Intensive Therapy (for Anna Lenox)

niellwyn · Wed Jan 19, 2011 9:43 pm

(continuation from Late Registration)

Natsuki held a file in her hand, slim manila envelope open on the desk behind her, reclining into the supportive leather of her swivel-chair near the arm of Anna’s couch. It was not Anna’s psychological file, or any of the numerous police reports or other drivel from her past that resided out of mind in a dark little drawer. It was a collection of Anna’s reports about her experiences with her medication over the last several weeks, scribbled down verbatim, from the girl’s own pouty lips. At that moment she was still looking them over, trying to divine connections between this claim and that, trying to form smooth, meaningful curves of data on mental coordinates. Anna looked impatient, squirming on her couch and flipping herself about in atrocious positions, all crossed arms and splayed legs.

“Alright Anna, I apologize for keeping you waiting. Here’s what you’ve told me.” Ms. Saika touched her throat while clearing it. Skin vibrated underneath her fingertips. “During your first week taking your prescribed medication you noticed nothing unusual. Oh, apart from your skin becoming less oily. Superficial.” Ms. Saika eyed Anna over the edge of her page. A quiet rasp came from her pale, translucent nylons as she crossed them. “Second week. Nothing unusual. No apparent relief from anxiety, but an increase in appetite. Despite the lack of significant effects, you asked for an increased dosage, which was denied.” She opened her mouth and sucked on the end of her index finger, then dabbed the corner of the page and turned it. The paper swished apart, loud in the absence of the air conditioner’s usual drone. The air in the counseling room was only marginally cooler than the tropics outside, thirty degrees above the temperature Ms. Saika had kept it during all her previous meetings with Anna. “On your third week you initially said that you felt no different than during week two, but on your second appointment with me that week you admitted that you’d been feeling ‘flushed’, as you called it, and felt increasing anxiety, or mood swings. Your description of your emotional state was ambiguous. Our talk that day focused on your attraction to several of your classmates. This continued for quite some time, until week seven.” A pause then, on Ms. Saika’s part, as she took time to let out a long breath, and fanned herself with the fluttering sheaf of papers. Doffing her suit jacket, she plucked at her front of her violet silk blouse to cool herself. Sweat crept down the counselor’s throat, sidling its way into her décolletage.

“Week seven.” Ms. Saika repeated to reaffirm her place in the report. “You claimed to have been disposing of your medication down the toilet during the weekend. You cited sleeplessness and more severe ‘flushed’ feelings as your reason for doing this. After three days without the medication, according to you, you began to experience….hallucinations. The hallucinations were reportedly sexual in nature, involving some of the individuals you'd spoken about, and you say that you began to masturbate routinely after attending gym class. At the end of the week you requested an increased dosage of medication. You were denied.”

Intensive Therapy (for Anna Lenox)

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