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the cat though. I hope he hasn’t run away.
    Yes. Me too. Will you promise me that if you’re worried about things, particularly if you’re worried you might,you know, harm yourself, or anything, you have to promise you’ll contact me first .
    I promise. That’s fine. I promise. I’m really quite okay. Okay? My life might not be at one of its high points at the moment, but I’m fine. I’m getting through this. I’m going quite well. I’m working and renovating, and it’s all going fine.
    Good. I’m glad. I’m very glad. And I’m glad that we’ve had this chance to talk. Now, I think it would be good if we could talk again. So what I’d like you to do is to come back and see me, maybe in a couple of days. And we can take a look at those wounds, see how they’re going, and we can talk. Okay ?
    Well, I’m a bit busy.
    Cat scratches can be prone to infection. I really need to look at those wounds again .
    Okay.
    Okay.
    Thanks.
    He smiles, but with some gravity, and he walks out of the treatment room. The nurse reappears and says, All done in here ? as though she wants me to know she doesn’t know what the talk was about. She shows me back out to the counter, where I sign the Medicare form.
    Now, did you have to make a follow-up appointment ? the receptionist asks.
    No. No. Everything’s fine. All sorted out.
    The intercom buzzes. She picks up the phone, says, Yes, yes, okay , and turns back to me.
    Doctor says he would like you to have another appointment .
    Oh, right, I must have misunderstood.
    Yes. He said a long appointment in two days time would be fine .
    Oh, good.
    Now, he’s working during the day on Thursday, eight to five, and the morning’s filling up .
    I could be a bit busy on Thursday.
    Yes. Let’s make it Thursday afternoon. How about four-thirty ?
    Four-thirty’s fine.
    She smiles, and only then lets me go.
    At home, Greg (the cat) is waiting on the front steps, as though nothing has happened.

15
    I wake every time I roll over. My arms are burning, throbbing, like a red neon light saying Dickhead in very large letters.
    I turn up to work wearing a T-shirt and looking like crap. I have worn my best T-shirt, since this is work after all, but unfortunately my best T-shirt is a partially luminous Felix the Cat, given to me for my last birthday by everyone on the fifteenth floor. They made me put it on as soon as I’d unwrapped it and Hillary said, It glows in the dark, look , and she cupped her hands against my chest and looked through the eye hole made by her thumbs. And I had to stand quite still while seven or eight people stood around me, looking through their cupped hands at Felix the Cat and going, Hey yeah .
    Christ Rick , Hillary says when she sees me, what’s wrong ?
    Nothing, really, nothing.
    It doesn’t look like nothing. What have you done to yourself ?
    Nothing. I have done nothing to myself. I want that to be totally clear. This is not something I’ve done to myself.
    Okay, okay , she says, backing off almost physically. I just meant it like Hey, what have you done to yourself, you know? What’s happened to you? That kind of question .
    Sorry.
    Okay, so we’ll try it again. This time you answer, like a really calm, normal person. Hey, Rick, what have you done to yourself ?
    And she’s making gestures, as though this is a role play.
    I gave the cat a flea bath.
    She laughs. I can’t help but smile myself.
    It’s a very tough cat.
    That’s it? Really? A flea bath ?
    Yeah. That’s all there is to it. Well, the cat did get slightly upset. I have to leave early tomorrow afternoon for the doctor to check things, if that’s okay. He said cat scratches get infected easily.
    Sure .
    After some more reassurance that from the elbows up I’m no better or worse off than yesterday she lets me go to my office to start work. I can see I now have a new dimension to the