Pushed Too Far

1

Henry was always a simple man and never asked for too much in life. All he ever wanted was to be happy and make enough money to buy a house with a white picket fence. He always wanted a couple of kids and maybe even a dog or cat. He’s an everyday American with the dream of having a simple, happy life. However, things didn’t turn out exactly how he had always imagined.

Henry did get married to his high school sweetheart and had one child. He did buy that house with the white picket fence. To everyone else in the world, Henry’s life looked just like any other. However, he was not respected in any area of his life. Henry never did have much of a back bone and didn’t stand up to people the way he probably should have. He spent his entire adult life being abused by society. He was a push over, so to speak.

Now that you know a little about Henry and his life, let me take you back to a nice Sunday afternoon during a drive home from church. Henry was driving and his wife was scolding him once again. “Henry, I can’t believe you would say something like that to the Reverend! What is wrong with you? Do you realize how embarrassing you are to us?”

“Jane, I was only asking if he saw the game last week. It wasn’t a big deal” Henry whined. Jane wouldn’t let him have any say in the conversation. She cut him off, “Preachers don’t watch games, Henry! And, if they did, they don’t want to talk about it at church!”

Henry’s daughter spoke up at this point, “Dad, you’re such a loser.” Henry tried again to defend himself, “I didn’t do anything wrong.” His wife commented again, “You were born, weren’t you?” Henry knew the question was rhetorical and didn’t say another word.

They pulled into the driveway and went inside. Henry’s Daughter, Michelle, wasn’t the most respectful child. She learned the behavior from her mother and spoke to Henry as if he were the scum of the Earth at times. Her grades in school were dropping, she went out to parties, and hung out with kids who were older than she was.

As Henry and his wife sat in the living room that evening, Michelle came down the stairs dressed in a half shirt with short shorts. She was obviously going out and Henry didn’t approve of the way she was dressed, let alone the fact that she was going out on a school night. “You can’t go out looking like that!” Henry protested.

“What is wrong with you? All the other girls dress like this.” Michelle said with much attitude to her voice. “Honestly, Henry, you have no idea what it’s like to be a teenage girl.” Jane said as she nodded to Michelle in approval. Henry couldn’t take it. He said, “I’m going to bed. See you tomorrow.” He stomped down the hallway and slammed the door.

His heart was racing at the fact that he just showed a little anger toward the women in his life. Would they yell at him more? Would they remind him again that he had no right to an opinion? After all these years, Henry believed it deep down. He knew he had no right to say anything, especially if it was to argue with anyone. Despite his fear of being scolded once again, he managed to fall asleep.

2

The next morning, Henry woke up to his alarm clock at six o’clock sharp. He had a routine every Monday through Friday. He had been working at the same company for more than fifteen years but never did get promoted or even noticed, really. He was your basic, run of the mill pencil pusher.

His job was simple. He filed things, typed up memos and answered to just about everyone else in the company. He wasn’t respected at work either. The higher ups in the company never even knew he existed. However, things were about to change for Henry.

He got dressed, ate his breakfast and headed off to the office as usual. After he was at work, and had spent the day filing paperwork and typing the memos, Charlie came up to his desk. He said, “Henry, the big guys want to see you in the conference room.” Henry was shocked as he responded, “The big wigs? What could they possibly want from me?” Charlie took a sip of his coffee and replied, “I don’t know, Henry. Maybe they finally noticed you and want to promote you.”

Henry didn’t think so. He dropped a file on the floor as he got up to go see what this was all about. He was shaking and his palms were sweating. What could they possibly want with a pencil pusher like me? Henry thought to himself. He walked slowly down to the conference room and knocked on the door.

“Come on in.” He could hear one of them on the other side of the door. He opened it up and walked in. “Shut the door behind you, please.” One of the men said without even looking up. Henry did as he was asked and waited for another one to speak up as to what this meeting was about.

Finally, one of the men looked at Henry and said, “I’m sure you’ve heard that the company is doing cutbacks.” Henry didn’t say anything. The man continued, “There’s really no easy way for me to say this, um, Henry.” He had to look at the paper in front of him to figure out who he was talking to. He then looked back at Henry and said, “We’re letting you go.”

Henry’s world fell apart in that moment. He could feel the room spinning. He was upset that he was losing a job that he had worked at for fifteen years. He was upset that he’d end up in the unemployment line. But, he was more upset that he’d have to face his wife and daughter with the news. They already knew he was a failure. What would they think of him now that he was a failure with no job?

