Deep Waters by Kate Charles

Author:Kate Charles [Kate Charles]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9780749011086
Publisher: Allison & Busby
Published: 2012-03-26T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 14

* * *

Dr Babur Halman watched closely as his daughter joined him at the breakfast table. Still wearing her bathrobe, she sat down heavily in the chair opposite.

‘Still not feeling well?’ Babur inquired as he watched her unnaturally white face scowl at the food laid out in front of her.

‘I think it must be anxiety,’ she said, attempting with a grimace to drink the small glass of tea her father had poured for her earlier.

‘Wedding nerves,’ her father said sagely. And then he smiled. He’d been so pleased about her news when she’d told him the previous night and obviously still was now.

‘No, I think it’s about that case I told you about last night actually,’ she said. ‘I feel the patient in question might be sliding down into something – I don’t know what. Full-blown psychosis?’

‘Patients do sometimes intimate things that test our ability to protect their confidentiality – particularly your type of patient.’

‘It’s not that this person,’ she said, ‘has intimated to me that he wishes to hurt someone. It’s just that his world view is so macabre. I feel, well, almost stifled in his presence.’

Babur forked a little tomato and cheese into his mouth before asking, ‘And so?’

‘If what I’m being told is true, then it could be that my patient’s home situation is really quite unhealthy.’

‘In what way?’

‘I can’t say that I really know,’ she said. ‘The way he talks is characterised by seemingly paranoid thoughts and concealment. He’s scared, as if there’s something or someone after him. There is also, I’m sure, a sexual element although whether that is real or just adolescent fantasy I don’t know.’

‘Mmm. Freudian elements.’ Babur, who didn’t hold with psychoanalysis, smiled. ‘Perhaps your patient is playing games with you.’

‘Well, exactly!’ she replied, excited now that her father had, seemingly, arrived at the same conclusion as she had. ‘I mean, I can hardly accuse others of things if it’s all a delusion.’

‘No, but this person could be in danger.’

‘At psychological risk,’ she corrected.

Babur shrugged. ‘Same thing.’

Zelfa sighed, after which both father and daughter sat in silence for some moments. Until, that is, her fingers agitated against the tablecloth.

‘I’ve asked my patient to come back daily for the time being,’ she said. ‘But the family member who pays the bill isn’t willing to engage with the process. This person just wants their relative better, which I can appreciate, but it does mean that the door to further information about the home situation is difficult to access. There’s a sibling too, but I don’t begin to understand that. It’s as if the sibling is loved, protected but my patient is not.’

‘You could suggest a home visit,’ Babur offered. ‘You could say that since you want to see your patient so frequently, a home visit might help to relieve some of the pressure you know this can cause to someone who is unwell.’

‘Mmm.’ Zelfa smiled. ‘That’s not bad, actually.’

‘Old doctors still have their uses,’ her father replied and then leaned forward across the table towards her.

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