✅ Potty Genius [NaNoWriMo 2022]

Nine

¿Was the doctor creepy?

Not at all. In fact, the impressions that I'd gotten from the stairs down shifted the more I saw of this place. It was clear that this place had been decorated by an amateur, and as I looked down at the chairs in the waiting area, I realised that one of them had a 'House Aid' safety test sticker on it. I knew that place; they would charge a nominal fee to pick up old furniture that was too big for the district's household waste collection, and they offered apprenticeships in furniture repair and restoration to people who had been deemed unemployable by the state programmes for a variety of reasons.

Dr Abbott didn't have a lot of money, or was struggling to pay off student loans. This weird basement office was probably the cheapest commercial plot in Ellisberg, and had been decorated at discount-bin prices. I didn't know if that meant the doctor was unskilled, or simply new to this business, but I told myself I could respect someone trying to carve out their own niche.

After what seemed like an age, the receptionist appeared again.

"Sorry for the delay, we're all cleaned up now. If you want to come through to the office, Dr Abbott has a few more questions for you. We might need to know a bit more, before deciding on the best way to approach this problem."

I hesitated for a second; hadn't she said before that I'd have to pay for an appointment with the actual therapist? But she was already turning down the corridor at the back of the reception area, and clearly wanted me to follow. It was just a short hallway, lit by a flightering strip light, with four doors off it. There was an office, therapy room, break room, and a toilet at the far end. The signs weren't fancy brass ones like you might see in an old doctor's office, or plastic with a name engraved, but pieces of notebook paper pinned to each door, and writing on them in black marker. One of the 'i's had a little heart above it.

She led me into the office, where I met the person who had presumably been shouting earlier. There were three mismatched chairs around what looked like a folding card table, and on the one farthest from the door was a young woman who looked barely a few years older than me. She was fiddling nervously with a paperclip as I entered, but when she saw that I was looking she quickly put it down. The table in front of her was damp, with a faint smell of some acetone, and there was a vivid green line like the edge of a puddle, which looked like someone had been scrubbing ineffectually.

It was the same lime green colour as four of the nails on Dr Abbott's left hand. Was that why they wanted me to explain my problem to the receptionist first? Because the doctor wanted a few minutes to finish fixing her nails?

"This is Doctor Abbott," the receptionist said, although I'd already been able to guess that much.

"Call me Theo," she said with a cheerful smile. "I think my name's on the sign, isn't it? Theodore, pronounced like 'Theodora' but spelled with an 'E'. Just in case you want to tell me I'm a guy in disguise or something. Some people are weird."

I didn't know what I was supposed to say to that. Was it the people who would be confused by her name who were weird, or the parents who had decided on an unconventional spelling? Either way, I figured it would be easier to call her Theo, as invited.

"Pleased to meet you. I'm Adrica. Do I need to explain–"

"Oh," the receptionist raised a hand to her mouth. "I was so excited to have a client, I forgot to ask your name. I'm sorry. And I'm Britney. I brought Dr Abbott up to speed while we were tidying up in here, but I think there might be a few more details we need to ask about. It's up to you if you're more comfortable talking to Dr Abbott alone, and then come back to me to make an appointment, or–"

"I get the impression you two are more of a team," I answered. "And I think this might be a bit of a weird one."

"Two heads are better than one," the hypnotist nodded. So I took a deep breath, and did my best to explain what had happened. From the lure of finding all the easter eggs, to the gifted tablet. I wanted to make it perfectly clear why I'd tried the thing, and why I even had that app, before I dared to tell them the name of the app.