Hell Calling Read Free Page B

with Laura, go out to dinner with Alicia, go for a day out at the aquarium next weekend...
    XI
    Everything in the lounge was still, immobile, as if paralysed. Carlos’ eyes were fixated on a part of the wall on which there were no pictures, shelves, or anything in particular. It was just a piece of smooth, white wall; undressed and clean. He needed to focus all of his attention on that piece of purity, on that empty and unspoiled space. In so doing, he was also able to keep his mind blank, like the wall. There was just the hi-fi emitting a weak melody, over and over again: Tannhäuser , by Wagner. Close to the armchair, to which he was glued, was a piece of paper that had been tossed onto the rug, with some words written on it: ‘This is a present for my Daddy, who I need and love loads and loads and loads. From Laura Miranda’.
    XII
    The woman, Marta, looked at him with an unusual intensity. Carlos reluctantly accepted the fact that, in reality, all psychologists have an element of deep scrutiny in their eyes.
    “I realise that you weren’t up to date on anything. You’ve no reason to be worried.”
    “Thank you very much. I won’t deny that I’m feeling rather uncomfortable.”
    Marta made a gesture of understanding.
    “You think I’m going to reproach you for something; that I’m thinking you’ve been a bad father, am I right?”
    “Yes.”
    “Well, push those thoughts from your mind. Nothing could be further from the truth. You’re a modern father, and that’s it. I’m getting increasingly used to the fact that parents don’t even come to see me themselves anymore; they send their nannies. That’s how things are.”
    On the one hand, Carlos was unsettled by the confidence with which the woman spoke to him, and on the other, he felt bizarrely comforted conversing with her.
    “What happened to Laura?”
    “I still don’t know. You’re daughter was highly intelligent, and behaved normally. She just had this fixation with drawing terrible pictures. I asked her about them many times, and she almost never gave me an answer. She used to just come out with excuses.”
    “And my wife...”
    “Your wife waited outside, the majority of times. Only on two occasions did I have them both here together: the first time, and the last time.”
    “And what was her opinion on it?”
    “Well... I believe that initially, your wife was very concerned... me included... at the end...”
    Carlos remained silent for a few seconds, trying to internally process those words.
    “You wouldn’t have any idea if there was anything in those last few days...”
    “Look... it’s just that I would not want to exaggerate anything, nor did I think that I, well...”
    “Please, I trust your word.”
    “Your wife told me that she was afraid Laura was capable of hurting either one of you. Your wife was beginning to think about admitting Laura to a psychiatric ward.”
    He shook his head, and shot up in his seat, as if wanting to detach himself from his own skin, which weighed him down incredibly, like his head, like his brain, like all of the ideas bubbling away inside him.
    “She never told me anything. She never shared her worries with me.”
    “Perhaps she was going to do it soon.’
    “And besides... my daughter was just a little girl... she was so lovely. I wasn’t with her for long, that’s true, but... It’s not possible, it’s just not possible...”
    “Like I already said, Laura was a little girl like any other.”
    “You said to me earlier that she ‘almost never’ gave an answer for the drawings... Is that because she actually did give an answer once?”
    Marta diverted her gaze for the first time, stood up, and went up to the window in her office, which was on the first floor in the school.
    “Listen, I think it would be best if we left this conversation for another day. I am a psychologist who specialises in children, but I also attend to adults in the morning, in my private practice.”
    Carlos wrung his