was his job, it was his duty. He sees himself as a hero and a scapegoat for the same country that he risked his life to protect. He feels betrayed and untrustful of everyone. We have to keep him separated from all of the other patients. When he first got here, he was kept in general population. He mingled about with other patients and became close with three of them. Things were going well but one day he decided that they were sent here to get information and try to kill him. He attacked all three of them one day on the recreation yard. He nearly killed one of them with his bare hands, broke one’s arm, and kicked the other in the testicles. He was a very dangerous man, but that’s been twenty years ago. He’s aged and weathered now. His body is weak, but his mind is relatively sharp, and his illness has progressed because he refuses medication. He is correct about one thing, Seven. He will die here, but it won’t be an assassination or murder. He’s going to live out his days here, paranoid and scared, all the while believing that his country turned on him. It’s really very sad.”
Seven ended the conversation with a handshake and a promise to return the following week.
Another week drifted through the Thomasville farmhouse. Gran made it a point not to discuss the visits to the mental hospital and Seven made it a point not to bring up the subject. The two of them just slipped into a regular routine and left vacant the one day of the week that Seven disappeared for most of the day but always returned in time for dinner. They both desperately needed the other in order to occupy the time between sleeping and try to not remember that the Colonel was gone.
Seven was not the first to the table on this visit. Gilbert was sitting in his assigned spot with his back to the visitor entry door. As Seven entered the door he was not surprised to see that his father did not acknowledge the noise of another human being entering his atmosphere. Seven had pondered the cryptic message that Gilbert last left him with. A test of his trust from a crazy man could mean anything. Oddly, he wasn’t afraid of any act or display that his father might orchestrate. He didn’t feel he was in