Dr. Michael Cassius was a consummate professional who took his practice extremely seriously and spent a great deal of time studying new and evolving theories to help enhance his treatment to better serve his patients. He never missed work, never. Cassius was a model psychiatrist, though not much of a leader. He lacked confidence and the ability to rally the troops, opting instead to lead by example and hope it rubbed off. Doctor Niccolo Malvagio, on the other hand, was every bit a thoughtful practitioner of his craft, though he could easily get his colleagues to eat from the palm of his hand. Being able to inspire the team, in any regard or field, is an impressive and important trait for a leader, which was why Nick was sure that he would assume the role of Head of Psychiatry at the Center.
Promotions, in theory, should be based entirely on merit and accomplishment, track record and history. Though sometimes there’s just an intangible, something too abstract to put a finger on that bred confidence in the one making the decision. Whatever that thing was, Dr. Olsen, head of the Center, believed Michael had it. He did not. Though that wouldn’t become obvious for some time. As Cassius took the helm of the highly regarded organization, there was some surprise that Dr. Malvagio had been passed over, though each time someone suggested it should be him, Nick always played the humble card and brushed it off. Both men were hard working and determined, so Cassius was hardly a longshot, he just seemed to lack the charisma and confidence of a leader, and never quite seemed to capture the loyalties of the staff as Nick had.
The biggest exception was young doctor Natalie Castro, who seemed to think Michael had all the answers to everything. She had the educational pedigree and experience in Baltimore to fit right into the staff at the MHC. She seemed enthusiastic to learn and absorb the perspectives of others, though perhaps through his position as the head of the team, Dr. Cassius seemed to be her primary resource when advice was needed. Nick loved it, and encouraged her, talking up Michael and reassuring her that he was always happy to help any member of the team. Nothing about that was untrue, Michael tended to prefer it to the administrative responsibilities that now fell to him.
Dr. Castro had seen a young woman who seemed to be struggling with something significant and emotionally heavy and after three sessions the young woman still hadn’t managed to be able to open up. She turned to Dr. Cassius with the hope he might have some advice, pouring out everything she had been told with the hopes the more experienced doctor might have some suggestions. Nick had been on his way to Michael’s office to make some small talk about basketball when he heard the conversation. The staff all had offices relatively close to one another (though patient rooms were spaced out) and with the new position came a new office for Cassius, which was away from the traffic of the main corridor. This meant that Nick could post up outside the door and listen to the whole conversation without anyone else ever coming by to notice.
Later that afternoon Nick ran into Dr. Castro in the break room getting coffee. “Rough day?” he asked, as if somehow intuitively, despite no sign of it in her face or body language. She nodded and let out a sigh, giving him the abbreviated Cliffs Notes version of what happened. Nick gave the same advice as Michael had, but in a more curated way, carefully delivering it to seem like an off the cuff response. He wanted her to keep close to Cassius, but also develop a sense that things seemed to come naturally to Dr. Malvagio. She thanked him for his insights and Nick raised his coffee mug in acknowledgement, mentioning before she left that Cassius had a couple patients take their own lives because he could be a bit overbearing. She promised not to tell and Nick took advantage of the opportunity to paint his colleague as the doctor who was determined to save everyone to make up for it.
A week or so later, Michael had been giving Natalie some further advice and while she never mentioned what Nick told her, she always had this sense that she had to take whatever Cassius said with a grain of salt. He might be wise and experienced, but he had clearly also misjudged at least a couple of situations that may or may not have contributed to lost lives. She grew increasingly concerned as so much of what Michael suggested or shared seemed to mirror what she already thought. Of course, she couldn’t have known that Nick had planted the seeds in Michael’s head that his protege had the same issue, and so each was careful of the other and not always entirely forthcoming.
Months passed and Dr. Castro seemed to be struggling. She had made some profound progress in helping several of her patients, but there remained a few who she just seemed stuck with. One was a serial liar who had seen Dr. Malvagio in the past and rebelled against being called out and confronted with reality and was seeking out another professional who might unwittingly placate his inability to be honest or open. When he stopped coming in and failed to answer welfare calls from the Center staff, she worried that she had taken too much advice from someone who lost patients and had now been guilty of the same. The door to her office was closed as she sobbed softly, worried that she wouldn’t be able to figure out where her instincts and ideas ended and Dr. Cassius’ began. She went into this profession to help, to make a difference, and it was starting to seem she might not be able to.
The city was decorated ad nauseam for Christmas, the roads and sidewalks with a smattering of snow as the sun slowly rose over the city of Brotherly Love. Michael fixed his tie as his increasingly frustrated fiancee remained in bed to satisfy herself without his noticing. Not far, Nick was packing up a lunch for his wife, stealing a kiss before she bounded out the door, feeling blessed to have won the husband lottery. In a small apartment above the Fairmount neighborhood of Philadelphia, the last breaths seeped from the body lying on the floor. The eighteen grams of paracetamol in the young woman’s system had done just as was intended.
Without the ability to provide the help she knew her patients needed, Dr. Castro lost herself in a moment of fragile desperation. The woman the team knew as Michael’s padawan found herself in the same place as the pair of patients he had lost. There would be no inquisition nor legal inquiry, but Dr. Cassius would be saddled with a growing and unshakeable grief because of the loss of Dr. Castro. While Michael hid from the world in his office two days later after a welfare check found the deceased doctor, his colleague spoke to everyone else with the sort of candor and compassion of a true leader, which was missing in entirety from their actual leader. He even brought Michael lunch, forcing him to eat and take care of himself, reassuring his colleague that tragedy can strike anywhere and any time, and no one possesses the ability to avoid or deflect it. “You did good, doc… don’t let it get to you, right? You’re not out there trying to sabotage anyone, these losses are all coincidental. Three poor souls who couldn’t carry their own burden. They’ve all been fortunate to have you here, even if you couldn’t take that weight off their shoulders.” Michael nodded, feeling a bit relieved in the moment, glad he could count on his dear friend, who just happened to inject him with the very burden that would haunt him for months.
आप पढ़ रहे हैं
Iago Incarnate
सामान्य साहित्यDoctor Niccolo Malvagio is an accomplished psychiatrist, well loved and respected by his colleagues at the Behavioral and Mental Health Center of Philadelphia. The Center is helmed by Dr. Olsen, something of a mentor to Nick, who believed himself to...
