Installation 38: All Quiet on the Phoebe Front previous
“You're quiet today.”
“Maybe I don't have anything to say. We just met on Friday.”
“Why don't we pick up where we left off. As I remember it, you were upset about your landlord and the late fee on your rent...”
“That's all worked out. I explained that I'd been sick and he cut me a break. I just have to pay the back rent.”
“So you get to keep your apartment?”
“Yeah.”
“And that's good news, isn't it?”
“Sure.”
“And yet you seem rather taciturn.”
“Mmmm...”
“And how are things with your boyfriend. Karl? Is that right?”
“We broke up.”
“He broke up with you or...?”
“We don't talk anymore. Except when I went to clean out my desk...”
“Wait a minute...”
“Because I've been demoted. I mean, they gave my job to Fern, that hatchet-faced bitch...”
“You seem to have strong feelings about Fern.”
“She's a total bitch. Even though I'm sorry she got jumped and almost smothered to death by the Phantom.”
“You're jumping around a lot. I can't follow.”
“OK, I'll go back to Karl. I went to clean out my desk and of course I ran into him, mostly because he was mooning around outside the office, waiting for me to come out. He said, “I heard you were back.' And I said, 'Well, no thanks to you.' And he said, 'What does that mean? I had no idea where you were.' And then I said he didn't try very hard to find me. And he said I never answer my phone.”
“Is that true? That he didn't try very hard? And do you answer your phone?”
“It's all over the Museum that I just went off on some bender or something, wandering the streets. Or I was in an institution. And this trollop in Development said I had a baby and gave it up for adoption.”
“And you maintain... Yes, here it is. You said in our first session that you were kidnapped by a man you call The Phantom. A man who wears a mask and lives in the storm sewer.”
“Yeah. I don't even know how long I was down there. A month?”
“Your employer states that you were missing for... a week and a half.”
“Whatever.”
“Are the police involved? Are you pressing charges?”
“It's not like he hurt me. We spent most of our time listening to records and making found object art.”
“I'm going to suggest something to you and I want you to hear me out before you react. Might you have experienced some sort of psychological break?”
“What does that mean?”
“Well, in our second session you told me that when you were young, you spent a couple of weeks living in a woods with some fairies. Might this be a recurrence of that kind of psychic break?”
“Oh, yeah, that.”
“Do you want to talk about that?”
“......”
“What I'm suggesting is that you maybe had a need to break from your everyday reality. To escape both physically and emotionally so that you could process whatever was happening to you.”
“Nothing was happening to me.”
“Are you sure? Are you sure Karl wasn't... violent? Was he hitting you?”
“I don't answer the phone when one of my shows is on. Like, if he calls during Project Runway. Or Little House on the Prairie reruns . I don't answer. Is that a sign of mental illness or something?”
“You're safe here, Phoebe. You can tell me what was really going on .”
“I was a little tired of watching kung fu movies. That's all.”
“Then this other person... Phantom... What was his motivation in taking you away?”
“Duh. He's in love with me. He wants me to be his wife.”
“Explain.”
“What? What's there to explain? This Phantom guy is in love with me and he'll do anything to spend time with me. Except that I pissed him off by taking off his mask.”
“What was under the mask?”
“It was pretty horrible. I mean, I see why he wears that thing all the time. It would be hard to go the grocery store looking like that.”
“So you're the beautiful young heroine who caught the monster's eye.”
“I guess so.”
“Is that an attractive story for you? What about it is so appealing?”
“I thought people like you were supposed to sit there and let me ramble on and just parrot back whatever I say.”
“Sometimes its like that.”
“I think I'd like that better.”
“OK, what would you like to talk about, since its not Karl or The Phantom?”
“I don't know. We could talk about Victoria and David Beckham. What do you think he sees in her? Although I heard he's kind of a dud.”
“Do you think he's kind of a dud?”
“It's hard to say. He doesn't speak very much. So that could mean quiet reserve or an empty head. But it doesn't really matter if you're interesting when you're hot and rich, right?”
“This is a topic that interests you? Despite the fact that you claim to have been kidnapped by a masked man, held hostage for a week and a half and then found, nearly naked, in a rocky stream...”
“See, I have a lot of time on my hands in my new position. They made me work in coat check. But it's summer. Mostly I check camera bags and backpacks. I have to look in the backpacks to make sure I'm not accepting a bomb and that's the extent of my job. I have to occupy myself somehow but there's no computer. So I read celebrity mags all day. I think its giving me a negative body image.”
“What is your body image?”
“Nice hair. A bit heavy in the thighs. Shapely calves. Butt is too flat. I spend a lot of time thinking about how to get a rounder ass.”
“Go on.”
“I guess that's it.”
“Do you want to talk about your relationship with your father?”
“Why? Did he call you or something?”
“No.”
“Oh, well, he's OK. We get along.”
“What about your mother? What kinds of things did she do to embarrass you in high school?”
“Uh... She came to my prom to watch me slow dance. It was an organized thing – there was a bleacher section for the parents. Is that something you would consider scarring?"
“Not really.”
“I really like your drapes. I don't usually like drapes but yours are nice.”
“I think we should talk about this demotion at work. And your non-break-up break-up with Karl.”
“.....”
“Well, our time is up for today. See you on Thursday.”
“See you Thursday.”