Castle on the Edge

By
Douglas Howard Strang

Eternal Press
A division of Damnation Books, LLC.
P.O. Box 3931
Santa Rosa, CA 95402-9998

www.eternalpress.biz

Castle On The Edge
by Douglas Howard Strang

Digital ISBN: 978-1-61572-427-7

Print ISBN: 978-1-61572-428-4

Cover art by: Dawné Dominique

Edited by: Pam Slade

Copyedited by: Sherri Good

Copyright 2011 Douglas Howard Strang

Printed in the United States of America
Worldwide Electronic & Digital Rights
1st North American, Australian and UK Print Rights

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, scanned or distributed in any form, including digital and electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or by any information storage and retrieval system, without the prior written consent of the Publisher, except for brief quotes for use in reviews.
This book is a work of fiction. Characters, names, places and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously, and any resemblance to any actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

I dedicate this work to my late mother, Constance Lorraine Howard Strang.

Foreword

Nestled within a forest of pines and oaks and perched near the edge of a high cliff, overlooking the majestic Pacific Ocean along the central coast of California, sat Castillo Del Mar. A health resort and retreat for people of means, it is a place where one can escape the troubles of the world and find peace, tranquility, and safety…or so it would seem.

Alex Ramsey, a psychiatrist at Castillo Del Mar Sanitarium, wanted to take the hospital vehicle himself, in order to personally receive his old university professor. He drove to the train depot at San Francisco to pick up Doctor Franz Lederer. However, as luck would have it, the car’s generator shorted out after arriving at the station. So together they took the Del Monte Express down to Monterey, 120 miles south. They hailed a taxi to take them the remaining thirty miles south to the facility at Big Sur. Alex would deal with the crippled machine later.

Doctor Lederer had come all the way from Zurich, Switzerland to attend a psychiatric convention. He had two days before it started, which would give him some time to visit the famous sanitarium, headed by the enigmatic Doctor Niles Calloway.

Little did anyone know what was to take place on the Halloween evening of October 31, 1937, the day after, Doctor Franz Lederer’s arrival.

The Arrival

The taxi left Del Monte Train Depot at Monterey with its two passengers, on the evening of October 30, 1937 at five p.m., just after dark.

Doctor Lederer and I traveled south down the panoramic coastline to our destination, a secluded piece of real estate with the façade of a fifteenth century Spanish Castle. The building itself was actually a home constructed in 1922 by a newspaper magnate, who had sold it in 1930 to a private medical firm. They had converted it into a sanitarium and retreat for clients who could afford such luxuries.

Doctor Lederer was a clinical psychiatrist who often consulted with Carl Jung and Sigmund Freud about human consciousness and its nature. However, he seemed to favor Jung’s “collective unconscious” theory as opposed to Freud’s libido theory. He was also very interested in Doctor Calloway’s approach to the treatment of people who are financially secure, but suffer from anxiety neuroses.

After graduating with honors from Zurich University in1936, I had returned to California to take a position with Doctor Niles Calloway, Superintendent of Castillo Del Mar Sanitarium at Big Sur, California. I had studied under Professor Franz Lederer. He had sent Doctor Calloway a letter of introduction. After my interview, I was given a position as an apprentice psychiatrist. Soon afterwards, Doctor Calloway appointed me assistant director; not bad for a twenty-six-year-old man. Doctor Calloway was inclined to favor Freud’s theories as opposed to Jung’s.

It was wonderful to see my professor again, and now I, Alex Ramsey, twenty-seven years old, one of nine children born and raised in Oklahoma to parents who, with all of us, migrated to Central California in 1930 to find a better life.

Now I would have the opportunity to work with two exponents of the predominant theories in psychological thought.

It was a dark chilly evening as we were making our way in the taxi, down the scenic but treacherous road that lead to our destination. Although I should have been ecstatic with the anticipation of working with two of the greatest minds in the field, I couldn’t help but feel something of an ominous nature. Being of an analytical character myself, I tried to make a willful effort to dismiss such unfounded anxiety, to being overtired.

“I’m so glad to see you again, Professor Lederer,” I said, trying to quell my uneasiness.

“It’s good to see you too, Alex,” he said warmly.

Doctor Lederer was a striking man of forty-seven, over six feet tall with gray hair, steel-rimmed glasses and a Van Dyke beard. He was looking at me intensely with his deep sky-blue eyes. He said, “Alex, I knew you’d be a fine psychiatrist because you have the perception of a wise man, more than any other twenty-seven-year-old I know.”

