“Where is it? Where is the painting?”
“Don’t concern yourself with it. It wasn’t such a great painting, anyway,” he said.
And with that he wrapped the blanket from his bed around me, and led me down the stairs.
*
“I fear I’m going mad,” I finally uttered after catching my breath.
The doctor smiled tenderly. “It’s all in how you perceive it. This doesn’t have to be so sinister. In fact, I can think of few things more natural than the completion of a life cycle.”
“You make it sound so innocent,” I sniffed and choked on tears. “I would hardly categorize this as a school science experiment. You’ve made no mention of tadpoles or petri dishes.”
“I haven’t gotten to that part yet.”
I curled up in the big leather chair, under the blanket, and took in the details of the room. It was a templ
