Allie felt so shocked, she couldn’t even process it. She’d known her mother was depressed, but she hadn’t thought she was that depressed. It terrified her to think of her mother in a mental hospital. Allie didn’t know anything about mental hospitals. Except One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest. They had to read the book for summer reading last year, and she’d seen the movie, too. It scared her out of her wits. They did electroshock on Jack Nicholson and he turned into a zombie. Allie felt terrified for her mother. Nurse Ratched was so mean to the mental patients. Now Allie’s mother was one.
“It’s not a mental hospital, exactly. It’s the psychiatric department of a regular hospital—”
“But, Dad, why does she need to be in a mental hospital overnight? What’s the matter with her? Is she crazy? Does that mean she’s crazy?”
“No, she’s depressed.” Her father blinked, pursing his lips. “She’s clinically depressed.”
“What’s the difference between depressed and clinically depressed?” Allie didn’t understand. Maybe clinically depressed meant you went to a clinic, like a mental hospital. “Does that mean she’s crazy? Are they going to give her electroshock? They’re not going to do that to her, are they? Please don’t let them do that to her. You know that movie—”
“Allie, it’s not like in the movies, and don’t get ahead of yourself. They’re going to do what they need to do, and—”
“When’s she coming home?”
“She’s going to be there for a while—”
“What? Why? How long?”
“Honey, please stop interrupting me. The doctors don’t know. Maybe a month or two. It’s open-ended.”
“Dad, no! The whole summer?” Allie felt her gut twist for herself, and for her mother. She flashed on the fight yesterday between her father and Aunt Fran. “Does that mean Aunt Fran was right about Mom? Was she right, Dad?”
“We don’t need to get into that.”
“But I don’t get it. I don’t understand. How did Mom go from depressed to crazy? Why does she need to be in a mental hospital for the whole summer? Was Aunt Fran right?”
“I thought we could take care of her at home.” Her father frowned deeply. “I thought we could handle it ourselves.”
“But she was sick enough that the doctors are keeping her! They committed her to a mental hospital, is that what you’re saying?”
“They didn’t commit her, per se, and we gave it a try at home, but I guess it didn’t work. I thought the 5K would help her. She was looking forward to it.”
“Dad, that’s not true. She hated the 5K.” Allie didn’t know if he was lying to her or to himself, but either way, she couldn’t believe it had come to this, that her mother was in a mental hospital.
“She wanted to go when it was in the planning stages—”
“Maybe before, but when she was there, she hated every minute. I told you she wanted to go home, but you didn’t take her.” Allie felt tears coming to her eyes, afraid that her mother might never come out of the mental hospital, that she might lose her mind completely. “She only went to the 5K to make you happy. Because you made a big thing over it, and you made it about Jill. She had to go or it would’ve looked weird. It would’ve embarrassed you and our family.”
“I thought it would do her good. I thought she would get better with time. I thought she was getting better.” Her father looked up at her directly, his eyebrows sloping down behind his glasses, and Allie could see he was upset, but she was starting to lose control.
“Dad, she wasn’t getting better, and even I knew that, even I could see that! I told you that, that she was depressed, and now look what happened! She was worse than I thought, and Fran was right, Dad! She was right!” Allie felt tears spilling from her eyes, beginning to cry. “And now Mom is so sick that they made her stay.”
“I thought I was doing right by her, and I did get her to a therapist, and I got her the medication she needed.”
“But she was sicker than that, Dad!” Allie blurted out between sobs. “How did Aunt Fran know and you didn’t?”
“Fran comes in from the outside.” Her father rose, still frowning but oddly shaky, resting his fingers on the table. “Fran didn’t see her day to day, like I did, and I didn’t notice how bad she was—”
“You didn’t notice, and now Mom’s crazy?” Allie blamed her father,