There’s a Crack in Everything: Bitch, Fuck & Asshole and No Place to Hide

CHAPTER 9

Several times a day, a Code Blue or Number Code punctuated the psych ward just as it had during intake. In one particular instance, within seconds of making the call over the loudspeaker, several large male interns rushed into our ward to diffuse what had quickly erupted into a dangerous situation.

The nurses and attendants behind the desk controlled the TVs. We’d ask to watch certain shows, and, to their credit, they would almost always work to find that particular station or show for us.

One of our inpatients, Louis, had requested a basketball or baseball game to be on, which the attendant found, but then after a short while changed the channel to watch something they wanted to see.

Louis asked the attendant to leave it on the game. It went back to the game but after a few minutes the attendant changed the channel again.

It was too much, and Louis, a tall muscular man recently out of prison, lifted a large 30x30 inch square cube coffee table over his head and readied himself to hurl it across the counter at the attendant. Louis yelled for the attendant to leave the tv on the goddamn game and to stop changing the channel.