The time off did me a world of good, as you can see. Now let’s get back up to speed.
Where we left off, the acclaimed Montréal psychotherapist Dr. René Valery has acquired a new patient who goes by the name Jesus and assumes a persona similar to that of Jesus Christ. Because Jesus has been assigned to Dr. Valery under the requirements of governmental healthcare services, a short period of in-patient observation and initial treatment has begun. Our story resume there.
Can Valery say he is surprised that a person would turn up at the l’Oratoire St joseph claiming to be Jesus? But where better to appear? Montréal is likely the most Roman Catholic city in North America, at least until recently. The great dome of the basilica stretches even higher than the cross atop Mount Royal nearby. Afflicted pilgrims climb the stone steps on their knees, praying the rosary as they go, hoping to leave hearing aids, canes, and braces with their sins at the top. Valery has seen the jumble of silver and pink equipment cluttering the narthex. Driving home at the end of the day, he goes well out of his way to drive past.
"René!" Ann yells from somewhere in the house. This sounds pointed to Valery and he does not answer, hoping to steal back out the door to his car, but she has heard him come in and he hears her quick footsteps on the corridor upstairs.
"Wonderful news!"
She isn’t angry at all but delighted, more than smiling, she's speechless with joy.
"Simone is pregnant!"
Well, this certainly calls for a celebration—
"Yes, yes," Ann says, and he notices that she's already dressed for an evening. "And I had barely hung up the telephone when it rang again with Pascal calling. She wants to move back home!"
Their evening together is delightful, it's a date, really, to a place they haven't been in ten years, and a leisurely dinner with laughing and stories and too much wine. All the while, though, Valery cannot deny concern for his wife's mood change. It's more than subconscious modification – a "change of light" – this is more like switching channels on a television set. Once Pascal is back and the novelty of Simone's pregnancy has passed, is the channel not likely to switch back, or to some other unknown channel altogether? Ann's conversation at the restaurant is animated, her eyes are bright, her gaze direct and her posture toward Valery unquestionably intimate. When they are back home there is no discussion of the matter, they simply go to the same room. Valery decides he shouldn't work so at the reasoning and accepts the fact with grace.
On Saturday morning Ann wakes Valery with her presence but he must be at the hospital early.
"Physically, your Jesus is fine," says Antoine Maret, the receiving physician in the psychiatric ward, a man Valery has known many years. "And mentally, well, the obvious problem aside he seems quite sound, kind of a funny fellow, actually. The staff find him very agreeable. Very nice, they say," Dr. Maret smiles. "And he seems to be putting up with us." Jesus is in an unlocked room. No reason was seen for anything more.
"Hello, René." Jesus is fully dressed, sitting on the edge of his neatly made bed with a newspaper spread open beside him. Valery sits in the chair next to the bed and asks him how he feels and how he feels he's been treated there. Jesus says he's fine and that it has been fine, except, "I wanted to talk to some of the other patients, but the staff would rather I not." He has a pen in his hand and has made some markings in the newspaper. "Oh, yes. The dates and times for AA meetings, indigent relief programs and eldercare sessions are listed on Saturdays." Eldercare? Ah, it is very thoughtful of Jesus to attend these gatherings, but isn't it unusual for a young man to do so who at this age is more likely to be occupied with a career? "This is my career." But it is volunteer, without pay, something a man Valery's age or older, a retiree, might be more likely to do. Jesus looks down at the newspaper and takes the cap off his pen.
"I don't think there's anything wrong with what you're doing," says Valery. "I'm only observing that your choices place you as rather more mature than your years. Do you ever feel that way? That you're substantially more mature, much older than your contemporaries?"
"Not really," says Jesus, setting down his pen. "Maybe when I'm tired."
"I'm curious, do you believe in reincarnation? Have you lived before?"
"Not that I know of," he smiles calmly.
Valery leans back in the chair and looks out the window. "You do appear to enjoy what you do, and believe me, that's rare. And I gather that you're effective at your work?” Outside the window, treetops are being bullied by the wind back and forth in orange blurs. “But I wonder, does it ever strike you as unusually so? You know, oh, inexplicable results?"
Jesus leans back against the headboard and considers this. "Not the things that I do. But the life that has chosen me, a life of helping others, is, I suppose, out of the ordinary. You must understand this. Isn't it the same life that has chosen you?"
"Yes, but I chose my own life," says Valery.
"Did you?" says Jesus.
"Yes, yes, it's an ancient question, free will versus circ*mstance, but not the one we're answering today," Valery says. He adds a studied chuckle.
"Perhaps I should simply ask you directly if you are Jesus or if Jesus is a name you have chosen. Do you understand the difference?
"Yes, I understand. My name is Jesus as yours is René, and just as you are René, I am Jesus."
Valery nods. He asks if Jesus speaks any English and Jesus answers in English that he does, that naturally he learned it in school. His Québecois accent is heavy. Where did Jesus go to school? It was not so far from Montréal. Dr. Valery would like to know where. It is plainly irrelevant to Jesus. "But we are here now."
"I suppose there's little point to asking what name your teachers and classmates called you by then."
"No point at all," says Jesus. He is not smiling. "If I am Jesus now, was I not also Jesus then?"
Not necessarily.
Yes, absolutely.
