Alphabet by Kathy Page

Author:Kathy Page
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: FIC000000, book
Publisher: McArthur & Company Publishing Limited
Published: 2010-11-03T16:00:00+00:00

26

Detailed case conferences come around once every seven weeks, unless there’s an emergency. The staff meet in Mackenzie’s office; he gives a draft report then asks for their comments to include. What is said is recorded by the tiny Dictaphone that sits on Mackenzie’s desk, then typed up by the secretary and distributed within a week.

‘He finds emotion overwhelming or devastating in its consequences, so he tries to intuit things intellectually. At the same time to erect barriers which save him from fully experiencing them emotionally . . . or sexually,’ Mackenzie says. The others consider, grunt, nod their agreement. ‘Subconsciously, even consciously, he believes we want to hurt him or rather, to make him hurt –’ Mackenzie pauses, gives a slight smile. ‘Of course, there is a sense in which this is true: insight will inevitably be painful. These intuitions of his are conflated with the hurt he has suffered on his own account in terms of repeated rejection and maternal abandonment. That’s the background, I think we’re roughly agreed? Well, how do we find Simon here? What’s he up to? Martin, would you like to fill the others in on what’s been happening?’

‘A slow start, admittedly,’ Dr Clarke says, smiling affably round at the rest of them. ‘Yes. Very slow, in fact. We’re doing a lot of negotiation and there’s something of a stalemate over his homework at present, but frankly it’s not a surprise. Not in a case like this. I haven’t given up hope. He’s very articulate, intelligent. An interesting chap, I find . . .’

‘Annie?’

Annie lights up before she answers; she and Greg both smoke, are constantly fighting it. Staff smoking is always commented on in the group meetings, so they try to avoid it, then chain-smoke when they can’t be seen. Mackenzie, who jogs at lunchtime and doesn’t smoke, gets up to open his window.

‘Well, he’s definitely the most attractive con we’ve had in here so far!’ Annie says, just to see Mackenzie’s jaw drop. Greg’s face relaxes; Martin Clarke laughs aloud. ‘Seriously,’ she says, ‘he’s coasting along. He’d got a certain distance before he came, but I don’t think he’s been challenged yet. He likes it here. He’s enjoying his editing role. He even got me to agree to write an article for the sodding magazine,’ she adds.

‘Really? Perhaps that should have been discussed?’ Mackenzie says. ‘What’s it about?’

‘Why I’ve ended up doing this weird job.’

‘So he’s looking to see what makes you tick,’ says Greg, stretching out, hands behind head, click, click in his neck, ‘that’s for sure.’

‘Anything new there?’ she says.

‘It could be he’s making you undress while he just sits there in his leather armchair and watches,’ Mackenzie points out. ‘When did he ask?’

‘After the group, in the corridor.’ Annie colours, just a little, frowns. ‘OK. Maybe,’ she says. ‘But it’s a perfectly reasonable question after all.’

‘Context,’ Mackenzie tells her. ‘Go over it, see what comes up.’ His tone of voice suggests, without anything being said, that he is speaking not as part of the team, but as line manager.

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