Ombres

XIV. The Child In The Cupboard

- Don't you dare insult me, hit me, or even tell me how I should behave, 'cause I'm gonna cast a bloody spell that will scare the hell out of you for your entire scum's life. I'm a wizard!

I looked at the cheeky teenager. I wondered if I should insult him, hit him, or tell him how he should behave with a famous therapist. Eventually, I smiled and sighed:

- And a thumpin good one, I'd wager...

The nipper looked pleased. He was not even that ugly. Maybe a little small and skinny for his age (eleven years old, according to his medical file), but he could have been adorable, with his eyes as green as a mint leaf, his snub nose, his white cheeks and his disheveled hair, black as raven's feathers. He was studying me as if I were the patient, as if I had to talk about my life, about my parents, about why on Earth I would have freed a dangerous snake in a zoo. I had not freed a dangerous snake in a zoo. He had.

I waved to my assistant, whom name does not matter. She hurried to my side and leaned against the desk. I whispered at her ear:

- Tell me again, what do we have here? Some kind of paranoid schizophrenia?

She gave me a dark, deep look, as if I were the insolent patient.

- Not at all, Doctor Hudson, she replied, her nostrils trembling with anger. This poor, innocent, helpless child suffered years of child abuse, and has just been freed from the cupboard under the stairs he was imprisoned in. The trauma must be huge, so please, try to be tactful and conciliant!

- You are not going to teach me my job, I replied coldly. Get back to your paperwork and let the true doctor work in peace!

Maybe she would be upset for half an hour, but not more. She was used to my natural superiority.

- So! I roared. My dear boy, let's begin. How do you feel?

The not-so-dear boy gave me an audacious look, smiled impertinently, and answered:

- Deeply, unconditionally and unreservedly bored.

- I am not. In fact, I can't wait to hear about your... uncommon childhood.

My assistant made her very annoying mouth sound, which meant "Doctor Hudson, your lack of tact only equals your brilliant mind". In fact, I was not sure it was exactly what she was trying to say. Those women... They always have to complain about something. And they could. If only, by a biological miracle, they knew the human common language.

- My dear doctor Hudson, don't bother playing the ignorant. You know every single detail of my childhood. They are all written in black on white on the medical file under your elbow. You don't wanna hear me. You wanna diagnose me.

This teenager was far more perspicacious that I first thought.

- Tell me, doctor Hudson, he continued, is being a wizard considered as a mental illness?

- This is not a disease in its own right, I explained, deciding to stop taking him for a fool. But to fully understand your condition, you have to talk to me. And I will decide what is best for you.

He kept silent and stood still. He was mine.

- Tell me about the first thing you remember of your childhood, I asked, opening a notebook, my pen ready to fill pages about this strange case.

He sighed and looked at something over my shoulder. Then he began to speak.

- When I was a young boy, my parents were killed by a pitiless murderer.

His parents were killed in a car accident. His uncle and aunt, who took charge of the orphan, must have had every single flaw, but at least they knew how the parents had really died. The boy kept talking nonsense: