Chapter 4

Garrthh... Garrthhhh," the squeaky voice of Nell, the nurse, shrilled from the back entrance of the main edifice that made up the institution of Brookdale Rest Home.

Garth chuckled gleefully as his huge burly body crouched behind the rambling shrubbery. The wild growth of berry weeds brushed and tickled at his hairy legs as they pushed up against his weight and crept beneath the cuffs of his trousers. He quickly clasped his open hand across his thick lips in a child-like manner, fearing the old hen would hear him and discover his hiding place.

"Garth, you get back up here quick, or I'll tell Dr. Quinn on you. Do you hear me boy?"

Garth remained secure in his hiding place, leaning back and rolling around in the weeds in unsurpressed delight upon hearing the antagonized tone of her voice. Suddenly his body stiffened in fear as he heard a second voice, that of Dr. Quinn talking to Nell.

"What's the trouble here, Nell? Is Garth playing games with you again," he asked with a tone of cool amusement to his voice. "You really shouldn't have so much difficulty controlling him now that all the rest of your charges have checked out. Certainly your duties couldn't be much more strenuous than of a babysitter's, and with the salary I'm paying you, perhaps you can find it within your grasp to apply a little practical psychology to situations such as these."

"I'm sorry, Dr. Quinn, I had other things on my mind," Nell defended, lowering her eyes from his steely glare. "I was in the Day Room planning the weekly menu when he disappeared out back here somewhere."

"Yes, I'm sure he's out here," he replied with a weary tone. "I'm sure he can hear me now, can't you Garth?"

The ugly ape-like man with the child's brain cringed in fear nodding his head up and down in acknowledgment but afraid to move from his sanctuary. He began to sob uncontrollably at the thought of what his punishment might be if he had angered Dr. Quinn too much.

"Garth, I can hear you out there. Stop that crying and come over here and you won't be punished. But you must come immediately before I change my mind."

"Yes Dr. Quinn, I'm coming," Garth slobbered gratefully as he stood up and ambled clumsily back to his tormenting master.

"Why I left my experiments in the middle of the day is because I want to talk to you about a new visitor I'm expecting shortly," Dr. Quinn continued, ignoring Garth who was now standing humbly next to Nell with a look of frightened anticipation on his face. "A young visitor, Thea's niece."

"Is Thea coming back... is Thea coming," Garth burst out grabbing eagerly at the doctor's arm.

"Let go of my arm Garth."

Garth jerked his arm back as though he had touched it to a hot stove and suddenly realized the dancer.

"Yes, Thea is coming back, and as I've just said," he paused glaring coolly at Garth, "she's bringing her niece with her... for a prolonged rest."

"They should arrive here within the hour. Nell, I want you to prepare a room for her in Ward Five."

"But Sir," she protested, "that's the room we save for our most difficult patients."

"I'm well aware of that Nell. Just do as I say." Noting the puzzled look on her face he added, "The girl's been under a tremendous strain and needs as much privacy and quiet as possible... Be prepared for hallucinatory ravings and periodic outbursts of hysteria. From what Thea tells me, the girl sounds like she's on the verge of a complete mental collapse."

"Yes sir, I'll so right now and take care of the room for her," Nell mustered and walked away.

"My only instructions to you Garth," he paused menacingly, "is to stay away from her. Do you clearly understand my orders?"

"Y--yes," the imbecile mumbled keeping his eyes on the floor.

Dr. Quinn relaxed his posture a bit. "If you understand clearly and promise not to forget, you may go back to the Day Room. I want it straightened up so it will be tidy when our visitors arrive. OK, you can go now, Garth. If Nell needs me, I'll be in the study.

He studied Garth's backview as he ambled in an aimless manner back to the Day Room, and took mental note that his feet were starting to gradually point at a more inward angle as he walked, while his hunched shoulders curved much lower now than before. This awkward posture caused his hands to dangle in an ape-like manner, facing the rear position when his body was mobile. With a slight twinge of apprehension, he decided to take Garth off the experimental hormone injections for a few days to counteract his rapid physiological regression toward the ape family.

Entering his study, his eyes carefully searched over the volumes of books that lined three sides of the room and pulled out a leather-covered one entitled "Primitive Man." He walked over to his desk, sat down in the well-cushioned arm chair and started scanning through the chapters that covered the Pleistocene period, suddenly stopping at an artist's rendering of the Neanderthaloid man. This was what he had been looking for. Most of Garth's physical characteristics came closer to this likeness than any of the others. The hairy burly body, the short forehead-stooping down to the close-set beady eyes, flared nostrils, thick lips, and there they were the long dangling arms hanging in the ape-like position.

He closed the book and stared pensively down at his laboratory notebook. For the last five years, he had carefully recorded his experiments, results, and theories here, made on the male hormone and what powers could be derived from it. He vaguely realized that his work was now becoming an obsession to him, but he didn't care. He was so close to his discovery that he couldn't be turned back or stooped just for the safety of a worthless half-wit.

Garth had been brought to Brookdale four years back by a distant relative who paid the initial deposit then disappeared, leaving no forwarding address. The usual procedure would have been to transfer Garth to a State institution, but it so happened at that time, Dr. Quinn desperately needed a subject to which he could apply his serums, a subject that could remain indefinitely for long-term observation. Garth provided the perfect answer to his problem: A half-wit, not clever enough to realize he was the object of experimentation, and docile enough to be controlled. When he first came to Brookdale, he was ugly with crude heavy features but definitely not the odd creature that he was today. It had not been until the first ten months of his study, the doctor noted going back over the lab notes, that Garth first started showing a physical reaction to the hormone injections. A profuse growth of hair, particularly around the pubic areas, began to rapidly increase, then spread to other areas of the body, and his skin became thickened and tough, more like an animal's hide than human. The most alarming growth of all, however, had been the tremendous enlarging of his penis and testicles, larger than Dr. Quinn had ever noted observing on a human, even at the research center of Carlton University.