Volume 1: Japanese Storm Chapter 24: Leaping Madhouse (7)

  "...watching Bill Bridgeman being subjected to electroshock treatment, my heart feels an unspeakable pain! Adolf Breton fixed Bill's head in place and then opened two holes above his eye sockets! Two curved surgical knives, like ice picks, were inserted into those holes! Adolf Breton was rummaging around inside poor Bill's brain like he was kneading dough! Then, Adolf Breton removed his gloves, smiled at his assistant Bernard Cohen, and said, 'Look, the world has one less moron and one more idiot!' This is what they call a lobotomy, or leucotomy. Poor Bill was caught while trying to escape! He was pounced on by a guard just as he was climbing out of the sewer! He was clever, using a pickaxe to dig open the road connecting to the sewer, but unfortunately, his luck was one inch short! Now, he's finally become an idiot. And me? I can only continue to pretend to be stupid, even when watching poor Bill being maimed alive, without showing any emotions. This is hell, this is not heaven..."

  "...Bart Baxton from the psychology department of Vienna University has been experimenting on me, looking at so many pictures every day while constantly receiving electric shocks. I've had enough of this life..."

  “…November 7, 1989, sunny day. It's been a long time since I've had visitors, and except for that damned old man, no one would know that I'm being held like a prisoner among a group of mentally ill people. But today, Adolf Breton took me to the visiting room. He was muttering curses and spitting in my ear, but what could I do except endure? The plan still needs time to be carried out, I have to wait, I need to wait... But then, an unexpected visitor disrupted all my plans. Billy Swan brought Natsumi Ichinose to Vienna! And he brought me two important pieces of news, one bad and one good: the bad news is that my beloved Kiyoharu has gone to heaven, and the good news is that she left behind a son named Jerry Gold Roschelle for me. I'm going to have a son? And what's more, a world-renowned teenage idol! My face started to... Ah, yes, it was very strange... It was unnatural. Dr. Moor Bick, who specializes in psychiatric treatment, noticed this and had me transferred back to the ward…”

  “…life had returned to normal, Mrs. Nabalia was again holding her usual counseling sessions, yelling at the top of her lungs as usual, and confiscating patients' belongings as usual. And I was sitting in my corner, stupidly thinking about the cute little boy in the photo, thinking about how to quietly take down the nurse, thinking about escape routes, thinking about how to convince Samwell, thinking about how to avoid capture... there were many things to think about! Yes, after seeing what that group of Adolf Breitens did to poor Bill, my escape could not fail. I reopened the tunnel that stupid Bill had dug out! Every night, I was crawling around in the foul-smelling sewers! I was with the rats, I was dealing with the filthy gutters, I was constantly feeling my way through the underground tunnels. Yes, I needed a route closest to the Ottervaag Church, I wanted to create multiple traps, I wanted to confuse them, only then could I safely escape from here...”

  “…On December 12, 1989, it was raining heavily outside, the wind was strong, and the temperature was frighteningly low. All the staff had left the psychiatric hospital early! The nurse on duty, Laina Lukri, came to the ward drunk. Yes, he was on duty today! Laina Lukri was a sturdy black guy, 27 years old, who didn't like patrolling at night, loved music, adult magazines, and drinking from a bottle until he passed out! In short, he wasn't a qualified staff member! But that's exactly what I needed. I knocked him unconscious in the toilet and took off his nurse uniform, leaving him hanging naked in the toilet corridor. I crawled into Bill's corridor, opened the gates leading to zones A and B, beat up the patrol personnel, finally crawled into the underground pipe, and finally pushed open the manhole cover located in the basement of the Otrokovice church... I felt freedom calling me…”

  “…Today is the third day I escaped from the district, today is Saturday. The manhunt is still going on! Yes, even the Ottawa Wagner Church is no exception. The little food I brought out has been eaten up! I must seize this opportunity! It turns out that Pastor Samoel is not trustworthy, and even a pastor who used to believe in God can lower his head in front of money. Fortunately, I was not foolish enough to ask for his help directly ~ until I crawled under the tourist bus, until the tourist bus finally drove onto Reimann Street, my heart began to calm down. A day is like many years, looking at the direction of Steinhof Psychiatric Hospital, I silently bid farewell to Zoi, bid farewell to Bill...”

  "Hey, old buddy, I'm out, I'm free! By the time you see the package I sent to you, I'll have already boarded a train heading to Germany... and soon I'll be off to Japan..."

  ……

  When he put down the leather-bound journal, Billy Swann looked somewhat excited, "This Henfrey guy isn't crazy! This guy actually fooled me too! Jerry, this is really great news!"

  Jerry didn't know what kind of mood he was in now, hatred? No, he couldn't bring himself to hate at all. For ten whole years, this guy had no idea about his existence! That old man named Jacob had blocked all the news about him! If he really wanted to hate someone, it would only be that guy named Jacob! What else? Overjoyed?

  Jerry quietly walked to the window and looked at the rose branches swaying in the wind under the windowsill, deep down, something was emerging.

  "Don't worry, Jerry, I'll help you find him! Germany isn't that far away! If he really did go to investigate your grandmother's news like Henfrey said, I think I know where to look for him!"

  "Thanks, Uncle Billy!"

  In December 1989, Poland amended its constitution to change the country's name from Polish People's Republic to Republic of Poland, restored the white eagle with a red and silver crown as the national emblem, transformed from a socialist state into a Western-style parliamentary democracy and market economy, thus thoroughly opening the curtain of East European changes.