"I'm more comfortable, yes."
Nodding his head, he answered, "That's excellent. We can't get to the bottom of these dreams unless you're following the conversations."
A brief pause before, "By your reasoning, Max has been introduced into these dreams because he was present for the phone calls you believe were the first notification that your sister was missing, correct?"
Struggling against the return of confusion that always clouded her mind in a thick fog, she gave one succinct nod of her head. "Yes."
Without missing a beat, he asked, "But how would you know that the call was the first time you learned of your sister's disappearance if you never answered the phone?"
Alice stared blankly at him, not sure how to respond or if she even knew the answer to what he'd asked.
Prodding her along, he explained, "From what I have in my notes, you kept dismissing the ringing phone, refusing to answer even once while you were in the house. What occurred after you left that day? Did you eventually answer that phone call?"
I must have, she thought, her mind dragging her back to moments she wished to have never witnessed. The violent moments, the volatile emotions raging within the house as her family fought.
Her father screamed and tore apart Alice and Delilah’s bedroom, panic turning his skin red as he searched for something that Alice couldn’t remember clearly.
But even worse than the screaming was the incessant whispers from her mother, the tormenting words that floated through the house reminding Alice to remain out of sight, to hide until her father’s rage had calmed down.
The memories blurred and twisted together, her mind so confused she couldn’t separate the past from the present, the present from a future that may or may not be.
How does a woman disappear?
Alice had asked the question so often that it became an anthem shifting reality into something insidious and shallow. Humans didn't just disappear. Objects went missing, pets and cars, but humans? It didn't make sense, not when the person gone had been a constant in her life.
Did she answer that phone call? She didn't remember. But logic told her she must have because she remembered being in her childhood home, tears streaming over her cheeks, her mind begging for a moment of peace amidst the screams and terrifying whispers.
Delilah’s absence was the only thing Alice could remember that would have caused such horrible things.
"Yes. I think so," she responded, her tone sure even though her mind was anything but.
The doctor gave her a moment to reconsider before continuing forward in the conversation. When she didn't speak again, he leaned forward, the light still not penetrating the cloak of shadow that concealed his observant eyes.
"For now, we'll consider Max a character associated with the discovery of your sister's disappearance. I'm not convinced it makes sense, but lingering on that question isn't in our best interests at this time. Not if we intend to delve further."
Scanning the pages, he dragged a long, elegant finger down the length of his notepad, his head angling ever so slightly when some thought caught his attention. The movement drew Alice's eyes, something familiar causing her heart to beat harder.
Before she could pinpoint exactly what it was about his movement that captivated her, he glanced up. "I noticed, also, that Max' behavior is a little odd."
Alice chuckled, a single burst of laughter escaping her lips. "Besides the fact that he chained me up and stripped me naked? That's not standard for men, is it?"
He didn't laugh with her. "Actually, those acts are what I consider normal about the dreams."
Her lips parted as her jaw dropped. Pulling away from her shock at his statement, she said, "Explain."
He tapped his pen, a sound that used to annoy her, but was now as intrinsic to these sessions as the ticking clock or the incessant dripping of the bathroom faucet. Even now those drops of water announced the passage of time, loud and rhythmic against the silence of the softly illuminated room.
"Your sister has disappeared. She's been assumed abducted. Because she's a woman, the natural inclination is to believe that she's been imprisoned in some way, stripped naked for nefarious purposes. Perhaps rape, or perhaps the simple degradation of being forced to expose herself to a stranger." He paused, giving Alice time to interpret his words and contain the anger she was feeling in response to them.
"In truth, even men who are abducted can endure those forms of physical and psychological torture, but we, as a society, don't always jump to that conclusion as quickly as we would with a missing woman."