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MIKE GOES CRAZY

‘She’s not here, Mike. Why would she be in here, Mike?’ I said quietly so as not to agitate him. I also kept repeating his name softly, which usually calms people down.

Reasoning with him only made him angrier. He started searching everywhere for his girlfriend. There were only two small rooms in my apartment – nowhere you could hide a person – but Mike ran from the kitchen back into my bedroom, then back again, thinking I was changing her hiding spot. He looked under the bed, behind the curtains and even between the mattresses. It was the first time I’d seen Mike so confused and it scared me. He was delusional.

‘Calm down, Mike . . . Mike, you’re being silly. How could she be under the carpet, Mike?’ But even when he was crazy, Mike was still totally switched on. On the next trip back from the kitchen, he was clutching my new kitchen knife.

‘Fuck you, McFadden. And stop saying my name, will you? I’ve studied psychology too and this is not a hijack situation. It’s kidnapping and you’re the fucking kidnapper,’ he held the knife up under my chin. ‘Now, what have you done with her?’

I stopped arguing and helped him search for Ana. All the time, Mike kept the knife pointing at me in case I tried to escape. Eventually, I got him to leave by playing along with the delusion: ‘Maybe she’s back in your room. Maybe she wanted to surprise you.’

Mike looked at me and then left in a hurry, taking my knife with him. I locked the door behind him and leaned against it.

It wasn’t long before Mike realised that he no longer had a room to go back to, because he had sold it. He came straight back across the roof, thinking that I’d tricked him because I really had stolen his girlfriend. This time, the delegate heard him coming and was already outside when Mike landed on the Alamos roof.

‘Get down,’ hissed the delegate, trying to keep his voice low so as not to wake anyone. There was a strange rule in our section that prohibited anyone except the delegate from climbing on the roof after 9 pm. ‘Now,’ he insisted. ‘Or I’ll call the police.’ But Mike refused to obey and the delegate was forced to send for the major.

Mike was lucky that the major who was on duty that night was reasonable. Otherwise, the police might have shot him for attempting to escape. The major also tried to persuade Mike to climb down, but he wouldn’t come. So, the major decided to go up after him.