Henry didn’t fight it. He simply went back to his desk and packed up his few belongings. He had a picture of his family, a plant and a small sign with his favorite baseball team. As he walked out of the office, everyone was watching him leave. These people never said two words to him the entire time he worked at this company and now they watched him leave for good. Henry assumed they were all thinking the same thing his wife and daughter would say; Henry, you’re such a loser.

The entire drive home was a nightmare for him. He kept rehearsing what he would say to his wife and daughter. Nothing he said sounded good enough. He would practice it over and over again. At one point, while he was stopped at a red light, the driver next to him was staring at him as he spoke out loud to himself.

As he pulled into the driveway, he was having a full out discussion as if his wife were already hearing the words, “I lost my job. There! I said it! Are you satisfied now? You were right. I am a failure.” He knew he’d never actually be able to say those words to her. And he was right.

As soon as he walked in with his box of belongings, face to face with his wife, he lost his courage once again. She didn’t even give him the chance to say anything at all. “Did you go to the store like I told you to?” She started. “Oh, and you didn’t fix the garbage disposal like I asked you to. You’re such a no good piece of crap. My mother was right about you. I should have married George. He’s successful in life, you know. He works at a..” Henry tried to interrupt, “I lost my job.” She didn’t hear him. She simply continued, “..big company in New York. I would’ve had it made.”

Just then, his daughter came down the stairs. Henry asked, “Did you do your homework?” She just rolled her eyes and replied, “Dad, when are you gonna get it. I don’t do homework. I have too much of a social life to worry about that.” His wife didn’t even notice that his daughter was in the room as she kept stirring the noodles for dinner and yelling at Henry.

His daughter continued to yell at him as well and neither of them would allow him to explain that he had lost his job. He suddenly felt the pressures of his day, and his life, reaching a new level. His face turned red with anger as he continued to be scolded by his family. He couldn’t take it for one more second and something inside of him snapped.

He screamed at the top of his lungs, “I lost my job today!” Silence. His wife and daughter both stood there staring at him. They had never heard him raise his voice before. On top of that, they were shocked to hear that he had no job. He continued to say everything that he had wanted to say all those years.

“If you would stop screaming at me for just one second and let me explain. I am so sick and tired of your constant nagging and ridicule. I might not be the picture perfect human being, but I am still a human. I have feelings and I have needs as well. I have worked my ass off all these years to give you the nicest life I possibly could and this is how you treat me every day of my miserable life?! Well, I’m finished with it! Maybe you should have married George. Oh wait, he didn’t want you! I guess that means you’re stuck with me, dear!”

He then turned to his daughter and continued, “And as for you, little missy, you’re in school sweetheart. That means you do homework. There are no other options! You live under my roof and obey my rules! Until you live on your own, you do as I say from now on, got that?! And if I EVER catch you walking out of this house dressed like a goddam prostitute again, I’ll ring your ass out to dry!”

Both of the women stood there speechless by this newfound courage Henry was showing. He didn’t care. His blood was boiling as he stomped off down the hallway and into his bedroom. He slammed the door and went to bed. Henry was asleep before six o’clock that evening.

3

Henry woke up the next morning with a headache. He had spent his entire life bottling up all those negative emotions and the anger he felt every time he was ridiculed. Now that he had gotten it all out of his system, he was definitely feeling the effects. He got up, took a couple of aspirin and headed into the kitchen. He assumed he was going to hear it from Jane but figured he probably deserved it after yelling the way he did the night before.

However, upon entering the kitchen, Henry was surprised to see that Jane was already up and making his favorite breakfast. She turned to him and smiled, "Good morning, Henry. I have pancakes and bacon cooking for you. Do you want your eggs over-easy?" He couldn't believe what he was seeing. Henry responded with a slight stutter, "Um, yeah. Yeah, over-easy will do just fine. Thank you".

Jane walked over and gave him a kiss and said, "No. Thank you, sweetie. You've done so much for us over the years and we took you for granted." Henry sat down at the table and waited for his breakfast to be served to him. A moment later, his daughter came walking into the kitchen, "Morning, Daddy." She said as she kissed him on the cheek. Henry was even more dumbfounded by her appearance. She was wearing a nice sweater, long pants and had her books in hand. She continued, "I studied for that big test I have today. I'm really hoping for an A."

"Oh, I'm sure you'll do fine." Jane responded. Neither of them seemed to be as surprised as Henry. He still didn't know what to say about the sudden changes they had made. Henry smiled to himself as he began eating his breakfast and planning his day. He figured on circling some want ads in the paper and heading out to look for new employment. Before he was finished eating, Jane said, "I brought the paper in for you." She handed it over to him and he was once again surprised at how she was acting toward him.

