#2 China Cat (The Asylum)

They called her China Cat and it was a good name because she had at least nine lives. It could have been her long black shiny hair or slight build. Maybe it was her name, because of her perfect dark skin or her slanted eyes; who knew. She was born in the USA and it was the sixties so they still had institutions, and since she was indigenous, they were only too willing to accept her into one of them. Heaven was one of those places. They selected it because they liked the name and they were religious, well he was, she got religion after she met him. It made them feel hopeful, god-like, saintly; it made them feel like they were doing something good. Heaven was in Canada, and they lived in Canada. The mother had a choice to make. Give up her only child for adoption and he would marry her or don’t, and he won’t. It was simple. She could always have another child, but she probably won’t get another proposal, and besides that, China would understand when she got older, so she signed off, and never looked back. She moved on to marry him, and she had five more white ones.

Heaven was an insane asylum, but it was for adults, not four-year-old children. They had to say she was psychologically disturbed, and China proved them right by talking to herself, of which she was never cured, and beside all that, who goes to an insane asylum to adopt children. She was theirs for life. China was a ward, and wards rarely ended in adoption, let alone that she was already four and crazy when she came, but they were only too happy to cash the cheques every month that he wrote for them. Lucky for her that she was never on the street but they never treated her special. They were proud of that. It was called Heaven mostly because the owners were religious, and took into account all its connotations, but also because Haven was taken.

China talked out loud to herself because she said it helped her keep her thoughts straight. Maybe she was lonely. Or, maybe she never grew out of being a four-year-old. In either case, one always knew what she was thinking. Her roommates, at first, thought it was cute, but hated it by night time when they couldn’t sleep. She tried to stop, but couldn’t. The more she tried; the worse it got. She had no privacy. The roommates were Cora, Carole, Carolyn, Carin, and Colleen. They must have done it alphabetically, but they adhered to the same sex rule. They couldn’t have them having sex all night and there were no gays. Gays were an abomination and went to hell. Cora kept calling the cops, Carole stayed up all night and slept all day, Carolyn was dying, and Colleen and Carin were having sex. China got to know all their dramas. China’s was that she was four years old; that’s what they probably knew her by. Some of the staff liked working with her because of it so she played it up, looking for attention, but some staff were mean to her for the same reason. No matter, they all went home at the end of the day.

They were nurses and orderlies back then, a bit over-qualified, but the under -staffed part made up for it. They stocked up on drugs and orderlies and scrimped on nurses. There was one night nurse for three floors and nineteen rooms each. That’s how Carin and Colleen got away with it. They figured out his nature, whoever was on, basically he was lazy. They always had a man on at night in case there was a problem with a patient. Mostly, the women were mean and the men were lazy, actually laziness was behind it all, she just had to figure out where, and to what degree. Generally speaking, that is. Sometimes, a person was compassionate, but then it didn’t take them long to forget the reason they went into it. And beside all that,