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‘Oh, sorry!’ George attempted sarcasm. ‘I forgot to do the dishes in the staffroom.’
‘What are you smiling at?’ Iosef asked Annie as George marched off.
‘Him.’ She shrugged. ‘You.’
‘He’s annoyed because I didn’t let him talk to Mark or his family.’
‘To any family,’ Annie pointed out, and shewasactually talking to him as she would any colleague. ‘Or to too many patients either—well, not the really sick ones.’
‘I make those decisions.’
‘I know you do.’ Annie smiled. ‘I just deal with the fallout.’
‘Now, if you’ve finished your chocolate break, could you come with me, please, to speak to the family? I want the nursing staff to know what’s going on—and I really have to go soon.’
As they headed for the interview room, he changed his mind, did a quick about-turn and tapped on the staffroom door and asked George to come with them.
The tense, angry people Annie had left in there were now just two weary, utterly terrified parents waiting to hear what the doctor had to say.
‘I have spoken at length with your son.’ Iosef sat down and went straight to a rather surprising point. ‘He has, in fact, agreed that I tell you all that was said— which makes things a lot easier for everyone. Now, there is some news that will not be good and there is some news that is probably not as bad as you fear.’
‘And he’s really OK with you talking to us?’ Mr Taylor blinked. ‘How on earth did you get him to agree to that?’
‘I told your son he had many choices—he could ignore the help or he could get everything out in the open now and once everyone has calmed down, you deal with it all together. The reason I wanted to treat your son, I have worked with many, many troubled teenagers—in an orphanage in Russia.’ Annie’s gaze flicked to George who sort of gave a half-smile. ‘But,’ Iosef continued, ‘as experienced as I am with this age group and the troubles that they get themselves into, dealing with the family unit is somewhat uncharted waters for me. As I explained to him, more often than not I did not have the luxury of children with parents who were cross or did not understand—because there were no parents— so I hope that by telling him he should try to trust that you will prove me right.’ He sort of eyeballed them till they nodded. ‘Apparently there are parent-teacher interviews in two weeks’ time. You are going to find out that your son has fallen very behind with his maths homework and he has, in fact, intercepted two letters from the school.’
‘But he’s good at maths.’ Mr Taylor shook his head as his wife put her hand on his arm to silence him. ‘Go on.’
‘Because he was worried what the teacher would say, he has been avoiding lessons and spending his time at the park—and he recently started smoking marijuana. Rather a lot.’ Their faces were as white as chalk as the news sank in, then they finally nodded and Annie could actually see them brace themselves for whatever was coming next. ‘This morning he owed some children some money. Though he didn’t want to go to the park, he couldn’t go to school either.’
‘And he couldn’t tell us... ’ Mrs Taylor was crying now. ‘So, when he didn’t have the money, he got a beating.’
‘What else?’ Mr Taylor asked. ‘What else is he taking?’
‘I think he may have had some beer, but that is it.’
‘No other drugs?’
‘I don’t think so.’ Iosef stared at them for a long time, his face growing more serious as their relief started to show. ‘Long term use of marijuana has been linked to mental health issues and Mark is, in my opinion, both anxious and depressed. It is not something to be relaxed about.’
‘Of course not,’ Mr Taylor said. ‘But we honestly thought—well, I don’t know what we thought.’
‘I would say that the best thing that happened to your son and to your family was that he got beaten up and ended up in here today. The stress of this parent-teacher interview coming up has been huge for him and he has dealt with it by self-medicating and lying and getting himself in deeper at every turn.’
‘He could have just spoken to us,’ Mrs Taylor cried again. ‘Come and told us what was going on, right at the start. We could have got him a tutor....’
‘He felt he couldn’t talk to you.’
‘But if he’d just come to us... ’
‘He felt he couldn’t.’ Iosef said again. ‘That is how he felt. Now, my concern is that this will quickly be sorted out. He will be admitted and perhaps followed up with a counselor. You in turn will deal with the school and after a few difficult weeks things will seem much better. However, when something goes wrong in his life again—which, naturally, it will—I would expect that this is how he will deal with it. Unless...’
‘Unless what?’
‘You work together and you all get proper help to open the lines of communication and work to keep them open. This will hopefully be addressed on the children’s ward, but I cannot recommend strongly enough that you get family counseling. More than that, make sure you see someone good andthenlisten to what they say.’
‘Can you recommend anyone?’ Mr Taylor asked. ‘We’re happy to go privately.’
‘Actually, I can recommend someone I think would be good for Mark.’ He turned to Annie and pulled out his keys. ‘Can you get my jacket and wallet from my office? I have a business card. I know this man from university and I often rang him for advice when I was in Russia. He is pretty direct, though.’