Henry spent that afternoon going from place to place, asking for work. He didn't have much luck on his first day but had a newfound confidence in himself ever since his wife and daughter began to make such a huge change toward him. He was already beginning to feel better about his life. He did wonder how long they could keep up the charade. He wasn't quick to give up his hopes that things would stay this way forever.

Over the next week, Henry spent a lot of time with his wife and daughter. Both of them continued to be respectful toward him and he was actually enjoying their company for the first time since he could remember. Jane had three meals prepared for him each day and gave him words of encouragement constantly. Michelle was attending school every day and bringing home good grades. She spent time after dinner each night studying instead of going out to parties.

In the evenings, they'd all gather around the television and watch their favorite shows. They had a lot of laughs together and got to know what was going on in each other’s lives. Henry was on cloud nine and couldn't ask for a better life than this. All he had to do was find another job and life would be perfect. With the new encouragement he was receiving on a daily basis from his family, he had high hopes.

A week had gone by and things were better than ever. However, one night while they were watching TV, Henry had to swat at a couple of flies that were buzzing around. At first it was only one or two, but the numbers were increasing as the days went by. Jane had suggested that perhaps the trash hadn't gone out on time. Henry checked and the trash bin was empty.

A few more days went by and there were even more flies. Henry went to the store and bought a fly swatter and used it each night, killing at least a dozen flies. Eventually, he began looking in different areas of the home for a source but never found one. He was extremely puzzled by all the flies. After another week, he went out to the store to buy sticky paper to hang in the doorway. It did cut down on the numbers at first but, after a couple of days, there were more flies than there were before.

One night, as he was sitting on the sofa watching TV, he looked at Jane and said, "This is really weird. Why do we have all these flies?" She looked up from her knitting and replied, "I don't know, Henry. It is weird, especially since we can't find a source."

Henry said, "It's not only that. It's also really strange because it's December. It's snowing outside. I don't think we should be getting house flies in the winter." Jane shook her head and went back to her knitting. Obviously, she didn't have an answer to the problem. Henry continued to swat flies away from his face while watching TV.

The next morning, Henry was mortified at what he saw upon entering the kitchen. Jane was making breakfast just as she had been doing and Michelle was sitting at the kitchen table talking about a test she had been studying for. Nothing was strange about his family, other than the new personalities they had adopted. But, Henry was shocked to see how many more flies had congregated on the walls of the kitchen overnight. Jane and Michelle hardly seemed bothered by the increase in flies. It was as if they hadn't even noticed. At first glance, Henry counted at least five dozen buzzing around.

"What's going on with all these flies? I've never seen anything like this before!" He said as he grabbed the fly swatter and began killing them off. His wife and daughter both looked up and shrugged. Jane replied, "Maybe something crawled up into the attic and died." Henry went immediately to get the ladder and headed up to the attic. He couldn't take it anymore. The flies were getting out of control and nothing he tried seemed to deter them. He had to find the source in order to eliminate the problem.

Fortunately, he had all day since it was a Saturday and Michelle followed him to the attic to see if he needed any help. "Do you need the flashlight, Dad?" Henry was already up the ladder and peeking into the attic. There was a small window in the corner and he could see fine. He yelled back down to her, "No thanks. I'm okay."

Michelle asked, "Can you see anything? Is there something dead up there?" Henry looked around and could see every corner of the attic. There was nothing there except for dust. They never used the tiny attic space and Henry could see clearly that no animals had gotten in. "No. There's nothing here." He replied.

He climbed back down again and continued to rack his brain on an explanation to all the flies. It was absolutely baffling. Then, Michelle surprised him with what she said next. "Did you check in the crawl space?" He hadn't even thought of that. The crawl space was on the first level but it had been painted shut a long time ago. "I guess it’s possible." He said. "I'll definitely need the flashlight for that. Do you mind getting it from the garage?"

Michelle replied, "Sure. Be right back." She bounced away down the stairs and toward the garage. Henry put the ladder away and went into the kitchen to have his breakfast. He did have to swat a couple of flies as he ate and it caused his stomach to turn. Eventually, he pushed his food aside and wondered to himself where Michelle had gone to. It couldn't possibly take this long to find the flashlight.

