The Absent Husband
"Have you seen the absent husband?" Patti points to where he stands, where she sees him, but he is not there. It has been noted that Patti was never married. But perhaps she was and nobody knows. She has her secrets and was abandoned for obvious reasons. Patti is hard to get along with. She has problems controlling her anger. The absent husband skipped town and never looked back. Perhaps he is a bigamist in Salt Lake City, Utah. He has found someone he could carry on a conversation with without fighting.
Patti talks to the absent husband and wags her finger at him, "You're no good," she shouts. She blames him for keeping her in this place. She doesn't believe that anyone else can't see him. Patti believes this is a terrible place for treating her as if she was mad. She often cries and curses at staff and the absent husband. Perhaps she was never really married at all and this spouse is but a delusion, a hallucination of the eyes. There is no convincing her of other possibilities. Still, Patti takes her pills religiously.
"Nerve pills, give me my nerve pills," she demands. Patti is small, but strong and loud. Last night it took a burly nurse to pull her off of her roommate, a much younger and seemingly robust woman. She believed the absent husband and the roommate were having an affair late at night when they thought she was sleeping. This morning Patti is anxious and as fidgety as ever. She is tearful and vexed. She does not believe the absent husband could be so cruel. Patti won't talk to him this morning.
Patti told the staff she would not acknowledge the absent husband any longer. She will pretend what the doctors, nurses, and social workers want her to believe: that the absent husband is a delusion and not real. Patti could see him, but she said she would try her best not to acknowledge his existence. Despite his pleas for forgiveness and the roommate being moved to another room, Patti said she will believe in lies. She will believe the absent husband is not really there. She will take her nerve pills and die of love, she says.