Chapter 10
In deference to the girls' youth, the hearing was closed and held in the judge's chambers.
Undoubtedly, on advice of attorneys, the parents brought their daughters dressed in boxy jackets and long skirts with bobby socks and saddle shoes. Their hair was done in long braids with ribbons. They were doing everything but carry rag dolls to prove their youthful innocence. How could the poor square old judge possibly realize how mature and sexy they were in the nude and in the hay.
After a brief hearing the girls were placed on probation and released in their parents' custody. George was sure that he would draw hard time on the carnal abuse charge but the judge was surprisingly lenient and instead remanded him to a state hospital for psychiatric observation, treatment and rehabilitation.
As George climbed aboard the Sheriff's Department bus for the trip to the state hospital, he figured that, after all, he was a pretty lucky son-of-a-bitch. After all, six months at the "happy academy" beat the shit out of five years in the steel chateau. With any hick at all he could probably con his way out of that "bunny hutch" in sixty days and still line up the girls and follow through with his original master plan.
The state psychiatric center wasn't at all what George had imagined it would be. He had visualized a bunch of wild-eyed nuts running around frothing at the mouth. Instead, he met some of the most normal, apparently well-adjusted people he had encountered in years. The staff seemed to be a high type of trained professional personnel and he found himself actually looking forward to his first interviews.
His first session was in front of a board of three psychiatrists. They asked him to describe simply the events leading up to his problem and he did so as frankly as he knew how, They didn't treat him like a sex maniac nor were there any little clucking noises on their part or the furtive exchange of knowing glances. For the most part, they were as easy to talk to about the whole experience as Jack Finlay had been.
There followed a series of psychiatric examinations by means of regressive hypnosis in which he was carried back to his early childhood and then up to the present time. George was sufficiently erudite to realize that they were taking a Freudian approach to discover if he had a deep hatred for his grandmother or an underlying incestuous desire to engage his mother, or later, his daughter, in sexual intercourse. Although they never disclosed to him the results of any individual group of tests, he got the distinct impression that they had found him perfectly normal in all areas that they had probed thus far. by an almost-frightening coincidence, it was on a Thursday morning that he was scheduled for his first discussion session with Dr. Martha Miller who had been assigned to his case. Dr. Miller was a pleasant, extremely attractive woman about his own age. In some strange way she reminded George of his late wife. She was a large, Junoesque figure of a woman with mammoth breasts and a full ripe figure that his Jewish friends would have described as "softig". She was several inches taller than George and was more woman that he had ever seen in one package before. From their initial meeting they seemed to. have a lot in common. She was easy to talk to and seemed to display a genuine interest in what he had to say. George was soon telling her the story of his life. When he related his professional training and experience in aircraft and aerospace, he couldn't help but reveal a trace of underlying bitterness at having been put out to pasture at what should have been the very peak of his career. She listened-to his narration with genuine compassion and made it easier by confiding in him that her late husband had been through an almost-identical experience in the same field. He had been unable to live with the sudden rejection by the .very industry to which he had devoted so much of his life and talents and had eventually taken his own life rather than to become a burden upon her and their young daughter.
George felt a very deep compassion for Dr. Miller from their very first meeting and his feelings for her grew as the months passed. In one discussion session she asked him about the unnatural attraction he felt toward teen-age girls. She must have felt his eyes studying her face and figure for long moments before he replied, "I suppose it occurred because, during that difficult period of my life, I had neither social nor financial opportunities to establish a meaningful relationship with a real woman like you."
Something in the unguarded simple sincerity of his answer must have moved her because she hesitated for a long time before she continued, "Yes, I think I can understand that problem. In a way, Mister Ross, you're to be congratulated. Many highly trained psychologists and sociologists our age have made a long and sincere effort to bridge the so-called 'generation gap' that separates and alienates us from the young people of today. I must say that, in your own erotic fashion, you seem to have bridged that gap and gained acceptance on the other side most effectively." She fixed George with a knowing smile that made him blush from his scalp to his navel.
"I suppose some phases of human life are ageless," he mumbled, by way of explanation.
"I suppose," she replied laconically.
In their next session, she hit George with a question that he recognized as being the very crux of determining the length of his tenure in this institution, "Mister Ross, I want you to give this question very careful consideration before answering it."
"Very well, Doctor Miller. I shall give you only a carefully considered answer," he said solemnly.
"If some magical genie were to appear and give you your choice of a sex partner, would you choose a sixteen-year-old virgin girl or a mature, sexually experienced woman?"
George appeared to be in deep thought. Actually, he was merely stalling for time until he caught the lady psychologist's eyes. When she looked directly at him he locked eyes with her and stated simply, "I have always seen infinitely more beauty and fragrance in a full-blown rose than in a tight young bud. There is no question in my mind that I'd choose the mature, sexually experienced woman-especially if she happened to look like you."
Now it was Martha Miller's turn to blush. It had been a long time since anyone had spoken to her as a woman, rather than as a doctor.
George Ross was released from the State Hospital as fully rehabilitated to society two days later. Before leaving, he requested a final meeting with Dr. Martha Miller. "Doctor Miller, I had to thank you before leaving. You have made my stay here not only tolerable but also enjoyable. I hate to think that our pleasant visits must end when I walk out of that front door. I might be tempted to do something to bring me back here. Tell me, would it violate any professional ethics if I asked if I might anticipate the pleasure of seeing you on a strictly unprofessional basis after I leave here, now that I have been socially retreaded? If not, I pray that you may see fit to do me the honor of dining with me Saturday night."
"I deeply regret to tell you, Mister Ross, that any such discussion between patient and doctor is highly unethical." She opened her top desk drawer and removed a card and wrote something on it. "However, once you walk out of that front door you're no longer a patient and once I walk out that back door I'm no longer a doctor. If you will phone me at this number after six this evening I'm sure that Saturday will prove a most convenient date." She smiled and extended the card and her hand.
Goddamn, George thought, she's more woman than all four of those young quims put together.
As George Ross left the State Hospital, he realized that total social rehabilitation is truly possible. For the first few weeks he was there, his only thought was to get out and call the girls. Now they could go screw their pimply faced high school boy friend's. The big thing in his life now was to call Martha. There was enough woman there to keep him thoroughly busy for the next twenty years.