Oblivion

34| Wrecked III

THIRD PERSON

"How is she?" was the first question Vito asked Dr. Bradford.

He closed the door behind him and looked exhausted. "I think it would be good if someone stayed with her before she does something irrational." Without saying a word, Valentino stood up and left. Dr. Bradford watched him briefly, then turned back to Vito. "She is ashamed of her behavior, and she wanted me to tell you that she is very sorry for what she did."

Domenico crossed his arms. "What do you mean by irrational? Is she suicidal?"

"No, at least not at this moment, as I see it. What I mean is that she could possibly give in to her instinct to flee. In situations where she is exposed to this kind of stress, she often tends to fall into this pattern."

"Why?" asked Matteo.

"Because it has kept her alive so far, and her subconscious has stored it as the only coping strategy that works. Mr. Marini, Josephine has agreed that I can talk to all of you about many things. But since I don't know you all that well, I'll leave it to you to decide whether it makes sense to have this conversation in front of everyone or not."

Vito didn't need to think long. "That's fine. Riccardo, Matteo, if you feel uncomfortable about it, you can leave at any time." The two of them leaned back demonstratively.

Dr. Bradford nodded. "Good. She said that you now know about her past. I mean, it's not surprising, but I had hoped that wasn't the case."

"We all did. Is there anything we can do for her?"

"Give her time and safety. She has never had the opportunity to deal with this trauma, and for the last six and a half years, she has, logically, been primarily concerned with surviving. Therefore, she has suppressed most of her emotions, but as you saw earlier, it doesn't last forever. This is also what I meant by the thought pattern. Surviving is basically the only coping strategy she has. She has none for the anger, which is why it has degenerated so much. She will need time to learn to process all these other emotions differently than before, and she can only do that if she feels safe enough not to fall back into the flight mentality." He smiled apologetically when he saw Domenico's grim expression. "That's probably not the answer you want to hear, but I don't want to raise false expectations. It will take time, and it won't be easy."

"But she had already made progress!" Matteo looked at the psychologist in disbelief. "Or was it not real?"

"Yes, of course. She would probably say no, but I completely agree with you. It has become very clear how important you are to her, and her greatest fear, even greater than her fear of her foster father, is that you might reject her because of that. And to protect herself from that, she might do things to push you away."

Matteo thought about it. "So a kind of self-fulfilling prophecy? I push people away so that they push me away, which then confirms my actions?" he summarized, and Dr. Bradford looked at him carefully.

"Exactly. As I said, it could be, but it doesn't have to be."

____________

When Valentino entered the room, he found Josephine sitting on the windowsill. She had her arms wrapped around her legs and was staring outside. His attempts to talk to her were in vain. Instead, he slowly began to tidy up the room, hoping that she would talk to him at some point. She did not. He had to leave the room twice to take everything that needed to be disposed of, but every time he came back, she was sitting exactly where he had left her.

"You know you can talk to me, right?" Valentino looked dejectedly at the little human bundle. "Anytime." Nothing prompted any kind of response, and he sighed. "You're not alone anymore. You have us." Josephine didn't move.