31. The Shrink
Kadin is sitting next to Billy in the waiting room. She looks at her mother who is whispering to her father at the entrance. She tries to persuade him to leave. Kadin shakes her head. She doesn’t know her father like this. He is totally paranoid. They can go nowhere without him and she simply burns to see the code Michael had unraveled, but now they must first see the psychiatrist. She knows it is a waste of time because she and Billy now understand what Vipracitti meant when he said he would onwards always be with them. After the nightmare everything became clear to them, but it will be impossible to persuade her parents. She knows they will think that she and Billy also believe in the mad prophet.
Thus, there is no choice but to meekly dance to their tune. However, she is at war with herself and she knows her body language and attitude give away her feelings. Rene probably tries to persuade Jack to spare time by going and changing the tires on their car in the meantime. Eventually, Jack leaves and Rene walks over to the receptionist to confirm their appointment and to report their presence. Her mother is always so punctual. Her father sometimes acts impulsively and also has a dangerous temper.
She is now sitting with folded arms while Billy sits upright on the edge of his chair paging through a Popular Mechanics. She peeks at what he is reading and becomes curious. It looks like a plan someone has to exploit an asteroid in space. It seems like a hundred-year plan to start an industry in space. She smiles when she thinks of Billy’s new nickname at school. They call him Meerkat because he always sits upright and looks around. They have just arrived from Medi Cross where his wounds have been treated and new bandages applied. She shudders when she thinks how his back looked.
Rene comes and sits down next to her and whispers in her ear. “Why are you looking so cross, Kadin? Your body language tells me you don’t want to be here.”
“Relax, Mother. We are here now, I won’t run away.”
“It is as if you have changed after the nightmare, my child. It is as if your father and I irritate you and as if you hide something from us.”
“Oh no, Mother. Come now. You are imagining things. I am only curious and want to get to Michael to learn what is in the code of the professor for Nico.”
“What good will it do now, Kadin? We have all agreed it is more important to see a psychiatrist to remove all that rubbish that monster planted in your heads. What if you get that terrible nightmare again? Who knows what can happen?”
“It is history, Mother. We are safe now and I don’t know how to convince you. I wish I had a way to do it but I know it is impossible. I don’t know father like this. He is totally paranoid. It feels as if we are under house arrest.”
“He is just worried about all of us, Kadin. It is only your imagination that lets you believe we are safe. You don’t know for sure. I think you will feel better when we have seen the psychiatrist.”
“Doctor Sandra Prinsloo won’t be able to help us, Mother, and this visit is going to upset you even more.”
Damn! She can kick herself! Here she lets her tongue slips!
Amazed Rene frowns. “How do you know we are going to see Doctor Sandra Prinsloo? I wasn’t even aware it is a female doctor when I made the appointment and what do you mean that this visit will even upset us more?”
Kadin frowns. “Sorry, Mother. I was only jabbering. Forget what I said.”
“How do you know, Kadin? The names on the door at the entrance only show Drs S. Prinsloo and J.C. van Eeden and you sat down immediately when you came in.”
“I overheard that pair over there pronouncing the name and I took a wild guess.”
“Kadin, don’t lie to me! The pair over there is too far from here and I have heard no one speaking loudly from the time we have entered. How do you know her name is Sandra Prinsloo?”
Kadin sighs despondently. “I don’t want to upset you any further.”
“How? Kadin, tell me now!”
“Déjà vu, Mother.”
“From when do you experience déjà vu moments? You have never shared something like this with me. I have thought that we share everything with each other, my child.”
“Okay. There is no other way: the nightmare. Billy and I were with you at Doctor Sandra Prinsloo in room six.”
“I don’t understand. Explain!”
“Mother, I can’t remember everything, but I remember some things clearly and in the meantime I can tell you that a big painting of a lonely light tower with rough, turbulent waves around it hangs against the wall and also a family picture of her with her husband and three children is on her desk.”
“How do you know that?”
“Vipracitti took us both to the future at the beginning of the dream.”
“Your dreams were nightmares! Why did you struggle so violently as if something attacked you?”
“Vipracitti showed us the underworld to which he will take Doctor Sandra today.”
Baffled Rene looks at Kadin and shakes her head. “I am very glad we are here, Kadin because you need help definitively. I think that wizard planted rubbish in your head that makes you believe in these things to manipulate and abuse you. I think we must be thankful for your father for protecting all of us because the danger is still imminent. That is all this nonsense that you talk about, tells me.”
The receptionist talks and Rene freezes. “Mrs Bosch, you can go through and wait in room 6. Doctor Sandra Prinsloo will be with you shortly.”
She looks amazed at Kadin who looks back defiantly. Determined Rene rises. “Come, it is time to wipe your little heads clean.”
Rene curiously leads the way down the corridor and sees the last room is number 6 en she walks in first. She immediately notices the painting Kadin described against the wall and she sits down on the furthest chair in front of the desk. Kadin follows and sits down next to her while Billy takes the last chair and sits straight up on the edge of the chair.
Rene also sees the family photo and just as she wants to lean forward to study it more closely, Sandra comes in. On the photo, she was a young woman with teenage kids but now she is middle-aged.
She halts at Billy. “How do you do? What an attractive young man! I am Sandra and your name is … No, don’t stand up. Just sit still.”
She holds her hand out and Billy shakes it shyly. “I am Billy Shaw, Doctor.”
