A Story A Day. Story 151 of 365: Crazy.

"I'm not crazy" the old woman would mutter every time someone handed her the pills. She would gulp them down anyway, out of habit. After half an hour she would fall asleep due to the effect of the medication. A day after another she would do the same, spending more than half the day drugged into sleepiness.

Simona was a young psychiatrist who had just started working in the mental hospital. She was assigned another wing, but one day she passed by the old woman's room. It was one of her moments of clarity and she called the young woman over.

-Doctor.- she said.- Help me!

-Are you feeling unwell?- Simona asked.- What's your name?

-Violet. I am fine, but no one will listen to me.- she looked at the other woman's eyes.- I'm not crazy.

Something in her stare, in the way she said the words, made Simona know she was telling the truth.

-I believe you.

Tears filled the eyes of Violet. Apparently, no one had even wanted to listen to her since she had been admitted in the hospital.

-Thank you. No one ever believed me since my daughter had me admitted. But I'm not crazy, and I've never been. My daughter tried to kill me some years ago, and when she couldn't she just locked me away.

Simona took a seat and listened to the whole story. Violet had been a famous singer in her youth, and earned lots of money, she married her school sweetheart before being famous and having to tour the world. Lea, their daughter was born shortly after, Violet tried to be a good mother, but Lea always held against her that she had missed lots of important milestones in her life. She blamed her mother for anything that went wrong in her life. She ran away from home as soon as she turned eighteen, calling her father a coward for having stayed with a woman who didn't love him, and she only came back when her father died. From that day on, Lea had tried to kill her mother in all the ways she could think of, when she saw she didn't succeed she had Violet hospitalized in hopes she would die in there. As soon as Violet had finished telling her story, a nurse entered the room with the medication. Violet took it, resigned, and fell asleep almost instantly.

The nurse saw the concerned look on the face of the young doctor.

-Told you the story of her daughter, didn't she?

-Yes.

-It's bullshit. Her daughter is lovely, she always comes to visit.