“ Have you ever had a nervous breakdown?” She was watching him now, her eyes wary.“ No. Do you think I need one?”
He did not smile. He spoke slowly, choosing his words with care.“ The human psyche is a delicate thing, Mrs. Douglas. It can take only so much pain and when the pain becomes unbearable, it escapes into hidden recesses of the mind that we are just beginning to explore. Your emotions are stretched very tight.” He looked at her a moment.“ I think it is a good thing you came to someone for help.”
“ I know I’ m a little nervous,” Catherine said defensively.“ That’ s why I drink. To relax me.”
“ No,” he said bluntly.“ You drink to escape.” Nikodes got up and walked over to her.“ I think there’ s probably a good deal we can do for you. By‘ we,’ I mean you and I. It will not be simple.”
“ Tell me what to do.”
“ To begin with I am going to send you to a clinic for a thorough physical examination. My feeling is that they will find nothing basically wrong with you. Next, you are going to stop drinking. Then I am going to put you on a diet. All right so far?”
Catherine hesitated, then nodded.
“ You are going to enroll in a gymnasium, where you will work out regularly to get your body back in shape. I have an excellent physiotherapist who will give you massages. You will go to a beauty parlor once a week. All this will take time, Mrs. Douglas. You did not get in this condition overnight, and it will not be changed overnight.” He smiled at her reassuringly.“ But I can promise you that in a few months— even a few weeks— you will begin to look and feel like a different woman. When you look in your mirror, you will feel proud— and when your husband looks at you, he will find you attractive.”
Catherine stared at him, her heart lifting. It was as though some unbearable burden had been removed from deep inside her, as though she had suddenly been given a new chance to live.
“ You must clearly understand that I can only suggest this program for you,” the doctor was saying.“ It is you who must do it.”
“ I will,” Catherine said fervently.“ I promise.”“ To stop drinking will be the most difficult part.”
“ No, it won’ t,” Catherine said. And as she said it, she knew it was true. The doctor had been right: She had been drinking in order to escape. Now she had a goal, she knew where she was going. She was going to win back Larry.“ I won’ t touch another drop,” she said firmly.
The doctor saw the look on her face and nodded, satisfied.“ I believe you, Mrs. Douglas.”
Catherine rose to her feet. It amazed her how clumsy and awkward her body was, but