Ed sat in a chair outside the Guidance Counselor's office. He'd been there so long that his legs were asleep. Pollan liked to make him wait, wrongly assuming that it gave him an advantage.
At last, the door opened. Pollan crept out. He waited, in vain, for Ed to speak first.
"Ed?"
"Mister Pollan?"
"Doctor Pollan, please."
"Doc." Ed's smile would seem friendly to a stranger.
"Are we ready?"
"I am."
Pollan gestured toward the doorway.
"Ladies first," Ed told him, with a gesture of his own.
* * *
Pollan entered first and hurried straight to his chair. His face showed concern, when he saw that Ed was limping. "Son, are you okay?"
"The war," Ed told him. He sighed as he dropped into the chair by Pollan's desk. Pollan seemed confused, but didn't let on. His job, Ed thought, was to have others un-confuse him.
"So," Pollan said. "What happened this time?"
"Talking in class. Or was it eating? I forget..."
"I believe it was arguing with a teacher in the hallway."
"You knew!"
"I was kind of hoping you would tell me."
"For what it's worth, Doc, I like the way you say it better."
Pollan sighed, leaning forward on his desk. "I'm your friend," he said. "Don't you understand that?"
"I hate to hurt your feelings--" "You think this is a joke? I have news for you, Ed. No one's laughing anymore." Ed was alarmed by the change in Pollan's voice - he sounded as if he were choking back tears. "You know why you were sent here, instead of the Office? Mr. Brown is sick and tired of dealing with you. He told me he didn't want to see your face. He told me, Ed, that he was planning to expel you."
"Kick me out, you mean?"
"Unless we do something about it." Pollan sat back in his chair. "But it doesn't have to be that way."
"It doesn't?"
"No."
"What can I do?"
"Deal with the problem, of course. I know what the problem is. Both of us know, don't we."
"I told you--"
"I'm not saying it's everyone else. That's a poor excuse." Pollan went to the door, which Ed had left open. He shut it - then, to Ed's surprise, set the lock. "I know what the problem really is."
"You do?" "Who it is."
Ed was speechless, for once. He was on the verge - without clearly understanding why - of choking back tears himself.
Pollan said, "I think I have a way to fix it."
The doctor took his chair again. He leaned to one side, rolling out the bottom drawer. He came up with an old-fashioned metronome. Its wooden casing was nearly black with age. The arm was also blackened and slightlybent, but the little square weight it held was polished to a shine. Pollan slid it forward to the edge of the desk.
"Have you ever," he asked softly, "been hypnotized?"
* * *
Ed's mother, Remi, thought she heard the phone. It woke her from a dead, half-drunken sleep. It only rang once, if it even had at all. She listened for another but the house was silent.
Like it should be, she thought, checking the clock--at 2:17 in the goddamn morning...
She rolled away from her boyfriend, Tom, who was snoring through an untrimmed moustache and beard. He snorted with the covers bunched up around his neck.
Remi grabbed them as she turned, stripping them away. In less than a minute, they were back asleep.
Neither of them saw the boy come in.
* * *
Ed heard the phone, as well, from his bedroom. He sat bolt upright, opened his eyes. Pollan's smooth voice replaced the echo of the phone. Ed felt the doctor there, right beside him. Pollan helped him to his feet, through the dark, toward the kitchen. One minute, Ed was baffled but aware; the next, he was dreaming, but strangely at ease.
The dream took over as he entered the kitchen. In it, the walls and floor disappeared. Pollan was the air, it seemed, bearing him like a current.
Ed started to wake in the hall. The dream - such an odd one - lost its grip. He was drifting toward his mother's bedroom. Or was that also part of it? He shuddered at the doorway; then smiled as her room, too, disappeared...
Pollan urged him on.
He peered through the misty air. This room was full of badness, so much bad it stung his eyes. Ed wiped them with his sleeve. Below him was the bed. Mom and her boyfriend slept there, waiting for him to come.
He raised the 8 lb sledge he'd brought in from the pantry. It wobbled overhead, though he couldn't feel its weight. As the hammer fell, Ed sang out, triumphantly:
"I'M not BAD! I'm GOOD! because I DO! What the DOCTOR! SAYS!