Page 124 of Cuts like a Knife
Claire rolls her eyes. “Oh please. She said that to all of us.”
“She did not,” I say.
“No, she did,” Di says. “She told me I was in charge of all of you. She told Claire she was in charge of everyone younger than her. She told you and Bex you were in charge of the boys. I don’t know who she told the boys they were in charge of. Maybe no one.”
“Are you serious? Why?”
“It’s fairly ingenious. If we all felt responsible, we all behaved better.”
“Erica Madison. I can’t believe it. Diabolical. How did I never figure this out?”
“I don’t know. I did.” Diana shrugged, dismissively. “Not to change the subject, but I’m going to give you David’s number.353”
“David?”
“My therapist? David? I’ve mentioned him many times. Do any of you ever listen? He can refer you to someone. You need to talk to someone.”
“You’re in therapy?”
“Of course. It’s not a secret. We should all be in therapy. I’ve told you this.”
“It’s true. She has said that before,” says Claire.
“I don’t need therapy!”
“You probably do. I did,” Claire says.
“And I did. Do. It’s very helpful,” Di adds.
“But …”
“You’ve been through a trauma,” Claire says.
“Claire,” I say, “What happened to you, like, with the baby, was traumatic. My stuff is not.”
“Yes it is. It’s just a different kind of trauma. But it is traumatic,” Di says. “I’m no doctor, but I have had plenty of first hand experience with therapy and I’ve read the DSM-5 in detail. It sounds like you’re experiencing acute anxiety, maybe PTSD.”
“What?”
“P-T-S-D? Post-traumatic-stress-disorder? I’m sorry, are you not a journalist? Surely you’ve heard of it?”
“I’ve heard of it, I just don’t have it. I was fired. I haven’t been though a war.”
“You don’t have to have been through a war. You’ve been through a trauma. Getting fired is traumatic. Especially the way they handled it. It’s very reasonable to be upset after the way they treated you. Obviously, it’s had a lasting effect.”
“But … it was my fault. I deserved it.”
Diana scoffs. “No you didn’t. You made one mistake.”
“I’m a plagiarist!”
“Alleged plagiarist. That Alan Segal can sue, if it’s so important for him to prove that. And he hasn’t.”
“Besides, it sounds like it was that awful Rian’s fault, not yours,” adds Claire.
I can’t believe this. It is so not the reaction I expected.
“And that spy-person email sounds like harassment to me. You should go to your IT department and get them to trace it. And write back to tell whoever sent it not to contact you again. Be explicit. Say if they don’t stop, you’ll go after them for harassing you.”
