charter holiday with his mother. They locked themselves in their hotel room, got drunk, and had sex. What his mother did not know was that Pierre sank into a deep depression after every trip and frequently tried to commit suicide.
I didn’t want to force my patients. I wanted it to be their own choice to talk about issues.
There was a knock at the door. Before I had time to answer, it opened and Eva Blau walked in. She had shaved off all her hair and made up only her eyes. She made a strange face, as if she were trying to smile without using her facial muscles.
“No, thank you,” she said suddenly. “There’s no need to invite me to supper, I’ve already eaten. Charlotte is a wonderful person. She cooks for me, meals for the whole week; I put them in the freezer.”
“That’s kind of her,” I said.
“She’s buying my silence,” Eva explained cryptically, moving to stand behind the chair where Maja had sat the previous day.
“Eva, would you like to tell me why you’ve come here?”
“Not to suck your cock—just so you know.”
“You don’t have to continue with the hypnosis group,” I said calmly.
She looked down. “I knew you hated me,” she mumbled.
“No, Eva, I’m just saying you don’t have to be part of the group. Some people don’t want to be hypnotised, some aren’t receptive even though they really do want to try, and some—”
“You hate me.”
I took a moment. “Eva, I don’t hate you. I’m just saying that your participation in the group isn’t meaningful or helpful to you, if you’re unwilling to be hypnotised.”
“That’s not what I meant,” she said. “But you’re not to stick your cock in my mouth.”
“Stop it,” I said.
“Sorry,” she whispered, and took something out of her bag. “Look, this is for you.”
I took the object from her. It was a photograph. The picture showed Benjamin’s christening. I recognised it immediately.
“Sweet, isn’t he?” she said proudly.
I could feel my heart beginning to pound. “Where did you get this?” I asked her.
“That’s my little secret. I look out for myself, you know. It’s the only way to be in this life.”
She sat down on the sofa, calmly unbuttoned her blouse, and exposed her breasts to me. “Stick your cock in then, if it makes you happy.”
“You’ve been to my house,” I said.
“You’ve been to my house,” she answered defiantly.
“Eva, you told me about your home. Breaking in is another matter altogether.
“I didn’t break in,” she retorted quickly.
“You broke a window.”
“The stone broke the window.”
I felt suddenly exhausted; I was losing control and was about to turn my fury on a sick, confused woman.
“Why did you take this picture from me?”
“You’re the one who takes! You take and take! What the fuck would you say if I took things from you? How do you think that would feel?”
She hid her face in her hands and said she hated me; she repeated it over and over again, perhaps a hundred times, before she calmed down.
Then she said steadily, “You have to understand that you make me angry when you claim that I take things. I gave you something, a lovely picture.”
“Yes.”
She smiled broadly and licked her lips. “Now I want you to give me something.”
“What do you want?” I asked calmly.
“I want you to hypnotise me,” she replied.
“Why did you leave a ferrule outside my door?” I asked.
She stared blankly at me. “What’s a ferrule?”
“It’s a flat stick that was once used to punish children,” I said.
“I didn’t leave anything outside your door.”
“That isn’t true. You left an old—”
“Don’t lie!” she screamed.
“Eva, I will call the police if you don’t know where the boundaries are, if you can’t understand that you have to leave me and my family alone.”
“What about my family?” she said.
“Just listen to me.”
“Fascist pig!” she yelled. She leaped to her feet and left the room.
My patients sat before me in the semicircle. It had been easy to hypnotise them this time, and we had drifted softly down together through lapping water. I was working with Charlotte again. Her face was relaxed yet sorrowful, with deep, dark circles under her eyes; the point of her chin was slightly crumpled.
I waited. It was clear that Charlotte was under deep hypnosis. She was breathing heavily but silently.
“You know you’re safe with us, Charlotte,” I said. “Nothing can harm you. You feel good. You are pleasantly relaxed.”
She nodded sadly and I knew she could hear me; she was following my words and was no longer able to distinguish between actual reality and the reality of hypnosis. It was as if she were watching a film in which she herself took part. She was both audience and actor, united as one.
“Don’t be cross,” she whispered. “Sorry, I’m so sorry. I will console you, I promise, I will console you.”
We were in the haunted house. I knew we had reached Charlotte’s dangerous rooms and I wanted her to stop; I wanted her to have the strength to look up from the floor and see something, to catch a glimpse of the thing she was so afraid of. I could hear the group breathing around me. I wanted to help her, but I had no intention of forcing the pace this time; I was not about to repeat last week’s mistake.
“It’s cold in Grandfather’s gym,” Charlotte said suddenly.
“Can you see anything?”
“Long floorboards, a bucket, a cable,” she said, almost inaudibly.
I could see her eyelids quivering. Fresh tears seeped through her eyelashes. Her open hands were nested in her lap, palms up, like an old woman.
“You
