, ward one. He was someone who worked for me, they aren't the subtlest of folk, my elite.

I often went down stairs to the tuck shop or to play pool and indeed to eat from the canteen. I went out to the library and got books on fantasy by Terry Pratchett called Disc World.

I got my parents to bring in a lot of books I had read before the accident, it was easier to concentrate on books when I already knew the adventure ahead. I had difficulty concentrating on new material back then.

Jurassic Park, Stark, Liberation Earth, Hitch-hikers Guide to the Galaxy and Circumpolar were just a few of the books I re-read.

The Jurassic period was one of three eras that the Dinosaurs roamed the Earth according to fossil records. Dinosaurs were not a type of animal but a collection of different groups, the word dinosaur means terrible lizard, some of which are still alive today. All dinosaurs were reptiles but not all reptiles are dinosaurs, depending on who you ask of course.

The book Jurassic Park is about bringing previously extinct animals back to life, however these were not the extinct animals but the interpretation of them. Predictably nature is not contained and the animals break free, wreaking havoc.

Liberation Earth is as the story line suggests about aliens invading Earth and of course it has a little love story.

I don't allow warring races to venture too far into space, just relax I'll look after you.

Stark is a comedy by Ben Elton, where the richest people on the planet build star arks and leave the Earth to live on the moon. Elon Musk might be doing that now but with Mars, in Elton's book the super rich were leaving a dying Earth. Sorry Elon just joking.

Hitch-hikers guide to the galaxy is another comedy, this one by Douglas Adams and you want me to tell you about the book, well the clue is in the title. Very funny for those that like that type of thing and I'm one of them.

Arthur Dent was the human going about his regular day when the Vorgons, an alien race decide to destroy the planet to build a freeway.

The planet had been created to answer the ultimate question, 'What is the ultimate answer to life the universe and everything.' The answer was 42 because the question is meaningless, just the author, Douglas Adams, little joke.

Circumpolar is about an alternate Earth that is identical in every way but one. The planet is surrounded by a huge ice wall and there is an expedition to circumnavigate the uncharted part of the globe.

The book entails a race between two nations the Americans in the Spirit of San Diego, the good guys. The bad guys were the Germans in their flying machine, these guys get a bad reputation for starting world wars, that's not every one of them however.

They fly around the uncharted half of the World over the ice wall even though they have not enough fuel to circumnavigate the globe. They bank on their hopes on obtaining a new power source on the other side of the World.

They meet some advanced natives who give them a new engine. They then complete the journey ahead of the Germans who try a similar thing. It was something like that anyway.

I read another book for the second time, I read it shortly before the lorry that put me in a coma had hit me. This book was called Ender's game by Orson Scott Card. Where a super intelligent boy called Ender saves Humanity from an alien race called the Buggers.

He trains on Earth to start with, then he goes to a space station around the Earth where he meets a general. Played by Harrison Ford when it finally became a movie. When he met the boy on the station he remarked later to the officer next to him, "He's the one".

They trained in an arena against different teams, Ender became his team leader. His tactics were second to none, his team won time and time again. One day he was attacked in the shower and he paralysed the vengeful opposing team leader.

He initially gave up and went back to Earth, his sister diplomatically coerced him into going back. When he went into outer space the General said we are not going to the station, we are going much further. He didn't know it but they actually went to orbit around the buggers planet.

The team backed by Ender fought simulated battles against the buggers in ships. Later he was told that they were not simulations that he had actually won the war. He was devastated at being a murderer, the General told him that what they had been doing was too important for them to worry about the truth. The boy was congratulated.

Something else we went downstairs for woodwork, there was a workshop in the far corner on the ground floor. I made a chess set and pieces made out of plaster of Paris. I also made a jewellery box for my sister and a table for a charge nurse.

There was a restaurant style public house at the end of the hospital driveway that I often frequented. I met my Grandfather there, who has since passed away. In that local pub, we had a nice meal together.

I was never given unescorted leave or allowed home in this hospital.

Two and three quarter years I spent in Scott Clinic, after nine months on ward 2. I then moved to ward 3 and stayed there until the end of my time in the Clinic. On ward 3 I had my 24th & 25th birthday, every birthday and every Christmas still holds magic for me, any excuse for a party.

I read a history book on the first world war, I learned all about Francis Ferdinand, however much of the rest of what I learned has since gone into a blur.

I used to take regular walks into town but misjudged the traffic once and was deemed unsafe to escort in the local area. Finally I was granted leave to go to St Helens to go to a restaurant or the cinema on my birthday. I was always escorted, the staff had to treat me as though they didn't know who I was but they were elite, however I was on very good speaking terms with the staff.

Years later I was told that I had never met people that weren't elite Humans, however I had seen them from time to time. They also said they could not afford to have too many people awake in the same area. The worst times were when both people in a conversation were awake, they would both know what had to be said and they would have no choices. That was their Hell, at least conversation with me was mildly interesting, because I didn't know what I was going to say before the conversation usually.