INSTALLMENT #3


Genevieve began to panic, ousting her body from the overly comfortable chair as if she’d suddenly sat on a pin. She turned from left to right as if hoping some magic door would suddenly appear through which she could escape. “Genevieve” said Dr. Hendricks instantly, “now I need for you to calm down. You cannot panic! I understand that you’re scared right now and worried but I need you to compose yourself.” “Oh God, Oh God, Oh God! What do you mean ‘don’t panic’?! What am I supposed to do now doctor?!” said Genevieve hysterically as she nervously paced the floor. “Well for one, I need for you to keep quiet! Let me go out there and handle it. I promise you it’ll all be okay. Do you trust me?” asked the doctor. Genevieve continued to pace, wringing her hands with every step. Dr. Hendricks stepped in front of her, grabbing her by both of her shoulders, “Genevieve, do you trust me?” Looking at the doctor and realizing she had no other choice, she nodded her head yes. At this point there was nothing she could do, except perhaps wait for them to burst their way into the doctor’s office and take her away.
“Wait here Genevieve” urged Dr. Hendricks, “give me just a few moments and I’ll be right back.” Genevieve, mentally wrecked, reclaimed her seat in the chair to wait on what she perceived to be her dreaded fate in the back of a police car. Dr. Hendricks exited the office and closed the door quickly behind her.
The doctor walked into the office waiting room to find two police officers seated in the chairs, ready and anxious to question her about Genevieve’s whereabouts. “Hello, gentlemen, I’m Dr. Gail Hendricks. How are you?” said the doctor as she reached out to shake hands with the officers, greeting them politely. “Hello, Dr. we’re doing just find today. This is Officer Henley and I am Officer Valeski. We’re sorry to bother you, we’re sure you’re very busy but we’ve come here today to inquire about what you may know concerning a Mrs. Genevieve O’Hare?” asked the policeman. “Genevieve O’Hare?” asked Dr. Hendricks returning his question in the same manner. “Uh yes, we have reason to believe that she’s come here to your office, as a patient perhaps.” said Officer Valeski. “What would make you think that?” asked Dr. Hendricks “Well, Dr. we believe that Mrs. O’Hare started a fire at a residence in the suburb of Brentwood down in Los Angeles about 3 days ago. A Mrs. Julianne Norris reported it on March 15, at 3:00p.m. A check was then cashed in Mrs. O’Hare’s name here in Monterey at a local bed and breakfast about 3 miles up the coast on March 16th. We went there to investigate and the owner directed us to you when she spotted Mrs. O’Hare checking out your listing in the phonebook. We decided we would check with you to see if you knew of any information regarding Mrs. O’Hare.” said Officer Valeski.
“With all due respect” responded Dr. Hendricks, “You two, being officers of the law know just as well as I do that verifying any information on any patient that I might have, is a direct violation of my doctor-patient confidentiality obligation.” “Okay” responded Officer Henley breaking his silence “I think this means that we can safely deduce that you have seen her since you are obviously not willing to give us any information on her. I mean if she wasn’t your patient you could simply say that you don’t know anyone by that name and we can all continue on with our day.” he said sarcastically.
“Well” said Dr. Hendricks smiling, “you may deduce whatever you like. However, until you have received sufficient evidence to take this Mrs. O’Hare to court for whatever violation she is accused of and I am then subpoenaed according to the law by a judge to provide any information, until then officers, I am sorry but there is no information that I am able to give to you at this time.” With a defeated smile, Officer Henley dropped his shoulders, “Fair enough Dr. Hendricks. Sorry we wasted your time” “That is quite alright gentlemen, you have a great afternoon.” said the doctor. She watched and waited as the two men left the office. Dr. Hendricks turned to look at the receptionist and took a deep breath. “Dr. Hendricks, I’d just like to say that working for you is better than sitting home all day in front of the tube watching a marathon of ‘As the World Turns’ with a big bucket of bon bons!” said Rose enthusiastically. “Rose!” responded Dr. Hendricks grinning and shaking her head. “I’m just saying…” said the receptionist.
Genevieve’s head turned towards the door and once again she jumped from her chair as soon as the door opened and Dr. Hendricks returned. “What happened, are they still out there, are they still waiting to take me away?!” she asked frantically “No Genevieve, relax. Remember I told you I would take care of it. They’re gone.” said Dr. Hendricks looking intently at her wrecked patient. Genevieve continued taking deep breaths to relax from the incident that she knew she had full well escaped by the skin of her teeth. She sat back down in the chair and simply stared at the light brown carpet as if it would give her a solution to her problem. Dr. Hendricks interrupted her concentration. “Genevieve, I need to know exactly what happened with the fire. I know our time is up but I am concerned about your mental stability at this point and I need to know what happened.”
Without so much as a pause, Genevieve began to speak. “As I said earlier, after finding Gavin and my sister, I left. I was gone for a few days. They’d all called me repeatedly to try to find out where I was but I wouldn’t answer. I knew that Gavin liked to bog himself down at the office when there were issues with us at home and this was major so I was certain he wouldn’t be there. At that time I was still in L.A. just on the opposite side of town where no one would assume to find me. I went back to the house on a Tuesday, about 10a.m. Believe it or not, I went back to see if I could calm myself, to try to figure out if I had anything inside of me to be able to work this out with him. But, as soon as I opened the door to the house, it all came flooding back to me again. With each step I took further and further into the house, the more livid I became. I finally went into the bedroom and I couldn’t even stand to go near the bed. I didn’t want to touch it! All of a sudden I begin to feel cold all over, and this rage, there was just this rage!” “It’s okay Genevieve, it’s okay, keep going.” urged the doctor.
