The Institution

by Kristen Rose

‘Mr Verdad,’ Miss Coles leaps up from her desk when Verdad gallops past her. ‘Mr Verdad!’

  ‘What is it Miss Coles?’ He stops, his bulky hand grasping onto the silver door handle of his office.

  ‘Where have you been? I’ve been trying to contact you all week! Those Japanese men have been calling here non-stop trying to arrange a meeting with you this afternoon.’ She says, half shouting.

  ‘I can’t see them today, I’m busy. Tell them to call back next week.’ He hollers.

  ‘I can’t, I mean, I already tried and they won’t listen. They said that if you don’t meet with them today then that’s it. They don’t want to do business with you.’ She exasperates.

  ‘Then that’s their loss.’ He states. ‘I’ve got personal business I need to tend to this afternoon. Now, my door will be locked and my intercom will be switched off, okay.’ He babies.

  ‘Oh. Okay, Mr Verdad. Is there anything I can help you with?’ Her lips and brow crease, illuminating her aged face.

  ‘No.’ He glares.

  ‘Right, well ... I guess I’ll cancel the rest of your appointments for today?’

  ‘Would you.’ He spits before forcing the door handle down and entering his office. He slams the door shut.

  Verdad twists the lock on the door, strides over to his clear glass desk and yanks the intercom forcefully out of the wall. He lands into his chair, air gushes out noisily. He pulls his shiny mobile out of his black suit pocket, jerks it open and dials. The call is answered monotonously by a computer.

  ‘You have one saved message. To hear your message press ‘one’, to delete your message press ‘two’.’

  Verdad jams his index finger onto the number ‘one’ key. ‘Message received at two twenty-three pm on Wednesday eighth of July.’ The computer reports.

  “Marc, its Deborah. That guy, the one you said to tell you if he shows up here, well, he’s here. I tried to stop him from seeing her but Dr Baker over ruled me. Just thought I’d let you know.”

  ‘End of message.’ Verdad’s eyes dart towards the date on his computer’s electronic calendar, July seventeenth.

  Verdad flips the black phone shut and stares directly at the door, intensely biting his lip and rocking minutely in his chair. He re-opens the phone and searches for a number. When his eyes lock on the name ‘Fuller’s Office’ he hits the ‘call’ button and waits.

  ‘Dr Fuller’s office.’ A bored voice sings.

  ‘I’d like to speak to Dr Fuller.’ His speech is fast.

  ‘I’m sorry she’s about to start a session with a patient. Can I take a message?’ The voice drones.

  ‘No. I want to speak to her now.’ He demands.

  ‘I’m sorry but ...’

  ‘I will speak to her now!’ His tone threatening.

  ‘What’s your name?’ The receptionist asks annoyed.

  ‘Marc.’

  ‘Marc ... who?’

  ‘Just Marc, she’ll know who it is.’

  ‘Okay, hold on for a second, I’ll ask her if she wants to speak with you.’

  Verdad sits impatiently tapping his foot on the overly polished floor. After a couple of minutes the voice of Deborah Fuller shoots through the earpiece of his phone.

  ‘Marc! You’re not supposed to call me on this line.’ She reprimands.

  ‘I figured this would be the only way you would take my call.’

  ‘I’m working!’

  ‘Oh, I’m sorry. But, based on the message you left me a week and a half ago I felt as though I should call you. But, for some reason when I called your home phone and mobile, you never seemed to be around to answer it. I thought maybe if I called you at work, over and over again, you might be a little more inclined to take the call, you know, to avoid suspicion.’

  ‘I’ve been busy.’

  ‘Busy? Gee, I didn't realise talking to crazy people was such an active job.’

  ‘There’s a lot more to it than you seem to give credit for.’ She is bitter.

  ‘Apparently. Look Deborah, you must take my calls, no matter what, from now on. I don’t care where you are, what you’re doing, you must take my calls. I want to know what is happening. Do you know what has been going on in my head, you leaving me a message about O’Connell coming and then not adding to it or anything and just ignoring me. It’s not acceptable.’ He half yells the last sentence through the phone.

  ‘Yes, yes okay. Look, I told you I was busy, don’t worry, it won’t happen again.’ Still bitter. ‘I have been very attentive you know, this whole time and I have barely asked you any probing questions.’ Verdad laughs. ‘I’ve held up my end of the deal. I’ve done everything you’ve asked of me, everything. And, still, I spend half of the time panicking, even though you tell me nothing is going to happen.’

