She was suspicious from the start, and Gloria thought that perhaps she
shouldn't have done anything. But it was obvious that the woman needed
help to become a functioning member of society.
The only trouble was that Gloria hadn't been quite expert enough. Oh,
given enough time, the command would work, and eventually become part of
the personality. But, because Mrs. Wladek had been afraid and a little
forewarned, she'd been able to fight off the command a little.
_Practice_, Gloria told herself, _makes perfect._ And it wasn't her
fault that she couldn't do any better. Next time, she'd have a little
more practice and she'd be able to do a clearer and more complete job.
And, in the meantime, there was no real harm done. Mrs. Wladek would
come round, before long, and then everything would be all right.
Why, after all, there was Rudi, too. And Rudi undoubtedly had a job by
now, or at least a good chance of one through an employment agency.
There was no reason to be depressed.
* * * * *
Her son was waiting for her when she arrived at her home once more. Mrs.
Wladek looked at the boy with relief and some suspicion. It was not
natural for Rudi to be at home during such an hour; he was out with his
friends through the day, and this was good for a boy.
"Ma," Rudi said, "guess what?"
"You are in trouble," Mrs. Wladek said at once, in a heavy voice.
"Trouble? I got no troubles, ma," Rudi said. He stood before her in the
dusty living room, self-assured and proud, and it came to Mrs. Wladek
all at once that her boy was a man.
"What is it?" she demanded. "Tell me at once."
"Sure I will. Ma," Rudi said. "I got a job. I start tomorrow. In an
office, wrapping things. The mail room, they call it."
Silence descended on the little room.
"Ma," Rudi said at last. "Ma, what's wrong?"
"Wrong?" Mrs. Wladek said. "What should be wrong? Nothing at all is
wrong. You have a job, very well, you have a job."
"You're not happy about it, Ma?"
Mrs. Wladek gave a short bark. "Happy? Indeed I should be happy? My son
goes to work, like a dog, and I should be--" She paused and gasped
suddenly. "Why did you go to work?"
"You mean why did I get a job, Ma?" Rudi said. "Listen, let's have
supper and we'll talk about it, huh?"
"Supper?" Mrs. Wladek snorted. "Supper we will have when I find out what
I need to know. Not before."
"But I'm hungry, Ma, and ... oh, all right." Rudi sat down on the old
brown couch and sighed. "I just thought it would be a good idea to get a
job, bring some bread into the house, you know? So I went down to the
agency, and they had this application waiting, and I went down and got
the job, and I start tomorrow. That's all. Now let's eat."
"You got the idea to have a job?" Mrs. Wladek said. "Fine. Fine. Just
fine. And when did you get this idea?"
"I don't know," Rudi said, and shrugged. "Some time. This morning,
maybe. Look, what difference does it make? I thought you'd like the
idea, Ma. Some more dough coming in ... you know."
"This morning." Mrs. Wladek raised clenched fists over her head.
"Cossacks!" she screamed. "Monsters! Witches!"
Lunchtime.
Gloria looked up and smiled sweetly and distantly as Harold Meedy
appeared at her desk. "Got any special place to go?" he said.
"As a matter of fact--" she began, but he was too quick for her.
"It's always 'as a matter of fact,'" he said. "What's the matter--you
got another boy friend or something? You don't like poor Harold? Look,
Gloria, if you want to avoid me, then you go ahead and avoid me. But--"
"It's nothing like that," Gloria said.
"So come on," Harold said. "Listen, I'm really a sweet guy when you get
to know me. You'd like me. Sure you would."
"I'm sure," Gloria said. "But I really do have something to take care
of."
"Can't you take care of it later?"
She shook her head.
"Well ... all right, if you want me to grow up all frustrated." He
grinned at her and moved away.
When they were all gone, and only Mr. Fredericksohn remained in his
private office, behind the closed door, Gloria opened a drawer of her
desk and took out a piece of modeling clay a little bigger than her
fist. Working without haste, and never bothering to look up she made a
doll in the shape of a tall, thin boy.
The voodoo sects in Haiti used hair or fingernail parings from the
subject, Gloria knew; she had learned that in her college research, but
she had known about the doll long before. Hair and fingernail parings:
what superstition! And it wasn't as if you really needed the doll; if
necessary, you could get along very well without it. But it was a help;
it made things easier; and why not?
She tried to picture Tom Francis. His mother's description of him had
been pretty vague, but Gloria found she could locate him at his house;
she turned the doll until she had the feeling of contact, and then--
There.
It didn't take long, actually, not once you had your subject located.
Tom hadn't really been a hard case; his juvenile delinquency, Gloria was
quite sure, was a thing of the past. He'd be back in school as soon as
the details could be worked out between Mrs. Francis and the Board of
Education, and that would take care of that.
With a satisfied smile, she put the doll away in her drawer. She'd mash
it back into clay later in the afternoon; that would enable her to use
the same piece over and over again.
