This will be the last installment in “Whatever Happened to...”.  Barry was my favorite of the three guys I’ve been telling you about.  He had a wonderful sense of humor and was a kind, considerate person.  As I told you before, he was schizophrenic and contributed his meltdown to a double hit of LSD.  In appearance, Barry was a cross between Charles Manson and Gabby Hayes, although he hadn’t officially “X’ed” himself out of society as did Manson.  He had long hair and a beard, was slight of build and very thoughtful of every word he spoke.  He did a pretty good Gabby Hayes impression, too.  Another interesting trait was his slow eating habit.  He would spend two hours eating a salad.  Rick, who at 300+ pounds could eat the same salad in a matter of minutes, was very impatient with Barry and picked on him whenever he got the chance.  Generally Barry would sit on the couch, eat his salad and slowly rock back and forth, ignoring Rick until he could stand no more.  He'd let loose a string of obscenities and Rick would back off.  This was one of the few things I saw Barry get truly upset about.

    Once a month Barry would ride the bus over to the mental health center and spend the day in therapy and visiting various doctors.  On one trip over he said there was a lady seated close to him that was holding her hands out in front and above her head.  He said she was wiggling her fingers and stroking some invisible object.  Curiosity got the best of him and he asked her what she was doing.

    “I’m playing with the leaves,” she said, never stopping the fiddling.

    “What leaves?” Barry asked.

    “The leaves on the tree,” was her reply as she kept up the relentless stroking and plucking of the imaginary leaves.  Barry was reenacting as he told me.

    “What tree?  I don’t see a tree,” Barry said in his best therapeutic voice.

     They arrived at the facility and went on to their doctor visits and therapy for the day.  Barry said that one of the counselors was a very mean man that was abusive to the patients.  He said he always hated having to talk to him because he was belligerent and talked to him like he was a dog.  Barry had spent some time with that particular counselor and had not had a very good day.  When they were in the recreation room he saw the counselor standing over the lady playing with her leaves.  He said he watched as the man grabbed her arms and repeatedly pushed them down.  The lady was getting very upset and Barry decided he had seen all he could stand.  He ran over there and forced himself between the counselor and the lady.

    “LEAVE HER ALONE!  Can’t you see she has a tree growing out of her head?” Barry yelled at the man.

    Since it had been some time since that visit I asked, “What ever happened to the lady with the tree.  Did she get better?”

    Holding his hands up close to his face, he replied, “They got it down to a shrub but that’s about all.”

    I moved away from that area later in the year and didn’t have the opportunity to talk to Barry again.  I happened to be passing through the town about a year later and decided to stop in and see him.  Unfortunately someone else was living in his apartment and they had no idea whatever happened to Barry.