  ‘Panicking?’

  ‘Yes. Do you know what I’ve thought the last week? First, that detective comes here to speak to Jenny and he’s not even supposed to know she’s here. Then, you call me during working hours, leaving me these flustered and panicky messages. I thought the police had gotten you and I know how you just love taking people down with you. I’ve been sitting here out of my mind waiting for someone to come here and cart me away!’

  Verdad couldn’t constrain his laughter. ‘Deborah, don’t you have any faith? The police have nothing on me. O’Connell is fishing around in a murky pool of water void of life. He has no idea what he’s doing. I admit, I wasn’t aware he knew Jenny was there, I imagine he followed me there the other week and found out. Naturally he would go and see her straight away.’

  ‘You certainly seem calm about the fact he came here now, nothing at all like the panicked message you left me.’

  ‘Yes, well I soon figured things out for myself. The only reason I have continued to call you so vigilantly is because I want to know how Jenny has been acting after my little visit, and after O’Connell’s visit as well, of course.’ His tone a little friendlier.

  ‘Yes, well. I’m not happy with you. Didn’t I say she was sick, couldn’t you have just taken my word for it?’

  ‘No.’ He picks up a toy model Mercedes sitting at the far end of his desk and starts playing with it.

  ‘Well, are you convinced now? Did you get your closure?’

  ‘Yes ... and no.’ He drives the car along the width of his desk.

  ‘What does that mean?’

  ‘Well, I’ll admit, Jenny does seem different, but ... traces of the real her are still there. You should forget about that nonsense you fed me about her pushing all thoughts and emotions aside and forgetting me. She knew exactly who I was, though I will say she wasn’t impressed to see me. But, I got what I wanted out of her. She swore she would never reveal my secret and that’s all I wanted to hear.’

  ‘Really? You’re not upset?’ Surprise.

  ‘Why would I be upset?’

  ‘Well ... I just got the impression that you were hoping she was pretending so that you could start over with her, or something like that ...’

  ‘Admittedly, that was my initial thought, but ...’ He hesitates.

  ‘But ...?’

  ‘The way she looked at me. She wants nothing to do with me, sane or otherwise. I’m man enough to accept that.’ He bites his lip.

  ‘Are you?’

  ‘Yes!’ He chortles. ‘Do you think you can let this little theory of yours go? It’s rather annoying.’ He gives the model car a hard push, it rolls right off the desk and clunks down onto the polished wood floor.

  ‘Okay, you’re the boss. So, you want to know how she’s acting?’

  ‘Yes.’ He leans back into his seat.

  ‘Well, she’s exactly the same. She couldn’t have cared less about you or O’Connell visiting her. I had to ask her about it, if I hadn’t of she wouldn’t have mentioned it at all.’

  ‘Well, what did she say when you asked her?’ He leans even further into his chair.

  ‘She said that you and O’Connell were madly in love with her and were both vying for her at
tention and hand in marriage.’ She snorts.

  Verdad smiles. ‘Well, she’s not half wrong there.’

  ‘What does that mean?’

  ‘Nothing, only that ... well ... it was very evident when I was with Jennifer that O’Connell had very strong feelings for her. He hated me – still does actually. He couldn’t bear being in the same room with us, you could tell by the look on his face. I almost felt sorry for him.’

  ‘Almost?’

  ‘Yes, well ... she is quite an enamouring woman. No sane guy would throw that away just because he felt sorry for the best friend. Did Jenny say anything else?’

  ‘No. Well ... she fed me this silly story about how she met O’Connell, which I knew wasn’t true because you’ve told me everything about both of them, so after that I just gave up.’

  ‘Right ... well, thank you Deborah. I appreciate everything. It doesn’t look as if anything is going to happen at the moment. Like I said the police have nothing and I’m more than confident that Jenny will keep my secret so I don’t have to worry about her. However, just to be safe I still want you to watch out. If you notice anything strange or unusual, besides the unusual stuff that already goes on there, call me straight away.

  ‘Besides that, enjoy your apparently busy new job.’

  ‘Alright. Good afternoon Marcus.’ She says quickly.

  ‘Goodbye.’ Verdad hangs up the phone. Relief washes away his anger.