The Ladder - An experimental web-only fiction series that spans multiple story lines and characters…Tune in every Wednesday for a new installment.
TOP SECRET//CATA-9//ORCON//NOFORN//NOGOV//100X2
Eyes only. Handle via CATA-9 channels only.
Wonderland – Red Cell Alpha
Dr. Harriman Seldon Poole
Patient code-named Red Queen
07/15/09 3:47 pm
Dr. P: Good afternoon, Maram. I am Dr. Harriman Seldon Poole. I’m sorry to tell you that Dr. Forrester has…(2 second delay)…retired. (7 second delay.) I see. Well. Perhaps I shouldn’t be so sorry. (3 second delay.) First things first. I much prefer to be called Harry. It’s only fair if I should call you Maram. And second I want to be clear that my goal is to get you out of here. By which I don’t mean, obviously, breaking you out. I mean to help make it possible for you to walk out. (4 second delay.) I understand your skepticism. In fact, I hope to prove to you that I understand your position. For the moment, however, it has to be enough for me to say that I’ve been a psychiatrist for over twenty years and while you may think of the profession as consisting of pill-pushing shock-jockeys, I’ve made it my mission in life to raise psychiatric care to something compassionate and, yes, humane. So when I say I want to help you walk out of here, help you to be free of these rather impressively thick walls, I mean it. Fresh air. Freedom. No soldiers with guns. A future. (9 second delay.) I understand. You’re skeptical. You’ve heard this before. Dr. Forrester was…(3 second delay)…I’m sorry. You don’t like thinking about him, do you? I promise I won’t mention him again. Clean slate. (5 second delay.) And I know that with the clean slate comes a need to prove that I am here to help you. So I would like to propose a little exercise. No, not ink blots. No word associations. Actually, what I’m proposing is, I admit, a little silly – one of those things they do in team-building efforts. What I would like you to do is stand in front of me with your back towards me and let yourself fall. I will catch you. It’s a silly thing, I know. But it does help establish trust…(7 second delay). All right. I’ll tell you what. You don’t have to say anything and you don’t have to fall into my arms. But as gesture on my part I will stand right here and count down from. And at one, I will let myself fall backwards and trust that you will catch me. Ready? Ten. Nine. Eight. Seven. Six. Five. Four. Three. Two. One.
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