In the Mind of Madness

Kenna woke up early the next morning, but not to her alarm clock. The phone on her bedside table was trilling and vibrating spastically, causing Kenna to groan as she rolled over to pick it up.

“Hello?” she croaked into the receiver, almost gagging at herself. Ugh, morning breath.

“I knew I would wake you up. Sorry, baby.”

Kenna smiled and rubbed her eyes with her free hand. “That’s fine, mom. I’m getting up soon anyway. How are you?”

“Great. I thought I’d just call you to…you know, say hi.”

Frowning, Kenna listened to her mother talk about life back in Oregon. There was something wrong, and Kenna knew it. Her mother’s voice was higher than usual, and she kept talking so rapidly that Kenna couldn’t get a word in for a good five minutes.

“Mom!” Kenna nearly shouted during a long tirade on the neighbor‘s new dog and how it kept using her mother‘s front yard as its personal toilet. She had to interrupt before her mother’s droning put her back to sleep.

There was a pause from Trina Archer. “What, honey?”

“What’s the matter with you? You sound like you’ve drank too many Red Bulls again.”

“Nothing’s the matter with me…Well, actually…”

Kenna smiled a little. “Mom, come on. You can tell me anything.”

There was a pause and the sound of a deep breath on the other line. “I’ve been dating. I think this guy may be, well you know, ’the one’.”

Kenna’s smile turned into a horrified grimace. “Dating.”

“Please don’t be mad at me, baby. It’s been almost twelve years.” pleaded Trina, and Kenna could picture the desperate look on her mother’s face, framed by her short mop of brown hair.

“I’m not really mad, I just…I don’t get it. Don’t you still love dad?” Kenna ignored the impulse telling her not to use those words because it made her sound like a baby. Her mom hadn’t dated for all the years since her father passed, and now it was coming out of nowhere.

“Of course I do. Your dad will by my first love, and I’ll always remember him, but I want to move on. I almost have to at this point, if I want to keep my sanity anyway. I’m alone here now and I need the company.”

Feeling childish, Kenna wiped away a tear and chuckled. It was so dumb, but she had to say it. “I’m not enough anymore?”

“Aw, honey! Of course you’re enough, but you’re in Gotham now, and I want you to be successful and happy there. You have a real chance, and Alan has been so great with helping us out.”

Kenna nodded. Dr. Alan King was an old friend of her dad’s from his younger days in Gotham. “I know, mom. Sorry I overreacted. So, who is this guy?”

Kenna rolled onto her back and prepared for a long talk, shaking away her moment of melodrama and attempting to be happy for her mom.

“His name is Jake, and I think that you’ll love him! He’s an ultrasound technician and…”

*

Feeling tired and a little irritable, Kenna walked into work and checked in at the front desk. She’d developed a pretty good friendship with the woman at the desk, Sheila. Today Sheila looked up at Kenna with a big smile.

“I heard you got to meet The Joker yesterday.” she leaned across her desk to say, wiggling her graying eyebrows.

Rolling her eyes, Kenna signed her name on the doctor’s sheet. “Everybody makes such a big deal out of the guy. He was weird alright, but nothing special. Just another freak.”

Kenna felt bad for lying, but she didn’t want to seem weak after just starting out. Besides, she hadn’t thought about the man in the clown makeup since the day before, and now her stomach twisted uncomfortably as she entered her office. She wondered if Dr. King had been angry with her choice to speak to The Joker. Her breath caught in her throat as she realized it was possible she could be fired.

Trying to keep calm, Kenna sat at her desk and attempted working on some more paperwork. She glanced at the piece of paper she’d jotted her thoughts about The Joker on. Only one word: ‘Sociopath’. Kenna shivered a little and ignored the clipboard as best she could.

There was a lot of knocking on her door, which then opened to reveal Dr. King. He wore a huge smile on his face, and Kenna sighed in relief as he shut the door and beamed at her. She was pretty sure she wasn’t getting fired.

“So how did you feel about yesterday, Kenna?”

Kenna tucked the hairs that had come loose from her ponytail behind her ear. “It wasn‘t as bad as I expected.”

Another lie.

King sat down in the chair across from Kenna‘s desk, folding his hands and resting his chin on them, still grinning. “I’m sorry if I offended you by asking you to leave, but I wasn’t sure why The Joker was so interested in you. Now I think he was just trying to intimidate us, and I’d like to show him that it didn’t work. The Joker is so wrapped up in his ego that I’m sure he’s expecting to never see you again.”

Kenna considered this. “I see your point. So you want me to come with you again today?”

“No. I want you to talk to him alone.”

For a moment Kenna was speechless. Being alone with The Joker…it filled her with dread. She took a breath to respond. There was really only once thing she could do here. “Alright. When?”

“After you have lunch. Just come to my office whenever you’re done. Oh, and can I see your sheet from yesterday?”

Kenna nodded, trying to appear like she was still relaxed. “Yes. I’m afraid I didn’t get too much done.”

“I understand. You were only with me for about a minute.” Dr. King picked up the clipboard and looked over it quickly, then smiled. “Sociopath is pretty accurate for a short time. Good job, Kenna. I’ll see you after lunch.”

“Thank you, Dr. King. I’ll see you then.”

When the door to her office shut Kenna put her face in her hands. There was no way she could refuse her boss after only working there a month, but she was scared to see him again. Kenna didn’t know if she even had enough training to attempt such a thing yet. The Joker was much better at mind games than her.

Kenna headed to lunch that day feeling like her feet were made of lead. As soon as she was finished she would head back to the windowless room, and probably get fired when Dr. King realized how incompetent she was. Kenna sighed as she bought a salad from the staffroom bar, then sat down to eat her last meal.

“You okay, Kenna?”

Looking up, Kenna saw that Sheila and one of the other women who worked at the front desk had sat across from her. She hadn’t even heard them come in.

“Oh, yes, I’m fine.” she lied, then remembered to chew the salad in her mouth.

“I heard Dr. King talking about The Joker earlier.” said Sheila, watching Kenna’s reaction.

“Ah.” answered Kenna, concentrating on her food.

“I heard him saying he’s putting you in with him alone.” the other woman added, smirking a little.

Sheila gave her friend a stern look. “Don’t be cruel, Jeannie.”

“It’s true. I heard him say it myself.”

“I know.” Kenna told them quickly, not wanting to talk about it anymore.

Sheila’s eyes widened. “He must have lost it himself. Alone with The Joker?”

“Yep.” whispered Kenna, then she giggled, almost hysterically. That made her blush. Not even back in with him yet and she was losing it, too.

“You can do it, I’m confident in your abilities. Just…don’t tell him anything about yourself.” suggested Sheila, though her face didn’t look convinced at all.

“Thanks.”

Kenna got up a moment later. She would rather take the walk slow than sit there and be pitied. Her stomach felt tight, and the little bit of salad she ate seemed to want to come back out. Kenna reminded herself that she went through years of college and training for things like this.

“Nothing like this.” she mumbled to herself as she rounded the corner to Dr. King’s office.

Taking a deep breath, Kenna knocked on his door and went inside.