He got up from the table and decided to go check on her. He needed to go into the crawl space and find out if anything had gotten into their home and died. It was the one place he hadn't looked yet for the source of the flies. He started down the hallway but stopped when he got about halfway. He was in front of the bedroom and Michelle was talking with Jane. Didn't she say she was going to get the flashlight? Henry peeked into the room and said, "Michelle, where's the flashlight?" She looked back and said, "Oh, I couldn't find it."

Henry just shook his head at this. He knew he had left it in the garage. Perhaps he had put it in his tool box and locked it up. He continued down the hallway and into the garage. He was surprised as soon as he opened the door and stood there for a moment. The flashlight was sitting right on top of his workbench, which was located in the middle of the garage. It was in plain sight. He knew this was strange behavior, even for Michelle, but shook it off and refocused his attention on the flies. He grabbed his flashlight and headed back inside.

The crawl space was located just past the kitchen at the other end of the house. By the time Henry had gotten to the kitchen and was heading toward the crawl space, Michelle was right behind him again. She said, "So, do you think something could have gotten in there?" Henry shook his head and replied, "I don't know but I'm going to find out. These flies have got to be coming from somewhere."

He got down on his hands and knees and saw that the door had been painted shut just as he remembered it. However, on closer examination, he noticed that there was a fresh coat of paint on the door. "That's strange. Did your mom re-paint this door recently?" Michelle just shrugged. She wasn't much of a help but Henry was glad she was there none-the-less.

He grabbed both sides of the panel and wiggled it loose. As soon as the panel came off, they were both hit with a horrible smell. Henry covered his nose as he said, "I think I may have found the source of the flies." Michelle giggled a little as she replied, "It looks like you did, Dad."

Henry climbed into the small opening with the flashlight at his side. Once he was in the crawl space, he held the flashlight in front of him and flipped on the switch. He yelled and jumped back at the site. In front of him was the source of the flies, lying in the crawl space with decay and maggots eating away dead flesh. It was his wife and daughter. He jumped back away from the bodies that lay there in the dark, bumping his head on the frame of the crawl space door.

He scrambled as fast as he could out of the small hole and slid himself back against the wall in the kitchen. He looked around, but Michelle was gone. She had just been there talking to him. How could she be dead in the crawl space? Jane had been in the bedroom and even made breakfast for him. He shined the flashlight back into the hole from where he was sitting. The light shone brightly on the decomposed bodies of his wife and child. He screamed as he sat there looking at this horrific scene.

He knew he had to be losing his mind. He remembered breakfast and knew that he had eaten the food that Jane had made. He stood up and walked over to the kitchen table. There was nothing there. Had he imagined it this whole time? He slowly walked through the home that was once warm and inviting, looking for a clue that they weren't really dead. All he found was a cold, empty, dark house that looked as if no family had lived in it for weeks.

4

"I tell you this now because, out of all the cases I worked as an officer, this one was the most horrific. I'll never forget walking into that home when we got the call. Poor Henry had lost his mind and killed his wife and daughter. He had created the delusion that they were still alive. Not only that, but he made them into what he always wanted. A loving, respectful family that appreciated everything he did."

The psychiatrist sat back and thought about all of this information a moment before saying, "Well, that's an interesting story. I can see why you were so bothered by this one crime scene, Mr...?"

"Oh, my apologies. It's Mr. Murphy. But you can just call me Mac. That's what all the guys used to call me back at the station before I retired." Mac held out his hand and the psychiatrist smiled and shook it. Then, he added, "Well, Mac, it looks like our time is up. Will I see you next week?" Mac smiled, stood up and said, "Sure thing. All this talking is really helping me to deal with that horrific day. Thanks a lot, Dr. Mohen. See you this time next week"

After Mac had left the room, the psychiatrist stood up and went off into the break room for another cup of coffee. He stood there for a moment, pondering the session he had just been in with Mac when one of his colleagues, Dr. Snyder, came into the break room as well. "Did you get anywhere with him?" Dr. Snyder asked.

"No, it’s worse than I thought. He told me that he was a cop named Mac and was bothered by the crime scene." Dr. Snyder just studied the expression on Dr. Mohen's face and when he saw that he was serious he replied, "Wow. That's another new person you've met. When will it end?"

Dr. Mohen didn't have an answer for that question. He shrugged and replied, "Truthfully, I don't think I'll ever get to meet Henry." He took a sip of his coffee and then continued, "Dissociative Identity Disorder is probably one of the strangest, most mysterious mental illnesses of all. All these years, after killing his family, Henry has yet to come back from this. I've counted at least twenty different personalities he's created over the years. I have a feeling that we won't be seeing Henry ever again."