Working Wonders Read Online Free Page B

car park. That was odd; the rain must have cleared up. Then in a flash, he remembered the whole thing.
    ‘Oh, God. Oh no. Oh no.’
    ‘Sssh.’ She smiled and leaned forward. ‘Don’t worry about it. It appears a telephone jumped up and attacked you.’
    ‘Oh,’ said Arthur. He was feeling it deeply. ‘Oh, my God. Did I really throw a photocopier … ’
    The woman nodded. ‘Yes, you did. That’s why we thought you had probably better go somewhere quiet for a little while.’
    Arthur tentatively fingered the impressive bump on his head. ‘Where am I?’ he asked again.
    ‘Oh, you’re still in the building. You’re just in my office, that’s all.’
    ‘Who are you?’
    ‘I’m Lynne,’ she said, reaching out to shake his hand. ‘I’m the company psychotherapist.’
    Arthur lay back and exhaled. ‘I was afraid of that,’ he said ruefully.
    ‘What?’
    ‘When I saw, you know, the non-office soft furnishings and stuff. Company shrink. Today of all days.’
    Lynne smiled. ‘And that is so terrible?’
    ‘I would say me turning into an official, rubberstamped nutjob on the day the consultants come in is, on the whole, pretty terrible, yes.’
    ‘Nobody is saying you’re a nutjob.’
    ‘Well, I just did. Oh, hang on, if you think you’re a nutjob, doesn’t that mean you’re not one? Or maybe it’s the other way around. In which case I’m really in trouble.’ He sat up again.
    ‘Calm down,’ said Lynne. ‘Relax. I’m a doctor, you know. And it’s not every day someone throws a photocopier through a window then knocks themselves unconscious. We had to look you over. You’re going to be fine.’
    ‘Oh, God.’ Arthur winced at the memory. ‘I am so not going to be fine. I’m going to get fired for this, aren’t I? That’s why I’m down here with you. You’re to calm me down with yoga or something so I don’t run upstairs and strangle Ross’s pimply little carcass. Great. This day could not possibly get any worse.’
    ‘Ssh,’ said Lynne. They sat in silence for fifteen seconds.
    ‘So this is treatment, is it?’ said Arthur eventually, as it became clear that she wasn’t thinking of saying anything to follow up ‘Ssh’.
    She stared him down until he went quiet again, lay back, then finally began to relax. After five minutes – and as Arthur was on the point of dozing off – she leaned over slightly.
    ‘That’s better.’
    Arthur blinked up at her through sleepy eyes.
    ‘Am I in serious trouble?’
    She shrugged. ‘No. I don’t think so. You may have to see a bit of me, though.’
    ‘But why not? I mean, I destroyed half the office and could have killed someone.’
    ‘I know,’ said Lynne. ‘And when that copier went through the window I could hear the cheers and applause all the way down here.’
    ‘ Really ?’
    ‘Oh, yes. You’ve become something of a folk hero.’
    ‘Good God.’
    ‘Well, possibly not amongst the professional photocopier repairman fraternity. And yes, you certainly sparked some excitement upstairs.’
    Arthur couldn’t quite take this in. ‘You mean, they’re not going to fire me?’
    Lynne permitted herself a quiet smile. ‘Who’d dare escort you out of the door?’
    He blinked. ‘Doctor …’
    ‘Lynne is fine.’
    ‘Lynne …’ He turned and looked straight at her. ‘Lynne, I can’t lift a sack of potatoes. How on earth did I do that?’
    She looked right back at him. Her gaze was penetrating, and he noticed again that her eyes had a curious, almost yellow cast to the iris.
    ‘Well, maybe if you keep coming to see me we’ll find out.’
    Arthur crept slowly out of the building – he’d been given the rest of the day off. From the corner of his eye, he saw something burning. A horrid acrid smell was being given off and as he went closer he saw that someone had set fire to the photocopier, which had landed in a mangled heap on a patch of landscaped grass. A small crowd of people were standing round it, watching it burn from either