It was 11:30 a.m.; the weather woman said that today was going to be a bright 70 degrees, with a nice breeze in the air. Brittany knew that this was no lie as she sat peacefully on the balcony of her three-story townhouse in her favorite chair with one leg resting on the balcony rail, and the other crossed in her seat.
Today was one of the few days that she had to herself, apart from Tae. Not by choice, of course, Tae was out of town visiting his family in New Orleans for a few days. Brittany wasn’t complaining, though. She knew that she could use this time to really reflect on some things that she had been suppressing for so long, and to consider if she wanted to start taking her meds again… maybe.
She sat with her eyes closed, just soaking in the sun that was beaming down from the heavens. As she sat, she started to doze off and think about the things that got her into this position she found herself in right now. You see, growing up, Brittany had what seemed to be the perfect life from the outside looking in, and in reality, it was perfect.
Brittany grew up in the 80’s in the heart of Washington D.C. with her mother, father, her older brother and her younger sister. Her mother was a cardiovascular nurse practitioner, and her father was an engineering professor at Howard University. Brittany and her siblings were great kids, made good grades, and participated in extracurricular actives both academically and with their church.
Brittany’s big brother, Sean, went to college on a football scholarship at the University of Alabama, and began studies towards electrical engineering like his father. The whole family and community was so proud of him for following his dreams, especially his little sister, Brittany, since they were EXTREMELY close.
One day, Sean was headed to an away game and had a pulmonary embolism that went to his heart, leading to him having a heart attack on the bus. He died about fifteen minutes after his teammates noticed that something was wrong with him.
Brittany and her family, unaware of what happened, were patiently waiting at the game to surprise Sean and watch him play. Instead, the coach gave them the horrible news that their brother and son had suffered from a heart attack, en route to the game.
Brittany was devastated. She had just started her sophomore year at Howard University and now her biggest support system had been snatched away from her.
After the funeral, it was almost like Brittany became a completely different person, so much so that her parents had to find some type of therapy to save her from herself. They ended up finding a homeopathic therapist who specialized in these types of cases. Everything seemed to be going well for the first few sessions. Brittany’s family started to see signs of the old her, and so were her friends at school. But in reality, this doctor wasn’t curing Brittany of her heartache; instead, she was chipping away at the sane pieces of her memory and mind that she still had. When her parents came to the sessions, all would be well, but for those times the parents weren’t around… it was a completely different story.
Towards the last few sessions, Brittany’s parents noticed that something strange was still ailing their daughter... something even worse than before. They begged Brittany to let them in and help, but Brittany didn’t have anything to say. One day, Brittany’s mom went to the therapist’s office unannounced to get to the bottom of whatever was happening to her daughter in that office. What she heard next change the course of Brittany’s life forever.
As her mom approached the office, she overheard the therapist talking on the phone with someone telling them what her plans were for Brittany. “This girl is so far gone mentally and spiritually that I could do whatever I want to her,” she said to the person on the receiving end of the line. She continued her conversation with her uncaring and arrogant tone by saying, “Yeah, I know this is risky, everything I do is risky, but I’m so close to completely flipping her into believing and doing whatever I say! Why should I stop now? It is unfortunate though, if this treatment stopped now, the only thing that would save her would be some serious time spent in the psych ward. I can’t say that I really feel remorseful because I gotta do what I gotta do to take care of myself and feed my family. These people see what I look like and just entrust me to help them, because I look so innocent and sweet.”
That was all that Brittany’s mom needed to hear! She frantically rushed out of the office. That next day, she took Brittany to get a psych evaluation. The results concluded that Brittany was on the edge of a major mental breakdown due to a mental tear that might never be fixed.
On October 3, Brittany was admitted to Paulview Psychiatric Facility, where she would spend the longest year of her life trying to fix the damage that had been done. I guess saying “#KnowTheOneYoureWith” would be an understatement for this young lady and her family.
Author's Note: Hello ladies and gents! This story is a continuation of the previous two stories that I wrote. I decided that I want to give a little background on Brittany to show how she got to where she is today. The original story is part of the Blackfoot unit. Story source: Blackfeet Indian Stories by George Bird Grinnell (1915).
In the story about the Cold Maker, there is an old innocent lady that lures individuals into her house by offering them food and a place to get warm. Once they get in to her house, they notice that there are two bears inside of her house but she assures the guest that they are friendly. She then tells them that she's going to go outside and make the fire warmer for them, but instead fills the room with smoke by closing the smoke hole and locking them inside. Once the person tries to escape, the old lady hits them over the head, killing them. She then cooks all of their meat to feed herself and the two bears. The Cold Maker gets wind of them and eventually ends up killing the bears and the old woman for their wrongdoings.
For my story, I decided to tie in this old lady as being Brittany's therapist, who was essentially killing Brittany mentally. Brittany's family chose to trust this lady to help their daughter because she seemed sweet, just like in the story when those people trusted the old lady enough to go into her house. Stay tuned for more from Brittany and Deontae!
Picture info for the memory lane picture can be found here.
