Richard sat behind his desk and looked at me, realizing my employment at Jack of Hearts was coming to an end.
"Gregory," he said with a slight agitation in his voice. "I do wish we could discuss this alone."
He made a gesture over to Harold.
Harold was over at one end of the room, thumbing through the book shelves.SMACK went his tongue against the roof of his mouth. His habit was driving me crazy. "You read all of these, right? SMACK! You must be some sort of brainiac, huh? SMACK! I used to read a lot myself, okay. SMACK! I had thousands of books and magazines, right. SMACK! My parents took away all my books before they sent me here, see. SMACK! If you like to read, you'd have loved my books, okay."
Richard eyes burned a hole through Harold. "I'd like to talk to Gregory alone, if you don't mind?"
"SMACK! Sorry, see. SMACK! I can't leave Greg for one moment, okay. SMACK! It's part of the treatment, right. SMACK! We have to be together always when we're out, see."
Richard pushed a button on his desk.
Two of his assistants walked in.
"Escort this man outside for a moment, would you please? I have something to say to Gregory in private."
One of the men grabbed Harold by the shoulder and led him out the door.
"SMACK! I'll have to tell Dr. Mince about this, okay. SMACK! He's not going to like this, right."
The door closed behind him, leaving myself alone with Richard.
I turned to go get Harold so we could leave.
"Wait," Richard said. "Why are you doing this? Don't you know what they are doing to you? What a crock of shit this treatment of yours is? Look at your new friend Harold. You know that if he didn't face getting electricity pumped through his balls, he'd be asking if he could give you head. It's all wrong."
"And this is right? Nameless, faceless sex. No chance at love. Just a bunch of dicks and asses sticking in your face. Wanting nothing to do with you, except sex. That's all this is. It's all empty. It's all a crock of shit. You are a sham."
I left the room.
In the lobby, I found Harold, crouched down in a corner, tears streaming down his face and rubbing his thumb like it had been hurt.
"SMACK! I won't tell anybody, right. SMACK! I won't tell, okay."
He jumped when I put my hand on his shoulder, then relaxed when he saw me.
"Let's go," I said, lifting him up. "Let's go home."
"SMACK! I won't tell, see."
We left Richard's office.
