Storytelling for Week 5: My Wife is a Psychopath

"Hello, you must be Mr. Shantanu. My name is Dr. Smith, and my speciality is relationship counseling. How my I help you?"

Mr. Shantanu looked the doctor straight in the eye and said, "I am married to a psychopath."

Mr. Shantanu didn't plan on marrying a psychopath, but I guess no one ever does. When the new client said this, Dr. Smith didn't know whether he should believe Mr. Shantanu or not. Mr. Shantanu had all the physical signs that he was telling the truth. He wasn't fidgeting, sweating, or avoiding eye contact, but his story just seemed too strange to be real.

"Well, Doc, a couple of years ago I lived in this old log cabin. It was a beautiful place, but I had to always go out and get fire wood. One day while I was cutting firewood I saw a beautiful woman. She didn't seem like she was from this world because she was so beautiful."
"What did you do?" Dr. Smith asked.
"What another young man would do if he saw a pretty girl. I walked right up and introduced myself. She looked at me and said, 'I'm not interested in formalities such as these. What is it exactly that you want?' I replied by saying, 'I want you and nothing but you for the rest of my life.' I was so nervous about what she would say next."
"What did she say next?" The doctor questioned.
"She said, 'Fine, I will marry you, but you must promise to never question what I do.' I was completely shocked because I didn't formally propose, but, hey, she agreed to marry me. Needless to say, I was thrilled. So thrilled, in fact, that I didn't think twice about her rule."

"I don't see what the problem is in your relationship. Her rule is indeed strange, but some woman enjoy their privacy."
"I'm not done yet, Doc. I honestly forgot her promise she made me make. After the honeymoon phase of our relationship was over and life began, I remembered her promise. I couldn't think of a reason why she would say such a thing. During those first few month of marriage I hadn't seen anything that was worth questioning her about. She was normal. In fact, she was wonderful."

Dr. Smith sat intently, but he still wasn't able to see what the problem was in his client's marriage. His client continued, "She became pregnant and I was thrilled. I had always wanted children, and I knew she was going to be a wonderful mother. We endured the pregnancy together and were so happy. Then she gave birth to an absolutely stunning child."
Mr. Shantanu shed a tear of joy as he remembered this joyful time. "This was the happiest day of my life. But I had been up all night during the child birth and decided to take a nap. When I woke up I found my wife sleeping peacefully and the baby missing. I woke her and said, 'Hey, sweetheart, where is our child?' 'In the river,' she said. I was completely shocked. Before I could start questioning her further, she added, 'You promised not to question me. You must stay true to your word. Our child is dead and there shall be no more questions about it.' That's all she had to say."

The doctor was completely silent. He looked at Mr. Shantanu, but didn't have the words to say.
"I just kept wondering who was this woman I married? I mean how could she kill our own child? She seemed so lovely. I just don't understand how something like this could happen. But there is nothing I can do. My firstborn is gone."

It took a few minutes for Mr. Shantanu to compose himself before he continued. "This has happened six other times, Doc. Every time she gives birth, she gets up, takes the child to the river, drowns them and then returns with a smile on her face. But there is nothing I can do about it. I promised I wouldn't question her. Now she is pregnant with our eighth child and I don't want to see this happen again."

The doctor looked him in the eyes and gave him sincere advice. "Mr. Shantanu, this is a problem I have never faced before. I am almost speechless. Clearly we have a lot to unpack with this situation. But for starters, sir, your wife is a murderer. We need to address this issue first in the concern of your eighth child. You and I have doctor-patient confidentiality, so I can't report your wife's behavior. Mr. Shantanu, you need to begin thinking about how turning your wife into the police might be your only way to save your eighth child."
Mr. Shantanu was silent for a few moments then said, "Well, Doc, I'm not sure I can do that yet. But I'll go home and think about it and see you next week."


Author's Note:
This was a story that was briefly told in the Mahabharata. In my opinion, the story was too brief. I wanted to know more about this story, especially how King Shantanu was handling the situation, so I decided to explore the emotions of King Shantanu. Instead of calling him King I decided to call him Mister in order to place him in a more modern time frame. This story isn't a situation that we see in our modern time, but I think that adds to the suspense of the story. I also think it adds to his feeling that his wife is a psychopath. But I also wanted to stay fairly true to the original story. In the original story this "crazy woman" was a goddess named Ganga. She became incarnate as  a human to help the Vasus, gods who are punished to be born as humans. She helped them by killing them as soon as they were born, but her husband was kept in the dark about all this.  I didn't want to add a lot of glitz and glam, just focus on the emotion part of it. That is why I wanted to bring in a counselor. They focus on people's emotions so I thought that would be a good way to help focus my story. Overall, this story was a lot of fun to write and I really enjoyed exploring the emotions. Instead of focusing on the main story of the Mahabharata, I focused on a smaller story and tried to expand on it.

Bibliography:
The Mahabharata by R.K. Narayan Web Source: Reading Guide

Picture:
River Web source: Wikimedia Commons