He didn’t say anything else. I knew he’d sensed my troubled state because he had been observing me with a quiet concentration.

The cab driver was not moving very fast, but I asked him to slow down even more, because the winding one-lane road was so narrow. We were already hugging the edge of the very steep cliff that dropped almost straight down to the roaring waters below.

“We’ll be at the front gate in five minutes,” I said.

“Good,” said Doctor Lederer. “Riding on a hazardous highway at night, especially when it’s so dark can be a little nerve wracking, huh, Alex?”

“Yes,” I answered. That really wasn’t what was troubling me, and somehow I knew Doctor Lederer knew that too. After all, he was a psychiatrist with keen observation skills.

“I understand you’ve never met Doctor Calloway before; is that right?” I asked.

“Not in person, Alex, but we’ve communicated several times by letter, and once I spoke to him on the telephone. I’ve read most of his articles on electric shock therapy for the treatment of extreme anxiety neuroses.”

“Yes, Doctor Calloway has broadened the application of the treatment and has had many successful results,” I commented.

“He certainly has,” Doctor Lederer said, “more than anyone I know in the field, including Doctor Freud himself. I’m looking forward to meeting him in the flesh and observing the results for myself with his patients…or, ‘guests,’ at Castillo Del Mar Sanitarium.”

At that point it was eight-thirty p.m. and we were pulling up to the main gate, at the west end of the dark gray, castle-like structure.

Pines, oaks and cypresses surrounded the building, and moss hung from many of the trees. The cliff was only one-hundred-fifty feet west of the gate. The lively current of the Pacific Ocean that lay below, was murmuring soothing sounds at low tide.

The watchman at the gate let us in and the taxi drove up the last fifty feet to the front of the structure. Doctor Lederer and I exited the automobile and walked up to the brown-arched wooden door of the Castle. The driver followed carrying Doctor Lederer’s two suitcases. I told him to put them down while I paid him. I pulled out my key and we stepped into the foyer of Castillo Del Mar Sanitarium.

“That’s Mrs. Dudley, the housekeeper,” I said, as she was coming down the stairs from the second level to meet us. She was a short, stout woman in her fifties with dyed black hair and always in good spirits. Her husband was the building and grounds keeper. Together with their staff of six helpers, they ran a tight ship.

“Hello Doctor Ramsey,” she said.

“Hello Mrs. Dudley. We’ve finally arrived,” I said as I took off my hat. “This is Doctor Franz Lederer.”

“How do you do, Doctor Lederer, and welcome to Castillo Del Mar,” she said formally, as she extended her right hand to him.

“Thank you, Mrs. Dudley. It’s a pleasure” he replied.

“You must both be hungry,” she said, as she took our overcoats and hats.

“We’re famished,” I confirmed to her.

“I have plenty of Irish stew left over from this evening’s supper. I can serve some up to you both in short order, would you like that?” she asked.

“That would be wonderful and I know I’m speaking for Doctor Lederer, too,” I replied.

“He is,” said Doctor Lederer, as he perused his surroundings with a beacon-like movement.

“Where’s your luggage, Doctor Lederer?” asked Mrs. Dudley.

“Oh yes, we forgot, didn’t we,” I said. “I had the cab driver leave it on the landing outside.”

“I must really be tired. I didn’t even realize it was there,” Doctor Lederer replied.

“Don’t you worry about it, Doctor Lederer, I’ll have my husband bring it up to your room,” said Mrs. Dudley.

I escorted the doctor upstairs to his room myself, so he could freshen up and I went to my room to do the same. When we came down to the dining room, Mrs. Dudley had two strong chilled Martinis waiting for us. “These will enhance your appetite,” she said with a smile and a twinkle in her eye.

“Undoubtedly they will,” I answered in kind.

The doctor smiled at Mrs. Dudley and turned to me with a non-verbal expression of agreement.

Mrs. Dudley informed us, Doctor Calloway had been abruptly called away for the evening and could not be here for Doctor Lederer’s arrival. He would, however, be back tomorrow and he sent his apologies.

