Cecelia Ahern - There’s No Place Like Here

I shrugged. “Maybe I know some things.”

“Well, I’m the person to go to if you want to get things.”

“Well, that’s why I’m here.” I smiled.

He became serious. I think. “Which one? You’re here to get something or to let me know something?”

I thought about that but didn’t answer aloud. “Aren’t you going to let me inside?”

“Of course.” he smiled and dropped the act. “I’m Bobby,” he said, and held out his hand. “But you already know that.”

“I do.” I smiled. “I’m Sandy Shortt,” I took his hand and shook it. It felt limp and I looked up to see his face that had paled.

“Sandy Shortt?” he asked.

“Yes.” My heart beat nervously. “Why, what’s wrong with that?”

“Sandy Shortt from Leitrim, Ireland?”

I let go of his limp hand and swallowed. I didn’t answer. It seemed that I didn’t need to. Bobby took me by the arm and led me to the shop. “I’ve been expecting you.” He looked over his shoulder one last time to see that no one was watching before dragging me inside and closing the door.

Then he closed the shop.

Leading away from St. Stephen’s Green, Leeson Street was a fine Georgian street largely intact. The buildings, once grand homes housing the aristocracy, now mainly housed businesses: hotels, offices, and the basements were home to Dublin’s “Strip,” a chain of thriving nightclubs and strip clubs.

A brass plate beside the grand black Georgian door announced the building to be Scathach House. Jack took the seven concrete steps up to the door and came face to face with a brass lion’s head with a ring clasped between his teeth. He was just about to grasp it and rap it against the door when he noticed a collection of buzzers to the right of the door: modern day’s ugly invention mingled with the old. He looked up Dr. Burton’s clinic; it was on the second floor, a PR agency at the bottom, a solicitor’s office at the top. He was buzzed upstairs where he waited in an empty reception area. The receptionist smiled at him and he felt like shouting, I’m not here for me , there’s nothing wrong with me, I’m investigating!

But he smiled back instead.

Magazines adorned the table, some a few months old, others a year old. He picked up one and self-consciously flicked through the pages, reading about a member of the royal family of an obscure country who lay across beds, couches, kitchen tables, and pianos in the favorite rooms of her house.

The door to Dr. Burton’s office opened and Jack quickly disposed of the magazine.

Dr. Burton was younger than Jack had imagined, mid-to-late forties. He had a tight beard, light brown, speckled with silver in places. He had piercing blue eyes, was five eleven, Jack guessed, and was dressed in jeans and a tan corduroy jacket.

“Jack Ruttle?” he asked, looking at him.

“Yes.” Jack stood and they greeted each other with a handshake.

The office was busy, the style of furniture and design eclectic with a packed bookshelf, a full desk, a line of filing cabinets, a wall of academic credentials, nonmatching rugs, a chair, and a couch. The place had character. It suited the man who sat before him in the chair taking his personal details.

“So, Jack.” Dr. Burton finished filling out the form and crossed his legs, focusing all his attention on Jack. Jack fought the urge to run out of the building. “Why is it that you have come here today?” he asked.

To find Sandy Shortt, he wanted to say, but instead shrugged and shifted uncomfortably in his seat. He wanted to just get this all over and done with right now. How on earth was he going to find out about Sandy through making up lies about himself? He hadn’t fully thought this through, assuming that everything would fall into place as soon as he’d walked into Dr. Burton’s office. What was it they said in the movies when the shrinks asked them questions? Think, Jack, think . “I’m under a lot of pressure,” he said a bit too confidently, pleased with himself for answering a question.

“What kind of pressure?”

What kind ? Was there more than one kind? “Just the normal kind of pressure.” He shrugged again.

Dr. Burton frowned and Jack feared he’d got the question wrong. “Is it due to work or-”

“Yeah.” He jumped in, “It’s work. It’s really”-he searched his brain-“pressurizing.”

“OK.” Dr Burton nodded. “What is it that you do?”

“I’m a stevedore in Shannon Foynes Port Company.”

“And what brings you to Dublin?”

“You.”

“You came all the way to see me?”

“I had to visit a friend too,” he said quickly.

“Oh, OK.” Dr Burton smiled. “So what is it about work that you find so pressurizing? Talk to me about it.”

“Uh, the hours.” Jack made an under-pressure face which he thought was convincing. “The hours are so long.” He was silent then and he clasped his hands together on his lap and nodded and looked around the room.

“How many hours do you work a week?”

“Forty.” He spoke before thinking.

“Forty hours aren’t more than average, Jack. Why is it you feel that you can’t cope with these?”

Jack’s face flushed.

“It’s OK to feel that way, Jack. Perhaps we can get to the root of why work is bothering you, if it is indeed work that is bothering you…”

Dr. Burton continued talking while Jack tuned out and looked around the room for signs of Sandy, as if she would have scribbled her name across the wall before she left. Jack realized Dr. Burton was staring at him in silence.

“Yes, I think that’s it,” Jack said, nodding, and looked at his hands, hoping he had said something suitable.

“And what’s her name?”

“Whose name?”

“Your partner, the person at home you’re having difficulties with?”

“Oh, Gloria,” he said, thoughts switching to her at home and how delighted she was that he was here today, spilling his heart out, when in the reality he wasn’t even listening. The more he thought about it, the angrier he began to feel inside.

“Do you talk to her about your feelings of stress and pressure?”

“Oh, no.” Jack laughed. “I don’t talk to Gloria about that kind of thing.”

“Why not?”

“Because she always has an answer, she always has a way to fix me.”

“You don’t want that?”

“No.” He shook his head. “ I don’t need to be fixed.”

“What needs to be fixed?”

He shrugged, not wanting to be dragged into this discussion.

Dr. Burton left a long silence and Jack felt the pressure of having to fill it. “It’s what’s going on around us that needs to be fixed,” he finally answered.

Dr. Burton waited for more.

“And…” He stalled a bit, then said, “So that’s what I’m trying to do.”

“You’re trying to fix what’s going on around you,” he repeated.

“That’s what I just said.”

“And Gloria’s not happy with this.”

Dr. Burton was being paid an extortionate amount of money for this, Jack thought incredulously. “No.” He shook his head. “She thinks I should move on and forget about everything.” He hadn’t actually meant to say any of that, but it hadn’t hurt and he still hadn’t given anything away.

“What does she want you to forget about?”

“Donal,” Jack said slowly, not sure whether to continue or not. Maybe if he explained, Dr. Burton would agree with him and he would finally have someone on his side. “The rest of the family are the same. They want to forget him, let him go, leave him behind. Well, I don’t think like that, you know? He’s my brother. Gloria looks at me like I’m crazy when I try to explain.”