Red Queen

Grip and Twist

"Yes, of course."

"I agree."

"I'll do my best."

The one sided fragments of a telephone conversation are like a dot-to-dot puzzle in a cut price children's colouring book. The makers didn't bother filling in all the numbers as they knew it would be sold for £1 in the bargain bin section of seaside town souvenir shops - the sort that have walls of fridge magnets and cigarette lighters proclaiming their location, minimal quality t-shirts and bucket'n'spade sets in a netted bag. They'd be bought by parents who just wanted something to keep their complaining children quiet, paying before realising they had no felt tips to go with the book. By the time they would come to being used, the missing numbers were less important than the fact it was three weeks since the holiday and the book had been found at the bottom of the suitcase as it was finally unpacked, wondering where all the sand came from.

"Leave it with me, Dr. Connors."

Edwards returned the telephone handset to the cradle and leaned back in his chair. He made a decidedly unfriendly two fingered gesture at the person he'd been speaking to. Connors was an egomaniac who smiled when needed to and sneered the rest of the time. He was also Edwards senior and was intent on knowing what was happening with Alice. But Alice was Edwards' 'baby'. She was his project and Connors, being friends with the parents, was sticking his nose in where it wasn't needed. It was positively sinful. Edwards wished he could be left alone to run the mental home himself. Connors had his own empire to build. The small periphery establishment under Edwards' control should be pretty much autonomous and it was only the familial connection which was breaking that independence.

Anyway, he had another problem. The sister. An odious woman who, along with her parents, was the root cause of most of Alice's issues. Alice2 was someone whose inflated ego was almost as large as that of Edwards' boss. Well, it was an ego balloon which needed popping. He'd escorted her from the premises once and would do so again. He didn't need her interfering. He didn't need anyone interfering.

He pressed a button on the phone.

"Katheryn."

"Yes Doctor?"

He liked her voice. It was high, with a sliver of glass running up the inside, a fragment of it breaking somewhere along the line of cigarettes she smoked - though she denied she'd ever even picked one up. Instead of plumbing the depths and taking anchor in her boots as some heavy smokers' voices tended to do, Katheryn's had flown up an octave or too and perched somewhere over her head. It made you feel you should look above her when she spoke.

"Could you send her in please?"

"Of course."

Edwards stroked his chin and, without realising, began to bite down on his little finger. It took a while for the pain to creep into his consciousness and for him to remove his finger and inspect it. Deep teeth marks were embedded in both the skin underneath and the nail on top.

Oh well. All the better to know the pain he'd like to inflict on Alice2.

He felt like the Big Bad Wolf, hiding in Grandma's bed. He could appear frail and vulnerable but what big teeth he had when the occasion demanded. He felt such an occasion was looming. The girl had an attitude. Though she was the double of her twin which, being a twin, was the norm, her manner was a different sort of copy. It was an almost photographic negative of Alice's and had developed into a superiority complex with grains of narcissism. He blamed the parents, sure, but she seemed to enjoy the pain in others she caused. Perhaps she was a more fitting patient than Alice. He'd never get their mother and father to believe that, however. And Connors seemed particularly interested in the sister currently resident.