When the ambulance arrived, two white clad attendants came into the house, laden with emergency equipment and pushing a wheeled cot. Mr. Tarc informed them of the plan approved by Dr. Hartee. Mrs. Tarc and Amalie hovered wordlessly in the background. The attendants, both young and virile in appearance, deposited their medical aid paraphernalia in the entrance hall. They were shown into the bedroom where Reda lay insentient. They read her vital signs, which were normal by that time. They carried her nubile form into the foyer and fastened her onto the collapsible cot. Reda’s sedated reaction to this manipulation was more confused than fearful.

The two attendants wheeled the cot out of the house, across the shaded porch, carefully down the wide stairs, and into the back of the emergency vehicle parked in the half circle driveway. They climbed in beside her cot and closed the rear doors. The driver started the engine. After seeing his daughter safely inside the van, Mr. Tarc went to his own grey Oldsmobile in the garage built to the left of the house. As the emergency van drove away from the front door, the grey Olds followed, its front seats occupied by Mr. Tarc and his discouraged wife.

The small convoy cleared the driveway and proceeded onto the street, turning left in the direction of the Six-Week Lentenite Health Maintenance Complex. Behind them, the tan rambler with its dark window sashes rested tranquilly on an expanse of fall-greenish lawn bordered by darker green holly hedges. Trees of red maple and white flowering crepe myrtle colored the quarter acre front yard with deciduous droppings. The grassy foliage of daylilies sprouted near the edge of the porch and followed around its entire perimeter from the front to the end of the right side of the house. Planters of fall chrysanthemums graced the stairway entry to the wooden deck of the porch.

At the back of the porch, against the sage green door opened to the inside of the house, Amalie observed the departure. Her face was expressionless, but her shoulders were hunched tensely and her arms were folded protectively across her waist. As had become her habit in these matters, Amalie refused to be present to the psychiatrists and the hospital wards. It was her way of objecting to treatment such as Dr. Hartee’s. But it was a lonely, powerless, and painful resistance.
 
Epilogue
 
Reda’s situation continued without much improvement. Memories of the torments her sister had endured drove Amalie to continue her search through the pages written about psychiatry. Eventually she came across the collected works of a Dr. Legende. His fellows considered him a renegade because of his courtroom appearances wherein he countered their opinions. In reading of his case studies, Amalie recognized stories similar to those of her sister. She brought her findings to her parents who decided to contact Dr. Legende. After speaking at length with Mr. Tarc, he agreed to take Reda on as a patient. Subsequently, Hartee (psychiatrist number twelve) got fired; Dr. Legende was hired.

Within two months, Reda was no longer on any prescriptions and was back to her normal trim, smart and sassy self. She finished her last semester at the university and began to write. Her parents became expert court witnesses for Dr. Legende, bearing up his opinions with their experience of a truly bizarre, yet typical, psychiatric treatment agenda. Amalie indulged a lifelong passion and schooled in the art of fine cuisine.

The final entry in Reda’s psychiatric history was written by Dr. Legende who considered that his patient had been suffering with ID, Iatrogenic Disorder.

The End
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To any reader who has successfully struggled through to the end of this story, the author feels you should now be informed that it is a fictionalized account of actual events.  Furthermore the treatment practised by the characters Mawz and Hartee  is unworthy of imitation because it can cause permanent injury and/or death.  It should be considered criminal malpractice and punishable by law.