On Loving Josiah Read Online Free PDF Page A

 
    ‘I’ll do that, Dr Goodman. Thank you,’ she smiled. ‘I’ll let you know just what I think.’

    Hospitals are places of great drama, the fodder of every screenwriter. Mrs de Selincourt, Dr Fothering, Eve herself, are about to take their bow, as well as various others assigned to the case. Events can no longer be controlled by any of them.  
    Conference room BH8: at first, semi-darkness, till a nurse releases a dust-laden blind to reveal ten low-slung orange chairs haphazardly arranged around two coffee tables. Without comment, the same nurse picks up two old coffee cups from the table and says, ‘Laura, could you rinse these out, please?
    Laura is a student social worker who’s on a placement for six weeks; a pretty thing in a fashionable denim pinafore and a flowery shirt. She’s presently shadowing Alison, who walks in now, senior social worker in the Branston team. She’s thin and spiky but efficient ; she looks about her for Dr Aggs, Gibson Nelson’s consultant psychiatrist, and Fothering’s ally, but he’s not arrived yet, nor has June Briggs, who is going to be Eve de Selincourt’s senior field social worker once she’s discharged. Instead, she notices Eve’s mother, or at least, an alien force, someone who ought not to be there at such sensitive proceedings. She walks up to her and introduces herself. Mrs de Selincourt is on best behaviour and nods courteously. Alison relaxes. She can stay if she’s quiet, she thinks. Dr Fothering makes a joke about the bad coffee, and suggests to Mrs de Selincourt that when asked it might prove a safer bet to choose the tea. She ignores his remarks; Dr Fothering begins to sweat.
    Dr Aggs walks in: he’s fifty, tall, with a wiry nest of black hair. He’s the most powerful man in the room, and he knows it; but it’s Alison who’ll be chairing the meeting. While Laura’s counting mugs in the adjacent kitchen, Alison is counting heads. ‘Now, where is June?’ she thinks, and June pitches up, slightly breathless, right on cue. It’s not in June’s nature to be late, and she’s reeling off excuses, the roadworks in Burleigh Street, the traffic lights on Cherry Hinton Road. ‘Coffee or tea?’ Laura calls out from the kitchen door.
    Dr Fothering is watching Mrs de Selincourt as though his life depends on how she answers her. ‘Tea,’ she says. ‘Two sugars.’
    ‘Wise choice!’ he exclaims, smiling ridiculously. But she doesn’t notice because she doesn’t look at him.
    A couple more nurses arrive, including Eve’s key-worker, Janet. Eve has Janet wrapped round her little finger, because, to put it bluntly, Eve is cleverer than she is. But she’s a good sort, and will have Eve’s best interests at heart. Then Dr Fothering leaps up and introduces Mrs de Selincourt to the assembled party; everyone nodspolitely and Mrs de Selincourt acknowledges them. There are, by now, cups of tea and coffee in front of everyone, and some bulky files are beginning to appear: some are opened on the low tables, other propped up on knees. Alison is ready to begin. Nothing untoward so far. The chatter subsides.
    ‘Now’, says Alison, ‘Thank you, Dr Fothering and Dr Aggs, for your reports. Both Eve and Gibson have made substantial progress over the last few months, as I think everyone in this room would agree. I think we would also agree that they are ready to move on. As we know, their attachment to each other is a romantic one, and although as a rule we discourage such affairs of the heart as being detrimental to a patient’s recovery, in this case it does seem that Eve’s behaviour has plateaued out and Gibson’s long-standing depression is finally beginning to lift. If anyone has any objections to their both being discharged as soon as possible, please make them known now. Mrs de Selincourt, I trust Dr Fothering has kept you informed of such a development?’
    ‘No, he hasn’t,’ says Mrs de Selincourt, politely. ‘And I have to confess, it would have been