A while back Jeff told me a story of a woman with paranoid personality disorder who thought that the Mexican Mafia was following her around and talking about her on their secret phones.

A nurse at the hospital she was in said she had come to him one day, eyes wild, saying frantically, “They’re back, they’re BACK!” “Who?” he asked. “The Mexican Mafia, with their secret phones. They’re HERE and they’re after me again!” She pointed down the hall to a new Certified Nursing Assistant (CNA) who had just been hired. A Hispanic CNA, named Juan. Who happened to be walking down the hall talking. To nobody. (Actually he was talking on his cell phone, with an ear bud hands-free thingy that you couldn’t see from their angle.)

The clincher was, Juan used to work in the care facility that this woman used to live in. And she left there. And he left there. And now she was here. And so was he.

Mexican Mafia, following her and talking on their secret phones. And how is anyone going convince her otherwise? Shoot, maybe she’s not paranoid at all. Maybe she’s right and they’re really after her.

And everyone thinks she’s crazy, so nobody believes her.

Except Juan.