We're all mad here!

I entered the small office and, even though I tried to keep my gaze steady on the doctor's face, I couldn't help but glance around the room. Was this really a psychiatrist's office?

The wall right in front of me was covered to the top in shelves and on the shelves sat dolls. Dozens of dolls, each probably collector's items, but dolls nonetheless. I was less concerned with their quality than I was with their very presence there.The dolls sat quietly and motionlessly, their eyes affixed frontward, as if staring at anyone coming through the doorway. Some people are afraid of clowns. Some people might find dolls particularly creepy. And let's not forget, this was the office of a doctor in a mental care hospital.

Sitting at the desk right in front of the door was another doll. This one was flesh and blood, objectively a really beautiful young lady. Her attitude though was cold and curt, with a hint of arrogance. Quite a doll indeed.

And the apparent owner of all these dolls was a stocky middle-aged woman, looking quite bohemian herself. She was soft spoken and well mannered, but the air about her was off. As if she was playing a role in a strange little play.

While we were talking, she had a lit scented candle on her desk, which she would pick up, move around, then occasionally dip her fingers inside. She didn't seem to mind the flame. She questioned me with the curiosity of an aquaintence listening to slightly scandalous gossip. I was not her patient, but she treated me as if I'd been.

I studied her in turn, just as intently as she was studying me. She knew I'd seen the dolls and the assistant. She knew I was looking at her twirling her fingers over the lit flame.

I wondered if she was aware of my questioning in my mind her sanity and her fitness as a psychologist. I wonder what her assistant thought. I could only imagine what her patients must have thought.

While I was going out the door, a little saying kept running through my mind... The blind leading the blind.