Read Online The Bride Collector by Ted Dekker - Free Book Online Page B

morning?”
    “Two hundred seventy-three thousand,” he said. “Plus or minus three hundred.”
    “Wonderful.”
    “Fewer leaves today. The wind. Yes, good, I’m good, Allison Johnson.”
    Allison sighed. “Not that I didn’t wish we could take them all. Those considered mentally ill have been treated like refuse
     for far too long. First incarcerated in asylums, then in prisons. Reduced to shells of humanity through Thorazine in the fifties,
     now refused medication and left to fend for themselves until they prove a danger to others. In which case, they’re thrown
     behind bars. They say at least one-third of all people in prison today are so-called mentally ill. I’m not talking about early-onset
     disorders like autism or retardation. Strictly psychosis, which presents itself later. It’s quite widespread. Do you know
     what percentage of the world’s population suffers from some form of schizophrenia?”
    “Nearly one out of a hundred,” Nikki said.
    “Point seven percent, to be precise. In our country, nearly three million people suffer from chronic mental illness of some
     kind. In Colorado alone, we estimate seventy thousand untreated cases at any given time. Caring for the mentally ill is far
     too expensive and in the opinion of most, the illness is untreatable anyway. You can load them up with dopamine suppressors
     and send them away in a fog, but you can’t treat the illness. It’s like blinding the person who sees too much, or putting
     the person with a broken leg to sleep so they don’t stumble and fall. To date, only the mind itself can treat the mind. And
     that, FBI, is where we come in.”
    “Their intelligence offsets their illness,” Nikki offered.
    “Close, but not quite. Take Flower, whom you met outside. She has been diagnosed with schizoaffective disorder—both bipolar
     and psychotic, a thought disorder that sometimes presents in the flight of ideas you heard. Sometimes amusing, always fascinating.
     If Flower had typical intelligence, her gifting, as we like to call it, would make life very difficult for her. Without drugs
     and a caring family she might end up on the street, homeless like so many others in similar straits. But she is extremely
     intelligent, and her mind has the capacity to deal with her unusual skills. We coach her, help her deal with her gifting so
     that she not only copes, but can share her gift with the world.”
    “Sculpting hedges.”
    “Oh, that’s the least of Flower’s many talents. Many of the world’s greatest contributors find themselves in this group. John
     Nash, the schizophrenic professor from the movie
A Beautiful Mind,
is well known. But many have had mental illnesses. Abraham Lincoln, Virginia Woolf, Beethoven, Leo Tolstoy, Isaac Newton,
     Ernest Hemingway, Charles Dickens… you get the idea. At the Center for Wellness and Intelligence, we provide an environment
     that allows the John Nashes of the world to be themselves. Acceptance, facilitation, and very carefully regulated medication
     on a case-by-case basis.”
    Brad took another appraising glance about him. The whole thing seemed too good to be true.
    “I understand this used to be a convent,” Nikki said. “Are you still religious?”
    “Religious? We do receive some supplemental funding from the Catholic Church, if that’s what you mean. But we’re not officially
     tied to any organization. The center is privately owned and run. The brainchild of Morton Anderson, a wealthy businessman.
     His son, Ethan, was thrown in prison at age twenty-one after a psychotic break compelled him to enter a home of a congressman
     and dress up in his wife’s clothes. They found him eating a candlelight dinner by himself, dressed as a woman. Before the
     episode, he was preparing to graduate summa cum laude from the University of Colorado. As they say, there is a fine line between
     insanity and genius.”
    “And you’re suggesting that in some cases, no line,” Brad said.
    “Of