Clay cost money, and a case worker's salary wasn't large. Gloria could
not see how she could put the cost of the clay down on a special
requisition, anyhow; she had to pay for it herself, and so she was very
careful and saving with it.
After she'd put the Tom doll away with the Rudi doll, making a mental
note to take care of both of them before she left for the day, she
fished out her beret and put it on and went out for a quick lunch.
* * * * *
It was just after two o'clock when Mr. Gerne came in. The others were
used to his periodic arrivals, of course, and Gloria had never felt any
fear of the director. He didn't work in the same office, but elsewhere
in the building, and once a week he made a habit of touring the various
social-work agencies under his direction.
It kept the workers on their toes, Gloria imagined: the actual sight of
the boss' boss would do that. Mr. Gerne never smiled; he was a small,
thin-lipped man with white skin and very little hair. He stood in the
outer office, peering round, for a few minutes, and then, nodding his
head slowly, he went on and knocked at Mr. Fredericksohn's door.
"Who's there?" Mr. Fredericksohn called from inside.
"Mr. Gerne," said Mr. Gerne. There was a little pause, and then Mr.
Fredericksohn said:
"Ah. Come in."
The door opened and shut and Mr. Gerne was invisible.
Gloria picked up a folder and pretended to concentrate on it. Of course,
she could hear what was happening in the private office perfectly well.
She remembered studying medieval witchcraft and thought suddenly of
astral bodies.
But that had been a guess some distance from the truth.
The projection of the sense of hearing was such a simple thing, really;
why did people have to complicate it with all this talk about witches
and the soul--she was reminded of Mrs. Wladek but put the woman out of
her mind. Mr. Gerne was talking.
"... For instance, the new girl--what's her name?"
"Gloria Scott," Mr. Fredericksohn's voice said. "Yes?"
"What's she like?" Mr. Gerne's voice said. "I don't know her
personally--of course I've seen her there in the office, and she seems
like a friendly, pretty girl. But you deal with her every day--"
"Very nice," Mr. Fredericksohn said. "Pleasant and easy to work with. A
good type. Now, you take her record--"
"That's what I meant," Mr. Gerne said. "A record like that--it's just
not possible. There isn't any chance she's faking it?"
After a little silence Mr. Fredericksohn said: "No chance at all. I've
had follow-ups on a random selection of her cases--standard practice for
a newcomer. Of course, she doesn't know about any of that."
"Of course. And?"
"No fakes," Mr. Fredericksohn said. "And don't tell me it's hard to
believe. I know perfectly well it's hard to believe."
"No returns," Mr. Gerne said. "Not a single return in over a month."
"Except the old woman," Mr. Fredericksohn said. "Mrs. Wladek."
Gloria turned a page in the report she was holding, without taking her
attention from the conversation in the private room.
It was always helpful to know the kind of thing people said about you,
as well as what they thought. It gave you more facts to work with, and
made you more efficient and better able to work at your chosen
profession.
Mr. Gerne was saying: "You can discount Mrs. Wladek. That one's a
trouble-spot."
"Always has been," Mr. Fredericksohn said.
"All right, then discount her," Mr. Gerne said. "Forget about her.
And--outside of that one case--there hasn't been a repeat."
"Some of the clients have died," Mr. Fredericksohn said.
Mr. Gerne waited a second. Then he said: "A little higher percentage
than normal. So?"
"I mean, that's a reason for some of the non-repeats."
"And the others?" Mr. Gerne paused a minute and then went on. "You can't
discount the girl's record like that."
"I wasn't trying to," Mr. Fredericksohn said mildly. "I was only
pointing out--"
"Let those go," Mr. Gerne said. "Obviously she had no control over that
sort of thing. Unless you think she went out and killed them?"
"Of course not." Mr. Fredericksohn said.
"And outside of that, then--no repeats. The girl's a wonder."
"Certainly," Mr. Fredericksohn said. "Let's see how long it keeps up,
that's all."
Mr. Gerne said: "Pessimist. All right, we'll drop the subject for now.
Anyway, I did want to talk to you about the progress reports we've been
getting from Frazier's office. It seems to me--"
Gloria broke the connection. Frazier, a supervisor for another office,
didn't interest her; she only wanted to hear what the conversation about
herself would be like. Well, now she knew.
And, thankfully, no one suspected a thing. Why, the subject had been
brought up, right in the open, and dropped without a word or a thought.
"Unless you think she went out and killed them."
Gloria didn't smile. The idea was not funny. Sometimes you had to do
something like that--but the necessity didn't make it pleasant.
The trouble was that you couldn't always cure something by a simple
projection into the mind. Sometimes you ran into a compulsion that was
really deeply buried.
If the compulsion was a big one, and went back far into childhood,
Gloria couldn't do anything directly about it. Sometimes it was possible
to work around, and, of course, you did that when you could. The
important thing was society, but you salvaged the individual wherever
possible.