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he
actually knelt down in the snow and helped take them off of Cindi's
feet. He said something to her, and she stiffened up like she'd been
hit.
    She never did
tell me what he'd told her, but I think it might have had something
to do with me. It sounds stupid, but I caught her looking at me more
than usual on the drive home. We were bundled up in a blanket in the
back seat of the car with the heater going full blast and she just
looked over at me and smiled.
    We hadn't been
getting along all that well up to that point, so that would have been
odd all by itself, but there was more. It was almost like that trip
was the beginning of everything changing. It was a little while after
that when Cindi and I started really becoming good friends.
    Before that,
Dad had always been the glue that held our family together. Mom was
always a little distracted, always viewing the world through her
camera lens, and Cindi and I fought more than we got along, so it had
always been Dad I'd been the closest to. After that, it was almost
like we became a real family.
    Cindi and I
became best friends and then it didn't matter so much that Mom spent
most of her time off in a world of her own.
    I just checked
my word count and I'm way far away from being done with the
assignment, especially after I cut out all of the crap that I don't
want anyone else to read, but I think I'm going to just leave it
alone for tonight. It's past time for me to go to bed. Maybe I'll
have a better idea tomorrow.
    Doctor Goldberg
Bel Air
Los Angeles, California
    The kid who
walked into my office was muscular and paranoid as hell.
Unfortunately that was all I really knew about him. His new patient
questionnaire was on the desk in front of me, but the odds were that
everything on it was a lie. It was par for the course for my
clientele.
    Once you started charging a couple of thousand bucks an hour, you
were into people who weren't inclined to trust doctor-patient
privilege very far. It wouldn't surprise me if he'd flown in from out
of town on a private jet just to see me.
    He was better
than most though. Usually I could find half a dozen clues as to who I
was dealing with, but I was coming up completely dry with him. His
clothes were perfectly suited to the warm California winter that I
planned on going out and enjoying as soon as our session was over.
    "Why don't
you come in and have a seat…Brad."
    He dropped into
the chair without saying anything and I suppressed a sigh. He was
going to be more difficult than most.
    "What
brings you here, Brad?"
    "Haven't
you figured me out already from my questionnaire?"
    I shook my head
and leaned back. He was testing me, but I'd been tested before. "The
questionnaire is meant to give us a starting point for further
discussion, but it can't even do that if you refuse to answer it
truthfully."
    I got nothing
more than a raised eyebrow in response to my accusation, but I waited
him out.
    "It's
actually all the truth, Doctor."
    We were on
shaky ground now. I didn't want to let him get in the habit of lying
to me, but he felt like the kind who would just get up and leave if I
pushed too hard too soon.
    "Let's
ignore the questionnaire for a moment and talk about the things that
are important to you."
    "I'm not
sure I can answer that one, Doctor. I thought I knew what was
important to me, but I've acted in a way recently that would tend to
overturn those beliefs."
    "Okay,
Brad. Let's back into the answer. You can often tell what someone
values by seeing where they spend their time and money. What was the
last major purchase you made?"
    I would have
rather gone straight to the question of where he was spending his
time, but the question of money tended to be less threatening with
the kind of people who made it into my office. I was right; he didn't
even pause before answering.
    "We just
spent fifteen million on a large parcel of land that I think has
major mineral deposits underneath it."
    "Was that
an enjoyable purchase? Did it provide you