Then the next minute, generally at the end to a session, at the prelude to a session, or in the complex game of chess surrounding a session, he took on the look of the villain of the B-tier family movie who revealed those perplexing little behaviors we’d seen in evidence throughout the film had a greater meaning, who got a super calculating, penetrating look in their eye, which sufficed to make them seem dangerous despite the otherwise unassuming appearance.

I might have been overthinking it.

“You with me?”

I refocused my efforts on Ethan. He was leaning forward against a punching bag. One of his eyes was permanently half-closed, his straight black hair that was normally a mop was damp enough with sweat to be pushed back and stay back. Athletic tee and loose workout pants were stuck to muscular arms, torso, and legs by the same measure.

Dr. Darnall ambush incoming, I warned myself, before giving Ethan ninety percent of my focus.

“I’m with you, sorry. Saw a face I recognized.”

“Need a face to refocus?” Anne Lynn asked. She had her plastic bag of stress helpers. “I have a kitty, you like cats, right? You picked a cat, first session.”

“Kitties don’t inspire aggression,” Ethan said.

“You should meet my cats,” Anne Lynn said. “My neighbors probably think I’m deranged, the way I yell at them.”

She giggled and Ethan smiled. He still leaned against the punching bag.

“I picked a lion, just so you know. Then the bird.”

“I give those ones names too. Stupid motorcycle roaring at six in the morning. Birds singing at six in the morning.”

“Mouthfuls,” I noted.

“There’s a theme here,” Ethan added.

“I don’t need more,” I told my physiotherapist. She pouted. “Thanks though.”

“Give me a broken three into a two-one,” Ethan told me.

I had to shift my footing to be ready, which I reminded myself was a problem. I should have been faster.

“Don’t think about it, just do it.”

I sprung forward. Leap, kick aimed at what would be my opponent’s chest. I stopped, using flight to drop to the ground, then sprung forward, flight-augmented to cover more distance, using the heel of my hand to strike, followed by my elbow. I could feel the pull at my tricep.

“Woo!” Anne Lynn cheered. “That’s something you don’t see every day.”

The area with the punching bags and some of the more active exercise equipment was partially segregated from the rest of the space, with windows with warped glass obscuring a lot of what went on, which was one of the factors that framed my distant observation of Darnall as skewed. The rationale, Anne Lynn had explained to me, was that some of the patients had reasons to be shy of violence. They were working on ensuring they had two spaces but things were still fucky after the portals had expanded and consumed a chunk of downtown.