Waiting room
Added 2022-11-27 00:39:46 +0000 UTCYou've gone to a new therapist's office, and the intake form seems a little longer than usual.
* * *
You had been waiting for some time in the waiting room, filling in the questionnaire that they had given you when you first came in. This was your intake form. It had some simple instructions, but the main one was: ‘Don’t look at previous answers, as this might bias your result.’
So you hadn’t worried too much. You could fill in the questions. Though the music in the waiting room seemed to be having a soporific effect on you, as you had been yawning for the last half hour, despite a good night's sleep. The current question had thrown you.
‘How sleepy do you feel?’ With a scale of one to ten, with ten being the sleepiest. But you could swear that you had seen that question a few pages ago. Maybe you were imagining it. You put a five. You weren’t that tired. Not yet. Just… Relaxed.
Another few minutes wore on. There was that question again. You were certain. You struggled to lift the pen as you ticked the box for seven. You were really feeling tired. Like you could just nod off in the comfortable chair. Had the music always had a voice in it?
More time went on. You were struggling now. The music was coating your mind like a heavy blanket, and you found the question again. Or. What was the significance? You couldn’t tell. But you were so sleepy. You marked it ten. And then the next question came.
But it wasn’t a question. As you turned the page, you saw the word: ‘Rest. Await instruction. Close your eyes, and let yourself rest.’ And it just made sense. You were so tired. You closed your eyes, and listened to the music, and the voice, which was so much clearer now.
