21 November 2023
Tuesday. I have noticed something about my very best patients. They arrive with soil under their fingernails.
It is the coffin people! The ones who dug their way out of the gentleman downstairs and thought, how lovely, that is all over now. And then they woke up here, with me, and I said welcome back, and you could hear the exact moment they understood. It is my favourite sound in the whole building.
I am told the gentleman wrote a long entry in his own diary yesterday explaining that this is the proper order of things: first the burial, then the treatment. I have never agreed with him so completely. I have sent a thank-you card. I drew a smiley face. He will hate it.
To be fair to new patients, a referral is not required. People wander in off the street all the time, never buried at all, and they get just as much out of my care. Everybody is welcome. Nobody is excused.
Patient notes, this evening’s group: three survivors of the coffins, one fresh face. The fresh face did the best. Fresh faces often do. I am writing that down to think about later.
— Your Therapist
