Debra says she knows a man they call The Dream Merchant, lives on Karori Hill. He can fix her, says Debra. How her Asian friend sorted out her darkest hours with him shuffling through meaning and innuendo like another dimension of her own gambling habits. They fell in love, you know. And went to live in Cambodia
Patricia says you must be joking. It’s a load of crap. It’s mind over matter. She’s got to snap out of it. Tell her you will confiscate her cellphone, and that she can’t go to the mall till she behaves. It’s attention seeking. And look at you. All stressed out
Betty says there’s this place in town where a woman from Albania runs an afternoon healing clinic. Take her there. She’s great! They massage the scalp and apply ointments and salves. Don’t whatever you do look at Dragma’s hands as she works though. She is missing 3 fingers on one hand and one on the other. They are marbled with purple veins. Close your eyes, love. The scalp massage is heavenly
Auntie Alison brings a copy of Joss Stone’s new CD that she’s burned for her niece, and a second-hand Bible. Auntie Alison tells you Jesus is the only saviour and that the new church on Peagan’s Road is just the thing to lift her spirits. Auntie says bring her along. We will pray for her and sing together. We will rejoice and give thanks to the Lord
Ropata tells you that the kaumatua will bless the house, that her whakapapa has earned her an urgent place in his visiting programme. Is she hearing voices? asks Ropata. That is a gift you know, korero with the ancestors. A gift. Ka kite ano, sister
Jules says her Uncle Stefan was fixed with hypnotism. He was. True. They took him to this old fellow over in the western suburbs. Jules reckons he was German and had worked in psychiatry during the war in Europe, doing significant experiments on the brain. Uncle Stefan perked up after the treatment, says Jules. He was more animated and responsive to conversation. He died last month. He was 94
Angeline says her father was a doctor for 50 years. He nursed his first wife through 5 years of dementia, and when she died he booked himself into the local psychiatric unit for electroconvulsive therapy. He knew the symptoms of his malaise and promptly sought the appropriate course of action. When Melissa left him (his second wife, a woman 23 years his junior) he went back for another course of treatment
Campbell says he knows someone the very same age, with identical symptoms. She was 2 years in therapy, says Campbell. Suicide attempts and trials with drugs. The whole caboodle. Do you know, says Campbell, it was rowing that saved her in the end. Yes, she took up rowing. Every morning at 5 am she was down at the port with her mates and they rowed and rowed. She lost the 17 kg that she’d gained on the drugs too.