Genevieve continued, “At the time I wasn’t worried about arson because blood was thicker than water and vows are sacred, or so I thought! I did it, all of it before he ever made it back home from work. I grabbed his extra stash of gasoline out of the garage. I went through the house yanking down all of the photographs, pulling down all of the artwork from the walls, grabbed his clothes from the closet, and every trinket he had ever brought me, including my wedding ring and I piled it all on top of the bed. That big elaborate California King we shared. I doused everything with the gasoline! How nice it would be I thought, when he’d finally come back home to find all that he obviously cared NOTHING about to be gone, and to find me gone, miles away from him, from what we had, just leaving the shit behind. I lit a match and it seemed as in one breath everything went up in flames. I even stood there with the fire growing for a few moments and watched it burn. It was like watching my whole entire life go up in flames. Once I realized the smoke alarm was actually going off, I left. I figured the little he could manage to save from the ash and rubble he could share with my darling sister.”
“Okay” said Dr. Hendricks listening and fully able to see the rage in Genevieve’s eyes. “The lady who reported the fire, Julianne Norris, who is she?” asked the doctor. “Julianne Norris?” asked Genevieve seeming confused. “She reported the fire?” “Yes” said Dr. Hendricks, “That was according to the police officers. Who is she? Is she a neighbor who may have seen you leave the house?” she asked. “No!” said Genevieve, “Julianne’s my sister! After everything that bitch came back! I can’t believe she came back!” “Maybe she felt the need to give you an explanation, an apology.” said the doctor. “What sort of an apology could she possibly give?!” yelled back Genevieve. “I don’t know” responded the doctor “but for now I’m going to give you a prescription for Xanax. This will help you to calm down. I want you to get a good night’s rest. Here is the emergency number for my cell. I will be on call tonight so I’m available if you should happen to need me. If you are still in Monterey by next Thursday, I want you to come back and see me. I’ll have Rose schedule you for 2:00p.m. How’s that?” asked Dr. Hendricks “That’s fine.” responded Genevieve. At this point she was happy to accept any form of medication that would help her get through to the next day. She knew what she had to do. She’d already paid for her stay at the B&B. All of her belongings were in the trunk of her car. She would keep driving and she would cash no more checks, she would stop by an ATM and figure out her next step when she got to wherever it was she decided to go. She thanked the doctor for all of her help. She took the number and the appointment card and she left.
Assuming the worst was over, Dr. Hendricks decided they would call it a day. Her last appointment had canceled and although business was needed she considered it a blessing in disguise. Just as she was informing her receptionist that they could wrap it up for the day, the phone rang. “Good afternoon, Dr. Gail Hendricks office, this is Rose speaking, how may I help you.” Dr. Hendricks, could faintly hear a voice on the other end but could not make out what was being said, all she could clearly see was Rose’s face slowly revealing shock. Rose then asked the caller on the other end to hold blocking the receiver with her hand, “Dr. I think you want to take this.” she said. “Rose, I don’t care how good the story is, how big the problem is, or how mental the case is. We are done for the day. Let whoever it is know that I have a free appointment slot for 11am on this coming Friday. That’s all for now.” said Dr. Hendricks confidently assuming she’d thwarted another problem for the day. “Dr. Hendricks, I do apologize but I think you may want to take this one.” said Rose “Why Rose? What is so important?” said the doctor impatiently as she proceeded to walk back into her office to pack up her briefcase. “It’s a Gavin Norris on the phone, he says he has information you may need to know regarding Mrs. O’Hare.” she said. Dr. Hendricks stopped what she was doing, looking confused, “Gavin Norris? Don’t you mean Gavin O’Hare Rose.” “Nope” said Rose “I’m pretty sure I heard him say Gavin Norris.” Dr. Hendricks took a deep breath, “Fine!” she said.
“Hello, this is Dr. Hendricks speaking how may I help you?” she asked. “Hello Dr.” said the man on the other end of the line, “My name is Gavin Norris. I’m calling concerning Genevieve O’Hare. The police told us that they had reason to believe that you are seeing her as a patient so I decided to look you up and call you myself.” “Okay look” said Dr. Hendricks becoming very much annoyed at this point, “as I told the officers that were here, I do not give out information on patients! And who may I ask are you?” asked Dr. Hendricks forcefully. “As I said before, my name is Gavin Norris, and I’m not calling to try to get any information out of you on Genevieve, I’m actually calling to give YOU information. I’m Genevieve’s brother-in-law.” he said. “Brother-in-law?” asked Dr. Hendricks now very stunned and confused, “What do you mean ‘brother-in-law’?!” “I’m her brother-in-law doctor. From the confusion in your voice I am certain that if you’ve seen her, she’s told you we are married. I can assure we are not. She’s a liar and she’s crazy. Genevieve is not my wife….”


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