A Seuessical problem

Posted on Fri Apr 6th, 2012 @ 8:59pm by Lieutenant Commander Robin Swift M.D., PhD & Petty Officer 1st Class Drusilla Dupree

Mission: Sections of the Delta Quadrant
Location: Psych office

The door swished open with out a sound allowing just a glimmer of light to spill into the room from the corridor. It would have been more but the light had to compete with the figure of a man who projected his shadow into the room that just moments ago been fairly dark which was odd for this time of morning. It took a few moments for his eyes to adjust to the dimness of the room and just a second more for him to see that the reception desk of his office was empty. “Hmm” he breathed the word as his eyes quickly scanned the room in search of his assistant. It wasn’t like Drusilla Dupree to be late. “Huh? He asked of no one as his confusion turned into concern. Then he heard a faint murmuring accompanied by a sort of tinkling sound coming from his office. The door was set to *open* which meant that it stayed in the open position until released to resume it’s automated open/close setting that was triggered by either sensors that detected a life form approaching it or by command whether verbal or manually activating the sensors depended upon how the occupant set it. The outer office door swished closed after he stepped fully the room. As Robin moved closer to his inner office door he gazed in and spied his assistant getting his tea service ready for the day. He stood with a bemused expression as he watched and listened to her actions and words. “One fish, two fish. Red fish blue fish.” She spoke softly to herself as she deposited sugar cubes into the porcelain sugar bowl one at a time and one, releasing each cube with each word. She would repeat this chant until she was satisfied that the bowl was sufficiently filled for the day’s use. He took note that she had reached to the top with redfish and this made her hesitate while she tried to figure out if she should add one more which meant the lid would not fit snuggly or remove 2 cubes to make the cubes match up with the poem.
“Curiouser and curioser” He said out loud. Either the sudden sound of his voice or the fact that she had been caught acting..Well should we say rather odd? Was not clear but the spontaneous pinking of her cheeks let it be known that she was embarrassed as she jumped and dropped the sugar bowl contents “I’m so sorry”, she said as she bent to scoop up the spilled cubes onto a napkin she grabbed from the tea table. “Give me just a second and I’ll toss these out and fill it again.”
Robin refrained from chuckling at her predicament despite finding it all rather humorous. He stepped toward her and spoke, “Don’t worry about it Dru, I can handle that. He reached for her hands and took the napkin full of cubes from her into one hand and walked toward his desk holding her hand with the other. “Come and sit down for a moment.” He let go of her hand as he passed one of the large and soft chairs in front of his desk on his way to the other side and to his chair he chucked the sugar cubes into a bin just by his chair then took a seat at his desk. “Now do you want to tell me what has been bothering you lately?” He asked of her.
Drusilla looked about nervously and said, “ It’s nothing really, I mean nothing to waste valuable time with. After all we must get ready for your appointments. Besides..it’s nothing, really” she repeated.

Robin looked at her with compassion and knowing like a big brother might look at his favorite little sister. “We have plenty of time Dru, and even if we didn’t we would make some time. Now out with it. What’s with the sudden OCD issues? This isn’t something that the Dru I know would be doing.” He considered her being late was out of sorts for her as well but he decided to not mention that as she was embarrassed enough as it was.

She hesitated just a brief moment then the old more confident Dru decided to emerge as she looked him straight in the eye and asked. “How do you know it’s sudden? I have always gotten to the office sooner than you, well sooner than you did today anyway so how do you know that I don’t always do that?”

“Well for starters If you had been doing this all along don’t you think you should have come to me about it so we could work out why?” Then he smiled, “also if this had been going on all this time I would think you would have known already how many times you needed to complete that silly phrase so that you wouldn’t have had to stop to figure out what to do when all the cubes did not fit.”

Dru smiled back as she spoke, “It’s only been going on since we arrived her at 900. It was little things at first like the need to follow the same routine that we did on the Berkeley. But then, well a Starbase just doesn’t feel the same as a ship. I mean they are both massive things floating through space. But, I don’t know it’s just different here. I guess I am feeling over whelmed by all of this. Do you know what I mean Doc?”

Robin nodded his head. “Yes, Dru, I know exactly what you mean. Life on a ship gets to be very routine with the occasional occurrence of new faces but on a Starbase we are constantly seeing new faces and dealing with new ways of doing things. Unless of course your in a command position or any other position that would deal with the new cultures we meet on a daily bases. I guess we tend to forget that some roles on board a ship can be kind of isolating but on a Station is like you’re in a new country that is vast and has a lot of tourist to break up the day. And we all know how tourist can mess up a routine!”

She let out a sigh of relief and said, “That’s it exactly! I feel like a kid who got kicked out of her home and made to move to the ‘big city’. It’s kind of intimidating.” She stopped and looked at the time. “Oh but we really do not have time now Doc regardless of what you say. Your first appointment is in 7 minutes.’

“Okay I give in.” Robin replied, raising his hands up in defeat. “You are free to go but we will continue this later.” He added with mock sternness.

“Sure Doc” she said as she stood up to leave. Then she stopped and handed him the empty sugar bowl that she somehow managed to still have in her hand.