I’m listening.

Sixteen minutes.

You’re trying to find some way to fill them?

No. I can stop whenever I like.

And so can we all.

Rather Chaucerian that. And so can we all.

You dont think the therapist has all that much capacity for healing.

I think what most people think. That it’s caring that heals, not theory. Good the world over. And it may even be that in the end all problems are spiritual problems. As moonminded as Carl Jung was he was probably right about that. Keeping in mind that the German language doesnt distinguish between mind and soul. As for the institutions, you have a sense that a place like Stella Maris was prepared with a certain amount of thought. They just didnt know who was coming. I think the care here is pretty good, but like care everywhere it can never keep up with the need. After so many years even the bricks are poisoned. There are remedies but there is no remedy. Sites that have been host to extraordinary suffering will eventually be either burned to the ground or turned into temples.

Are all your views so somber?

I dont consider them somber. I think they’re simply realistic. Mental illness is an illness. What else to call it? But it’s an illness associated with an organ that might as well belong to Martians for all our understanding of it. Aberrant behavior is probably a mantra. It hides more than it reveals. Among the problems the therapist faces is that the patient may have no desire to be healed. Tell me, Doctor, what will I then be like?

Do the mad have a sense of justice?

Is that a serious question? They’re seething. Injustice is their main preoccupation. I think your eyes are beginning to glaze over.

I’m all right. You never look at the clock, do you?

I dont have to.

How are we doing? Timewise.

Marvelous thought, that. Time wise. We have fourteen minutes. The days are long but the years are short.

Is there a part of your life that one might characterize as unstable and yet has nothing to do with the…what? Horts?

Let me see if I can rephrase that for you.

Sure.

I’ll do it for free. Am I crazy all the time or only when my little friends are around.

Okay.

I dont know what that means. I dont think the Kid doesnt exist when I dont see him. For instance. A quantum mechanical Kid. Maybe we should move on.

Okay. What is there that’s important about you that I dont know?

Is that out of the book?

I dont think so.

I’m a lesbian.

I dont think so.

How do you know?

I just know. You flirt with me. For one thing.

You think I find you attractive.

Yes. I would have to say yes.

Well. I’m sorry. It’s not really about flirting.

What is it about?

Maybe it’s just about having no one in your life. About coming to terms with the fact that whatever it is that you are going to say goodbye to it’s not going to say goodbye back.