MY visits to the house became more and more regular, not so much because of what I was writing in what I now called ‘Joseph’s Journal’, but because I was becoming his confidant, friend. He came across as genuine, sincere person but despite his amazing gift, he was also extremely naïve and not at all streetwise. Maybe that’s why he wasn’t being let out.
His background remained puzzling. Joseph didn’t seem to have any awareness of what was going on in the rest of the world, it was as if he has just stepped out of the Amazonian jungle having never encountered civilization.
When I tried to chat to him about current affairs or popular culture he looked confused.
My attempt at being ‘cool’ by introducing Lady Ga Ga into the conversation had absolutely no impact. When asked about family, he would say: “I am only one.”
After that we mainly chatted about things that were happening to him at the house.
One day I arrived after the ‘scientists’ had finished with him and he was very distressed.
“Something’s changed Paul. They’ve changed. They’ve started giving me different tests.”
“What sort of tests? How different?” I asked.
Joseph had spent all of his time in the house dealing with criminals and their victims. But today they had introduced him to a man of Middle Eastern appearance and there were no victims present.
“They said he was a terrorist. But they did different tests, they wanted to know whether I could have any influence on how the man felt. Paul, they weren’t interested in empathy, compassion, they just wanted information. They wanted to find out if I could obtain any information from this man, if I could glean anything from his thoughts.”
“And could you?”
Joseph replied “of course not” a little too quickly for my liking and there was something in his eyes that puzzled me. This wasn’t the Joseph I had got very close to, this was a different Joseph, one that was hiding something. He also looked genuinely frightened.
For the next few weeks this pattern continued. Joseph was only seeing terrorists, or at least men he was told were terrorists.
As Joseph’s concern grew, I eventually summoned up enough courage to confront John who spoke to me in a very polite, but very condescending manner.
“Paul dear boy this is really not your remit. Just concentrate on getting the story down and think about all the cash this will eventually net you. And all the lovely things you can buy for your loving, faithful wife and adoring children.”
Once again that smirk which made me want to punch him very, very hard on the nose.
“But you’re not using Joseph to tackle crime, that’s what he wants to do,” I said.
“Leave that to the PCSOs, Joseph has got far more important work to do.”