After we consumed a delightful meal accompanied by a bottle of Burgundy, Doctor Lederer and I retired to the library with coffee and brandy. We sat on two large black, soft-leather chairs and reminisced about my four years of study at the University of Zurich and the courses I took with him. The fact Doctor Calloway wasn’t here was very curious and unsettling to me. When I’d left the sanitarium at two o’clock that very afternoon for the train depot to receive our visiting doctor, Doctor Calloway had assured me he would be here. Perhaps it had some correlation with the feeling I’d had earlier, when we were in the taxi.

Then Doctor Lederer said, “Alex, I can’t help but feel there is something troubling you. Is there anything you want to tell me?”

“Well, Doctor Lederer, I don’t want to put a damper on our reunion but…”

“Is it because Doctor Calloway isn’t here?” he interrupted.

“Well, partly, I suppose. For one thing, whenever he’s called away, he always provides me with information, as to where he’ll be and the nature of the reason, whatever it is, by telephone or a message from Nurse Holden, or Miss Hathaway, and how to contact him in the event of an emergency. This is the first time he hasn’t. He didn’t give any reason to Mrs. Dudley either. I have absolutely no way to find him. The other thing is, he was so looking forward to your arrival and definitely wanted to be here tonight, he told me so himself.”

“Well, Alex, I wouldn’t worry about it. Perhaps he’s arranging admittance for another patient.”

“He would have told me, Doctor Lederer. We would have known at least a month ago. You see, there is a several week entry process before anyone can be admitted to Castillo Del Mar Sanitarium, and…then never mind…”

“Never mind what, Alex?”

“Well, it’s rather silly because it doesn’t make sense…I don’t know.”

“You don’t know?”

“That’s just it. I don’t know. Maybe it’s because I’m overtired, maybe...”

“I’m sure that’s it, Alex. I’m tired too. I didn’t even think about where my luggage was, remember? Let’s call it a day and go to bed. After a good night’s sleep, everything will look bright in the morning. Besides, Doctor Calloway will be back tomorrow and I’m sure he will explain the reason for his absence this evening.”

“Yes, I’m sure you’re right, Doctor Lederer. Besides, tomorrow we’re having a Halloween Party. Three of our patients along with Mary Holden, our head nurse, are putting it together for our other residents and staff. We’ll have visiting guests too.”

“You see, Alex? A party to boot. And the light at the end of the tunnel is a jack-o’-lantern, huh?”

“Mary’s the shining light around here, “I murmured softly.”

“I see. I’m sure you will have shining dreams in your repose tonight, Alex.”

Of course, Doctor Lederer was right with his deduction in regard to my feelings about Mary. Knowing I would be looking at her across the breakfast table in the morning, I obtained a sense of tranquility. The message from Doctor Calloway that he would be there too was reassuring for me. No doubt he would disclose the reason for his curious absence when the four of us met for our first meal together at nine a.m. At that point, Doctor Lederer and I proceeded to go upstairs to our respective rooms and retire for the evening.

The Introduction

Mrs. Dudley already had the breakfast table set when I came down stairs at eight-twenty-five a.m. Mary would be down in five minutes. I’d arranged it that way so I could have some time with her alone, before the others arrived. Naturally, Mrs. Dudley was in on my little scheme and strategically arranged everything to that end.

She’s a most effective ally to have, because she not only knew the habits of the Castle, but also had a firm grasp on the pulse of human nature and an empathy for affairs of the heart. Perhaps she’d missed her calling.

Mary had taken the nurse-in-charge position here one day before I came. That was on October 30th, 1936. Soon after our professional association, a mutual meshing of chemistry bonded to the point of love. Mary is twenty-six and a slender five-foot five-inches with a fine bone structure. She has dark brown hair and the most penetrating green eyes I’ve ever seen. When she looks at me, it’s as if I were being bathed in the most soothing rays of two noonday suns. Mary is my therapeutic treatment in more ways than one.

“Good morning, Alex. I’m sorry I was unable to see you last night when you got back with Doctor Lederer,” she said, as she entered the dining room, then fixed those green eyes onto my brown ones.

“That’s all right, Mary. I really didn’t know what time I would get back, because the car broke down in San Francisco and we had to take the train back to Monterey and from there get a taxi. It wouldn’t be fair for me to expect you to wait up, when I didn’t know when I’d get in.”

“I know. Mrs. Dudley told me you’d phoned and left word of what happened. Miss Hopkins was having one of her dramatic spells and I was unable to come to the telephone then. I’m sorry.”