DRAWER, BOTTOM LEFT. ITEMS FILED:
Hospital board recommendation re: integration of patient narrative into treatment plans. Filed.
Insurance company assessment criteria, revised. Filed.
DSM-5, §297.1, note on species dysphoria: "No current classification." Filed.
One book. Forty-nine stories. Warm to the touch. Filing.
Case #1. Male, 40s. Believes he is a river. Cannot hold a lease. The body moves downstream and the address does not follow. Treatment: strategy, routine, the anchor of a Thursday. The book calls this a metaphor. The book has never sat across from a man whose hands shake because the current is pulling south and the chair is not moving.
Case #9. Female, 9 at intake. Two of her. The one who walks and the one on the sofa. Four years of treatment. She is managing. Managing — a word the book does not use because the book prefers discovery. I prefer the word that gets her to school on a Wednesday morning.
Case #14. [REDACTED]. Curriculum dysphoria. Presenting complaint: Earth is an educational programme; the lessons involve coffee and grief. Treatment: chai. Patient accepted. This was the correct treatment.
The chai arrives. Four o'clock. The cup is placed on the file and the file absorbs a ring of heat and the ring will still be there tomorrow, on the paper, a perfect circle the colour of cardamom. My secretary does not knock. She has not knocked in eleven years. The chai appears. This is the correct treatment for the doctor.
ITEMS CROSS-FILED:
One napkin (see: Case #7, Maps of Elsewhere, Lisbon). Ink bleeding through. Not a medical document. Filed anyway.
One cello, submerged (see: Case #3, Bosphorus). Still sounding. Technically impossible. Filed.
One stone, grey, origin disputed (see: Case #2, Cascais/Istanbul). Warm on certain afternoons. No diagnosis available. Filed.
Patient conditions: architectural. Cf. book, which adds "beautiful." Difference noted. Not filed.
DRAWER STATUS: Full.
The drawer is the most important piece of furniture in this consulting room. It holds everything that is true and that I cannot use. My hand is on the handle. The wood is warm from the afternoon. I push it closed. The weight resists. The documents settle against each other. The book settles against the board recommendation. They are touching.
I open the next file.
"Tell me about the thermals," I say.
She closes her eyes.
— Dr. Rajesh Patel
Mumbai. The consulting room. The drawer is full. The chai is cooling.