SOS to the Psychiatrist

The day after Christmas, I made an impulsive phone call. It was to a person whom I had only met once, and whom I last spoke to a year ago. Yeah, the psychiatrist I went out on a date with in October 2007. He opted for an early retirement last year and is now part-timing at several private hospitals.

What or rather who triggered it? Hmm... who else? Mr Designer went crazy that evening that I was almost convinced that he had spilt personality. Maybe Sidney Sheldon's and a few novels that I read during my teenage years were casted too deeply in my mind. But, how do you explain a person who sleeps at odd hours (and makes people wait more than 3 hours for appointments or doesn't turn up at all), has extremely low/slow productivity level, behaves like 2 - 3 different persons sometimes and frequently appears detached like a zombie?

In fictions, the 'missing hours' when the heroine falls asleep at odd times is normally the period when her alternate personalities take over and use her body to become someone else. The main personality always feels tired and never gets a proper rest. However, she doesn't know/remember what the others had done when they were 'using' her body. This is the only thing that rules out Mr Designer from that group. There is no memory gap, not that I know off anyway.

With this bugging me the day before I were to leave for my holiday, I dialed the psychiatrist's number from my office phone. He didn't remember me at first. He said he had just finished jogging, I guessed that explained the gap/pauses in between answering my questions... for someone that eloquent He must be out of breath. But the pro recognised the 'danger' in my voice and didn't want to delay the conversation.

He said he had never treat a split personality case specifically, the patients themselves don't know they are suffering from it, and the people around them don't recognise it. He normally discovers the cause through other symptoms/problems eg drug abuse, despression, etc. They have to backtrack from there before diagnosing. I told him about Mr Designer. He asked me to try searching under 'borderline personality' instead. However, he stressed that each case varied and he had to meet the person to know exactly.

Of course, Mr Designer's partner freaked out with my theory. Like me, he is intrigued in trying to figure the guy out. He resorted to telling me that I shouldn't force myself to get away from him. It's not just because I care so much about him, but also I should consider my experience with him as 'research' for my stories. Once though, he asked me to be careful not to go to quiet/far places with him, in case he blames me for losing the partnership and does something bad to me.

Anyway, he got hold of Mr Designer a few hours later and made him call me back, or else he can forget about getting the percentage from my company business. He apologised for yelling and hanging up on me. He claimed that I caught him during an argument with his partners on another project. That was why he wouldn't pick up my calls earlier on and he ran out of prepaid to sms me. He was supposed to arrange for his partners to meet me as I was expanding our list of suppliers. I was also damn curious about them & that part of his life, especially since he was so secretive about the whole thing. I scolded him for spoiling my holiday mood. Sometimes, when I was mad at him and his actions were not making sense, I felt like slicing his head to see what was inside his brains. LOL!

He came over shortly after to have coffee with me. Yeah, after all the excitement of spending Christmas and New Year on an island with his family, he told me he wasn't going, or he might join later. Reason was he had a lot to do. I suspected that he couldn't take off without the Mac, he couldn't work during his holiday without it. But his partner told me that he was dead broke and he tried to borrow some money from him. Bear in mind, the guy had been advancing his pay a few times already. I decided to treat him to dinner, a simple one since I'd already treated him to a big dinner on Christmas Day, and time was limited. While topping up my prepaid, I topped up his too - RM30.

Then, he sent me home. Just before I was about to step out, he asked if I could lend him some cash - RM100 and he'd pay when his partner's payment cleared on Tuesday. I gave it, knowing that I most probably won't get it back. I felt sorry for him, he was supposed to be on holiday with his family, his kids and ex-wife were with them.

The last time I saw him last year was at midnight on 30 December. He agreed to fetch me at the hotel where the coach from Singapore dropped me off. I wasn't surprised when he smsed me at 3.00pm to say that he won't be able to, I was very disappointed though. I dreaded taking a taxi, the irritating drivers always spoiled my holiday mood. Anyway, despite bailing out earlier and having to rush like mad from his appointment in Klang, Mr Designer actually made it. He got there just on time too. He was up from morning and was yawning non-stop, too tired for a cup of coffee even. He wondered why I wasn't tired after 5 hours on the bus. Nevertheless, to say that he doesn't give a crap about me is not quite true.

BTW, just now, it happened again. He was supposed to bring his other business partners to meet me. Maxis was slow, so I only got his sms to confirm the appointment an hour later, around 1pm. After that, he didn't reply my sms or pick up my calls. I was beyond pissed. His sms finally came in at 9pm to say that he went to sleep since he thought it was not on. Hmm... what happened in that 'missing 8 hours' that he felt asleep? Come on... 1pm to 9pm - that covered Zohor, Asar and Maghrib!?

P/s: Picture above is of the Clinic Bar at Clarke Quay, Singapore. Now, that is creative. You can see a waiter walking around with his arm attached to a brightly coloured drip.