This Too Shall Pass Read Online Free PDF Page B

the observers, trailed back to Celia. I determined that she was either so brilliant she appeared nonsensical, or – and I had no way of knowing – the reverse. At the very least I was going to have to stalk through a jumble of information to obtain instruction.
    I made my way back to Marlowe Downs subdued and more than a little startled. The reality of beginnings had loaded up in me heavily. My eyes traced dumbly down the plaques on the doors in my corridor. I was even more staggered when I realised Celia’s office was across the hallway from mine. I don’t know where I expected her to be located but it was a huge building full of the same long corridors and to think we would be crossing paths with regularity was a little daunting, perhaps because of her abrupt manner. Without making any certain plan – but, by the same token, not one for facing difficulties head-on – I, in a mixture of nervousness and awe, put off our introduction. Consequently, I began skulking along the passageways, opening and shutting my door with the stealth of a burglar. Marlowe Downs bred "the skulk", I was to learn, in many employees – in my case, in a matter of hours.
    Surprisingly, when the meeting did take place at the end of that first week, I realised Celia was totally oblivious to me and to the fact that I was her underling, supposedly going to be helped by her to assume the role of clinician. It was late in the afternoon and we both happened to be locking up.
    When she didn’t speak, fidgeting at the keyhole to snib her door, I said, ‘Your head… I was there the other day, it must have hurt.’
    She turned, her staccato movement bringing her indignant expression, almost a scowl, towards me. She was trying to make sense of what I was saying, sorting back through the recent past.
    â€˜The lecture,’ I added.
    â€˜Oh! The blasted screen! World’s worst day, my son rushed off in an ambulance. Suffers haemophilia, a count of two per cent for factor eight. Little mite fell at school. They panic, always call an ambulance. Both of us sitting up to be examined. He loved that, which was the only good thing. Utterly random. That screen…’ she was shaking her head. ‘Did you enjoy the lecture?’
    Her words had shuttled out of her and then stopped abruptly. ‘I did,’ I said belatedly.
    She was struggling to hold a bundle of papers and keep her bag from toppling out of her arms while jiggling the key. I resisted helping. Celia, I had detected even by then, wasn’t at ease with the outstretch of a hand, the offer of assistance.
    â€˜Wanted to ask more about treatment.’
    â€˜Integrating, realigning. It’s all about the frontal lobe. Getting the child involved with tasks that cause the system to think outside the framework. Refiguring, really. We can see the activity trail so we create a break in that cycle, give the brain other markers. Comfort, quietness, merit, good feelings to attach them to.’
    I nodded as if I was completely with her, still wondering how the therapy was done.
    She was jostling the door, making sure she’d locked it properly.
    â€˜I’ve got Simon coming for a session at eleven on Thursday. We can have it in Family Therapy 3 so you can observe.’
    I dutifully went to fish my diary from my bag.
    â€˜Tell me tomorrow,’ she responded tersely. ‘Leave a note under my door.’
    She walked awkwardly away towards the centre of the building, her hair kicking up like a mane, the papers threatening to slide from her grip. Still not convinced about her – seeing her as curt, stern, socially inept and a little ditsy – something niggled. As I turned and went in the opposite direction towards an exit at the end of the corridor, I found myself trying to dismantle and, simultaneously, implant the content of what she’d said.

ELEVEN
    M arlowe Downs had once been a horse stud, after which a bloke named George