Someone's In My Head (WATTYS AWARD WINNER 2015)

Chapter Twenty-Three (Pt. 1)

Unfortunately, I realized that I still had a shitload of work to do back in Reality Inc. before I could possibly return home. The reconciliation between Lenny and Tanya, for instance, was all on me. I had to make an egotistical scientist make peace with a mentally-ill woman who'd murdered his only daughter. Oh, and not to mention that it was this scientist who'd made the woman go cuckoo with his defective nanobots in the first place.

Yeah. Piece of cake. Hmph.

Lenny wasn't done with his Sermon of Excuses. "After the tragedy, Anita was given a psych evaluation, which led to her institutionalization at Chambers' because of her volatile mental state. Wanting nothing else in my life that could remind me of that fateful day, I decided to cut off all contact with Anita. I asked my IT guy to wipe it all, giving me a clean slate―tabula rasa."

"So you never visited your best friend's incarcerated wife," I commented lightly.

"Look," Lenny snapped. "For the record, I didn't even know that Anita and Tanya were the same person, at least not until today. All I knew was that Tanya must be a poor, lonely widow, now that her husband is 'gone'. And I've never met with her face to face, for I knew if I did that, I would've to tell her the truth, which definitely was a strict no-no as it was a violation to Op Athena's terms and conditions."

"Figures," I muttered. "You'll have to do a whole lot better than that to get yourself back on Santa's Nice List by this Christmas."

Turning my attention to Tanya, I realized that she was still prostrate with the awful memory that had been haunting her for ten years. The memory that I'd reminded her of when I'd uttered her alias just now.

"Tanya?" I murmured tentatively. "Melinda's death isn't your fault, you know? You were under the influence of―"

At this point, Tanya muttered something inaudible.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Oh my God, I killed her, didn't I?" Tanya was now staring at her palms in horror, as if they were stained with blood. "She's dead."

"Tanya, hey―shh, shhh." As gently as possible, I grabbed at her trembling hands, steadying them as I did so. Tanya having a complete mental breakdown was the last thing I needed right now. "Listen to me, Tanya. It was all just an accident. You didn't want to kill her, did you?"

Tanya hesitated, before stuttering. "N...no. No, I didn't."

"Of course you didn't. It was the FallopFix that made you do it. You do remember FallopFix, don't you? And Lenny?"

I could see her recoil at the mention of the name. Both names, actually. The trauma had, no doubt, taken root deep inside her.

"Y...yes." She answered timidly.

"Good." I nodded approvingly. "Now, you have to trust me; you're not in any kind of trouble. I just need you to talk to a person who can help you find peace and resolve, if that's okay with you."

Tanya shook her head defiantly. "I don't want a shrink!"

I gave her a reassuring smile. "Relax, Tanya. He's no shrink, and he's here to help."

"Who?" Tanya wanted to know.

"Lenny?" I called out inwardly. "You ready for this?"

At that moment, all I hoped was that my plan would play out accordingly and Lenny will help Tanya confront her inner demons by showing that he bore no grudge against her. I knew the both of them were sworn enemies; Lenny blamed Tanya for killing Melinda, and Tanya blamed him for ruining her life. But mutual hatred wasn't the only thing they had in common.