Robert is out of his adolescence. He turned twenty some days back. He is tall, lean and not that handsome. And unlike his friends he believes in prefect (true) love. He is against the notion to spend the time with every possible girl and make an affair. In other words, he considers that love happens once and lasts till the eternity. And he believes he has found his true love in Patricia.
It’s been two months since Robert had first seen her. And that first glimpse was ample for him to fall over her. She appealed him extra-ordinarily. She had long curly blonde hair. When she smiled, her face brightened up as a lovely sunny day with a dimple on her face. She was tall and had great figure. She was exactly the same type that Robert used to dream. No wonder that Robert was lured by the beauty of his dream girl.
Robert is a loner. Due to his leanness, low self-confidence and the fact that he has different perception about life, he is constantly bullied by other friends around. And he prefers to be alone. He has few friends and he doesn’t usually mark his presence at the social gatherings. Moreover, this lonesomeness has increased more since the day he met Patricia.
He loves sketching and writing. So he often throws himself to the lonely place where he can completely get lost in his sketching and the nature. He has a journal which he carries everywhere. He keeps himself busy in them and just neglects the world around him.
One windy evening, he buckled up and drove to the near hillock. Content with the environment, he went past the woods. As he laid down on one of the rocks, his eyes set the sights at the distant scenes. To his amazement, unlike other days, he caught a glimpse of a striking lady just some yards ahead of him. That was Patricia and that’s how he met her for the first time.
“Hello. I’m Patricia.” She tried to comfort the confused looking Robert who was still gazing her. It was evident that he was flabbergasted.
Robert did not even blink his eyes. For the first time, he wanted to talk to a stranger; that stranger who resembled to his dream girl. And he could not believe that she was with the first stride of introduction.
She was still waiting to Robert’s response with a smirk on her face which Robert thought was truly angelic.
“Hi, I-I am R-Robert,” he managed to reply in a shaky voice. That was the initiation of their secret relationship. Robert and Patricia, from then on, started to meet regularly at the same venue. They began to share everything and in no time, fell for each other. Robert was exultant that in spite of his weak physique and average look, she was in love with him.
Days passed on with Robert meeting her secretly. Robert started to pass most of the time in that very place with Patricia or sketching things in his room which made a further declination to involving in the family activities. There were days when he lingered quiet for hours in his room and sometimes he was caught with strange behaviors which made no sense. On the other hand, Robert was ecstatic to get Patricia as his love. Thus, he was having the time of his life.
One fine day, Robert’s dad, worried by his son’s behavior, thought to have some chat with him in the lunch time. He asked if he was in bedlam or anything was troubling him. He urged Robert to share his feelings and to reveal why he was no more social. But Robert acted insanely; he just did not listen to his dad. He skipped from one topic to another. He did not want to talk about nothing. He acted in a strange manner and started to yell at his dad with some disorganized speech. He, then, ran away towards the woods leaving his dad muddled.
Vexed by his son’s behavior, he decided to check out Robert’s room. The moment he opened the room, he was dazzled. All the things were in disarray. He then found the sketches of his son which made no sense. They were all pathetically penciled. Mortified with that, he opened the notebook of Robert. There, too, he found jumbled letters which were all over the place and made no logic. But somewhere in the middle, he found a sheet where he had described about Patricia and himself. But Robert’s dad was too worried to withstand all those mess and immediately called a psychiatrist.
The doctor marked his presence in no time and he examined all the things in Robert’s room. Robert’s dad managed to pour all the information about Robert to the doctor. He listened serenely how things turned worse past two months. The Psychiatrist demanded to examine his son without letting Robert know about that.
According to the plan, the psychiatrist observed Robert’s actions for quite a time. He then came to know how he behaves with his family, what he does and how he does it. But he was amazed to see him drive through the wood every single day.
So, one day, he followed Robert to the forest. And what he saw was an utter dismay. He watched Robert talking for hours, alone. There was not a single being but it seemed like he was talking to someone. Doctor understood the whole thing. He recalled how Robert had mentioned about Patricia and talking to her for hours in the wood. He, now, comprehended that he was talking to none other than Patricia.
He then drove back to Robert’s home where his dad was waiting impatiently. Doctor approached him and said,” Patricia, the girl, who your son loves, is not real. She is just an imagination of Robert which he takes as real. He is suffering from Schizophreniform Disorder.”
Robert’s dad was left stunned.
(Note: Schizophreniform disorder is a short-term type of schizophrenia, a serious mental disorder that distorts the way a person thinks, acts, expresses emotions, perceives reality, and relates to others. Like schizophrenia, schizophreniform disorder is a type of mental illness, called a “psychosis,” in which a person cannot tell what is real from what is imagined. Although schizophrenia is a life-long illness, schizophreniform disorder lasts less than six months.)
