History
Part 4.
The Psychologist
Enid flipped through the paper to
the want adds. She went through them quickly and sighed. Nothing. As
usual. She should never have taken leave, it seemed like a confession of
guilt. Maybe it had been.
Sipping from a glass of apple juice, Enid stopped the self-analysis and
turned to the skull standing on her desk.
"I guess we'll have to make do with less for another week Siggie."
she said.
The skull remained silent, but the silence was sympathetic. Siggie never
could stay mad at her long. Or maybe Siggie, like his namesake Sigmund
Freud, was busy trying to grasp what the mind of a woman was like.
"Clean and decorated." she smiled.
Looking back in the paper, her eye fell on a very small, very discreet
want add. She had not seen it the first time, focused as she had been
looking for names of hospitals and workgroups she knew about.
Wanted: Psychologist
Must be willing to travel and leave almost immediately.
"What do you think we should
do Siggie?" Enid asked.
Silence.
"You're right, you need to be polished badly. I'll have to take the
job."
Silence.
The rest of the want add vaguely described the conditions she would be
working in. Though she couldn't pinpoint the exact reason, something
almost told her not to go. But Siggie needed his polish and she needed to
earn money. Maybe work would come easier after she could present new
credentials.
Gently placing Siggie on the front seat - she never went anywhere without
the skull (he scared away car-jackers), Enid got in her car and drove off. Maybe she had found it odd
that in stead of making an appointment, you just had to swing by on a
certain day. Today.
With a bad feeling, Enid wondered what she was getting into.
***
Enid waited in the small room and
looked through the magazines. She didn't remember which ones she had gone
through and it didn't matter really. This place didn't exactly make you
feel comfortable. The woman behind
the desk looked like she would feel at home in a dominatrix outfit. Enid
decided she didn't want to try asking her when she would be allowed in.
Who knows, the woman might throw her out or something, she certainly had
the bulk of a bouncer.
"Miss Enid Brennan to room 3, please." a voice box announced.
The female body builder behind the desk got up and beckoned Enid to follow
her. Enid dropped the magazine she had been holding and followed. She
breathed calmly and tried not to let the atmosphere of the place get to
her. She stepped through the door the clerk held open and waited a moment
for her eyes to adjust.
As dark as the waiting room had been, this room, well cell was more like
it, was even darker. She could hardly see the two people sitting in front
of her. One of them sat at the table - the only piece of furniture in the
room, the other sat against the wall, already writing down her name.
"You may sit down miss Brennan." the one sitting at the table
said.
"Thank you." she shrugged and placed herself at the table,
"I'm here for the job."
"We're aware of that miss Brennan. I'll be taking the
interview."
"With whom do I have the pleasure?" Enid asked, not wanting to
be pushed into a subordinate role.
"You can call me Tasrin." the man answered.
"No first name?" Enid asked innocently.
"Lieutenant."
"A, ha." she said, shutting up after that.
"Please begin." the man on the chair against the wall said.
Though the way he sat seemed to suggest he was lower in rank than the
lieutenant fellow, the way he spoke, seemed to say he was in charge.
"I read about this job in the paper and since I'm currently
unemployed I though I'd try my luck. Siggie seemed to be all for it as
well."
"Who's Siggie?" Tasrin asked.
Cursing herself for making a nervous slip she considered lying for a
moment. But that wasn't really what she felt was right. better they knew
about her habit of talking to a Gall-marked skull than to have to find out
later.
"Siggie is my skull." she just said, rummaging through her bag
and putting the skull on the table. "He keeps me company."
Trying to ignore the way the man in front of her stretched and relaxed,
Enid waited for the next question. She was pretty sure she had messed up
the interview already, maybe that would be liberating enough to get
through it without any more nervous babblings.
"What was the reason you stopped your previous job?"
"I quit after an accident."
"What accident?" the man against the wall wanted to know.
"A client of mine committed suicide."
"Could you have prevented that?" the man leaned forward, his wavy
blond hair, obscuring his face.
"I doubt it. It's always hard to say with suicide cases, but the man
never even told me he was suicidal."
"You expect them to tell you?" he asked.
"The relationship between psychologist and client is such that
everything can and should be discussed. My client did not wish to tell me
of dead-fantasies. I cannot help that. Should I have suspected it? Maybe.
I didn't."
"That's enough. Thank you." the man said, leaving Tasrin baffled
on his chair, "Don't call us, we'll call you, Miss Brennan. You are
free to go."
Enid got up, a little too fast to retain her calm air, grabbing Siggie
from the table. So she had mucked up the interview. Probably it was for
the better, shady buildings, shady dealings. She walked through the door
and then nearly ran to the street where her car was parked.
***
After Enid had left, Oisin got up
from his chair and walked over to the door. There was no point in staying.
Iyru and Fairlight would love her and that was all he had been sent to
look for.
"Where are you going?" Tasrin asked.
"She's the one they want." Oisin answered.
"Does it have to be her?" Tasrin asked, his face an example for
all thunderstorms.
"It has." Oisin said, "No-one else would do after
her."
Tasrin sighed, "I'll make the arrangements."
