Therapist Number Four

Amelia Pond sat alone in the room, waiting for someone to show up. She'd done this too many times before to be nervous. Her therapist said she would be right back, but she thought therapists did this in order to allow their patients to feel more comfortable with being in a strange room. Amelia sure felt like a patient at this point. Just when her palms began to get a little sweaty, the woman returned.

"Well, hello Amelia."

"Hello," she responded hesitantly.

The therapist sat down in a chair opposite to Amelia and pulled out a clipboard. "My name is Violet Hadley. You can call me Violet, if you like."

"Okay."

"What year are you in?"

"Fifth grade."

"Are you having a hard time with school this year?"

"Not really," Amelia admitted, letting her long red hair fall into her face. "It's my teacher."

"Yes, your aunt was telling me all about your teacher. Why do you think she's worried about you, Amelia?"

Amelia's eyes dropped to the floor. "She's not the first, you know. My teacher – Ms. Oliver – she's not the first one to talk to my aunt about me."

"Well, why do you think people are worried?"

"I don't know why I need to see so many therapists," she said meekly. "You're my third one this month."

"Is that so? You must know all about how this works then – how we're trying to help you." When Amelia didn't respond after a moment, Violet tried a new tactic. "What do you like so much about this man, Amelia? The Raggedy Doctor, as you call him in your stories."

Her eyes teared up a little before she said, "I miss him, is all."

"Why do you miss a character in a story?" Violet smiled. "That's what books are great for – you can start to write more of your stories and he'll be there again."

"The Doctor's not a character," Amelia said with a little more attitude. "He's real."

Bingo. Violet got what she wanted to hear. "Why do you believe he's real, Amelia? Why do you want him to be real?"

"He's not a character. He is real. He came to me one night about the crack in my wall."

"What crack in your wall?"

"There were voices coming from it."

"Forget about the crack, Amelia. Let's talk about the Doctor."

"You asked about the crack."

"And now I'm asking about the Doctor."

"He was going to save me."

"Save you from what?"

The crescendo of Violet's questioning and Amelia's quick responses had come and passed, and all that remained was silence as Amelia pondered. "You mean besides the crack in my wall, don't you?"

"Yes, that's what I mean."

There was a pause as she hesitated, then finally was able to vocally admit, "He was going to save me from my life."

"How was he going to do that?" Violet asked, now starting to feel more and more worried about this girl's mental health.

"He was going to take me away in his blue box."

"What blue box?"

"A police box. He said it was a time machine."

"Did… did he take you into his blue box?"

"No."

Violet took a deep breath and approached her next idea with caution. "Did this man, the Doctor you say, did he touch you in an…?"

"God, no!" Amelia shouted as she was growing frustrated, but brought her voice back after her sudden outburst. "No."

"I thought maybe calling him The Doctor was your way of dealing with…"

"No, there was none of that."

"So why did you want to go into his time machine?"

"Surely not because I wanted to see his danglers!" Violet didn't look amused with Amelia's attitude, so she decided to be honest. "Because my life is boring. I wanted an adventure."

"Oh, Amelia," Violet sighed and sat forward in her chair so she was nearly face-to-face with her patient. "Everyone thinks their life is boring. But it's not impossible to find adventure in things that are real. Maybe you can try going for a walk and picking out…"

"He is real!"

"Take a class learning how to do something you love, maybe an art class where you can draw some more of your stories with the Doctor. Leave him on the page."

"He's real."

Violet's frustration with Amelia was visible on her tightly drawn features, but she had one more idea. "Okay Amelia, let's assume the Doctor is real…"

"He is."

"Why didn't you go away with him?"

Amelia's face fell, as though she'd instantly lost all her confidence. "He left me behind."

"Why would he do that?"

"He promised he'd be back in five minutes…"

"But he wasn't."

"No."

"So if he forgot about you and left you behind, don't you think it's time you left him behind, too?" The fact that Amelia didn't have a moody retort was Violet's invitation to keep talking. "He hurt you. He clearly doesn't care about you as much as you think he does, Amelia. He's not the good guy. He lied to you. If he did all of those things, he's not worth waiting around for." Little Amelia put her hands in her lap and sighed. "Do you want to share what you're thinking with me, Amelia?"

She nodded her head and let loose another audible sigh. Suddenly her eyes went wide and her mouth was locked in a frown. "He didn't lie. He's coming back for me. He is real!"

Amelia jumped from her seat and sunk her teeth into Violet's arm, forcing her to drop her clipboard and tears to emerge from her eyes. "You bit me!"

Amelia fastened the buttons of her red coat and strode out the door of Violet's office with the intent of never forgetting the Raggedy Doctor and his promise.