Outpatient - A Story of Horror and Madness by Clifford Beck - HTML preview

Chapter 2

She grew up in Farmington after her family left Augusta when her father William was appointed to the position of president at the University of Maine. Catherine was always very close to her father, and he spent many evenings outside looking at the stars. Her father pointed out the constellations to her and after a few months, she had memorized all of them. For Christmas, her father bought her a Celestron 10-inch telescope with a motorized mount and an electronic directional guide. It wasn't soon after this that Catherine picked up a book on astronomy and was studying the skies on every clear night. She was even outside studying Orion's belt in December. Her mother, Emily, had warned Catherine repeatedly about being out in the cold.

“Catherine, you'll catch your death of cold!” she'd say.

“Emily, she'll be fine,” William would say.

“She knows what time to come in.”

Catherine would look at her watch.

“Darn, nine o'clock already?” she'd say to herself.

So, she'd turn everything off and start carrying it into the house. Once she got through the door, her father would glance at her mother with a reassuring nod. And when Catherine disappeared into her room, her mother would remark about how much of a „daddy's girl" she was.

Her brother, Robert, was already in high school studying for his SATs. He was trying to decide which direction he would go in. He knew he wanted to study psychology, but he wasn't sure if he wanted to go to New York for the Doctor of Psychology program or take the long road through the undergraduate program, then on to graduate school. The Doctor of Psychology program would cut his academic time in half, but the traditional route would give him a broader education. Eventually, he decided to take the long road, acquiring what he believed was a real education. By the time Robert was nearing graduation from his undergraduate program, Catherine was well into high school. Now, her interest in astronomy had begun to blossom, as she has started taking classes in physics and Buddhism.

“Why Buddhism?” her father asked. She said that deep down she'd always believed that the sciences, on some level, have to merge with spirituality and religion in order to provide a more accurate description of the universe.

Catherine grew up an avid Star Trek fan, and in her youthful imagination, she'd travel daily with the Enterprise crew into the distant universe, visiting strange alien worlds. And after the Hubble Space Telescope released images from the deep view project, she became even more fascinated with the cosmos. She graduated valedictorian from high school and was accepted to the University of Maine at Farmington. And because her father was the president of the college, she would have been able to attend tuition-free. But Catherine had other plans and decided to go to Bowdoin College in Brunswick.

“You know,” her father said. “You can get a decent education right here in Farmington.”

“I know,” Catherine replied. “But Bowdoin has a great physics program and eventually, I can do all my graduate work there. And who knows, I may end up teaching there.”

“Any other reasons?” her father inquired.

“Well, they do have a really nice observatory,” she responded. “That's not the biggest reason, but it's near the top of the list.”

“You and the stars, huh?” he said.

“It's not just the stars,” she replied. “It's everything. There"s so much more that we just don't understand, and I want to be part of something bigger – something with the real possibility of discovery. Besides, it"s your fault – all those nights teaching me the constellations.” Catherine affectionately nudged him, and he reacted with a smile.

“Alright, you got me,” he said.

“Do I get to tell mom that I'm going?” she

asked.

“Sure,” her father answered. “Just don't tell

her you backed me into a corner about it.”

“She's going to know anyway,” she teased.

“Yeah, I know,” he said. “Your mom's always been like that, hasn't she?”

It wasn't soon after, that Catherine had packed up her car and started the drive to Bowdoin. Her parents decided to follow along, because they wanted to see her off to college, and they were curious about what the campus looked like. After they said their goodbyes, Catherine started toward her assigned dormitory but momentarily glanced back at her father, who seemed to feel her eyes on him. He looked up at her while she blew him a kiss goodbye. She"d only be gone a semester and would then return home for break. Catherine immediately dove into her studies, taking classes in physics, astronomy, comparative religion, and, of course, philosophy. She wanted to gain as broad an understanding as possible of the workings of what she referred to as „the inner universe" and „the universe at large".