Next, she holds her hand out to Kadin who, with a sceptic look on her face, shakes her hand. “Kadin, Doctor.”
Rene shakes her hand. “Pleased to meet you, Doctor. I am Rene Bosch. Kadin is my daughter and Billy is her friend.”
Sandra friendly smiles and walks around her desk, sits down and looks directly at Rene. “How can I be of service to you lovely people?”
Rene tells her everything about the booklet Billy took at the park, how it fascinated the children and everything up to the torture and when they were hypnotized in the library. She also tells her what Kadin has just told her in the waiting room and also of her suspicion that Vipracitti put thoughts in their heads to prevent a hypnotizer to cancel his keys. The only thing she leaves out is about Nico and his task team.
Sandra listens attentively until Rene finishes before she speaks. “My goodness, many strange experiences cross my path, but yours are exceptional and I can fully understand your fears.”
Sandra now looks straight to Kadin. “Kadin, your mother thinks you believe that I can’t help you. Is it true?”
Kadin smiles friendly at her. “I am no doctor, how would I know? You can try it if you want. You are not going to put needles in us or shock us, aren’t you?”
Sandra laughs loudly before she answers: “Kadin, hypnosis only works when the person to be hypnotized is willing. That man in the library kindled your curiosity to look into the book of truth and only after you willingly looked into the book, could he hypnotize you. Will you be willing to give me an honest chance to help you, Kadin?”
Kadin shakes her head decidedly. “Why not? I shall cooperate, Doctor.”
“I think I must start with you and then it will be me and Billy.” She looks at Billy and he shakes his head in agreement.
Sandra shows Kadin to a chair partly behind her. “Come and sit down, Kadin, and then we look each other straight in the eyes.” Kadin walks around the desk, sits down and smiles at her.
Sandra replaces her own chair so that they face each other directly with her back to Rene and Billy. A metronome is standing on the edge of her desk and she swings the weights so that they start to clink monotonously and she takes a chain from around her neck and starts to swing a Yin Yang sign in front of Kadin’s eyes.
She speaks softly and calmly: “Down to business, Kadin. Please listen attentively to my voice while you hear the clinks of the metronome and watch the Yin Yang and answers my questions. It is quite serene here in my office, isn’t it, Kadin?”
“Yes, it is quite serene.”
“You are feeling a little drowsy here in the tranquil office with only the metronome ticking and the Yin Yang swinging in front of you. That’s right. Follow the swinging. It is time for an afternoon nap and to rest. Watch him, Kadin. How are you feeling now?”
“I feel sleepy. Very sleepy.”
“You feel all the more drowsy and your eyes feel heavy and want to close. You want to sleep while you are listening to my voice, Kadin. Do you want to sleep, Kadin?”
“I want to sleep.”
“Okay now, close your eyes and go to sleep, while you only concentrate on my voice. There, your eyes are closed. Are you sleeping, Kadin?”
“I am.”
“Where are you now, Kadin?”
“In front of Michael’s home.”
“You are not going to visit Michael right now, Kadin, but go with me back to the library and sit at the table with Billy next to you and the wizard opposite you. What is the wizard doing now?”
“He moves the bottle of antidote in front of Billy.”
“We are going a little forward in time to where he took out the flat book from his inner pocket while you are holding hands and he placed it in front of you. You both looked in the book and his eyes caught you when you look and it changed into a mirror. What is happening now, Kadin?”
“We both hang together in total darkness. Light shine from us.”
“Go on, Kadin. What is happening now?”
Kadin very softly whispers something.
“I can’t hear you, Kadin, speak louder!”
Kadin again whispers softly and Sandra goes closer and holds her ear against Kadin’s mouth nearly touching it.
“What are you saying, Kadin?”
“He is in my eyes.”
Sandra frowns and turns her head away and the next moment Kadin’s eyes open widely. They are weird, dark pools in her head that catch and pull Sandra in like magnets. Everything around Kadin vanishes and the next moment Sandra hangs in total darkness. Bewildered she looks around but sees nothing, only darkness. Then suddenly she begins to fall. She falls through a yellow flickering light and sees the roof of a gigantic, unending cave above her when she falls through and then turns and stares down. She sees she is on her way to fall on billions of wriggling beings down under.
Rene wonders what is wrong. Sandra’s questioning came to an abrupt halt and an eerie silence now engulfs them. Billy rises and walks around the desk and Rene follows him unsure whether she must stop him. She decides she’ll also have to get around the desk quickly to see what is happening.
Billy touches Kadin’s shoulder and she rises. Rene immediately realizes she is not in a hypnotic state anymore. Suddenly Sandra screams and yelling out loudly lands on the floor and begins to struggle against something unseen.
Bewildered Kadin looks at Rene. “We must wake her, Mother! Vipracitti bewitched her through my eyes and she is in a very bad place.”
Sandra is falling in between naked, mutilated bodies. Hands with long, sharp nails clutch her arms and legs and try to pull her downwards. Frantically she screams to get out of their grips but the nails cut deep into her flesh. Then she hears the voices of people shouting at her.
“Doctor! Sandra, wake up! Sandra!”
She wakes up with a start and sees how Rene, Kadin and Billy look down on her where she lies still kicking behind her desk. She becomes aware of how they hold her arms and legs tightly and tries to soothe her.
Rene has tears in her eyes.
“Wake up, Sandra! I should have listened to my child!”