MY 9 O’CLOCK TUESDAY

“I killed my wife and buried her in the backyard.”

The words kept appearing in my mind. No matter what I did, it haunted me like a ghost in the past. The problem was it was somebody else’s past. My 9 o’clock Tuesday. Of all the patient of mine over the years, Mr. Dono was the least person to have committed such a heinous crime. He was kind, generous, and cheerful. He was also funny, like a comedian. He told me once he would have become a stand-up comic if only he hadn’t knocked up her girlfriend, Marion, at the time. The girlfriend who would soon become his wife.

His wife’s death was the main reason he came to me.

He was having trouble sleeping and coping with her loss, even though it had been a year. He couldn’t concentrate on his work, frequently daydreaming as if losing control of his mind. To get the bottom of his problem, I suggested hypnosis.

And that was when he first uttered the words.

At first I thought he was joking, as he usually did in previous sessions. But he was not at the time. He was in full trance phase. I was terrified, realizing that I might have gone too deep into his psyche. I knew that his wife died of breast cancer, or so he told me. Should I call the police? Or may be I should dig deeper before jumping to conclusion? I did the latter on the next session.

“How did you kill your wife?” I asked.

“With my bare hands. I strangled her until she stopped breathing.”

“Why did you do that?”

“I thought it would be funny. Been wanting to see if her eyes would pop out like in cartoons. And you know what? They did! Her eyes popped out from their sockets and almost hit my eyes.”

Mr. Dono was laughing hard. I was shocked. This was more sophisticated than I expected.

“Did you feel sorry for what you’ve done?”

“Of course. Greatly. I miss Jenny so much.”

I was confused. “Jenny? I thought your wife’s name was Marion?”

“Marion’s my real wife, booooriiiiiing! I was talking about Jennifer. We were married when we were six. I tell you, she was really funny. She could make up jokes in a flash. We were so happy together. I never told anbody about Jenny, though, not even my kids. Everybody needs a private place for himself, right?”