a Middle Earth therapy session

doctor Alcop

Doctor Allem Alcop, Middle Earth's most loved psychologist, sat bored on his extra cushioned spinning chair. He looked over a few idly placed notes made on his last patient who had come the previous day seeking advice on saving his marriage. Alcop's fingers tapped hard upon the oak desk. He was bored. And not only of the repetitive problems people came to him with but the rude attitudes they came with.

Alcop patiently awaited his next patient. He frowned when realising he had yet to ask whom this patient was. You see, usually Mona, his secretary, would have the patient's file record ready on his desk for his use during the hour long session but she had gone to visit her great aunt and left her niece to do her job in her stead. Alcop had thought this was a great idea, only... her niece couldn't care less about the job and had an annoying tendency of turning up an hour late almost everything other day. It was simply awful, and so he refused to pay her, much to her chagrin. 

This was why the psychologist yearned for his previous secretary and why he lived through the nightmare that was the niece hopelessly. The niece was rude and obnoxiously loud during the sessions, which irritated Alcop and distracted his patients. On one such occasion the niece had laughed so loudly that the entire room had begun to shake, which had then scared the patient away. The poor soul. The man had only come to seek help after a traumatic run in with giant spiders and had had to be gently coaxed from under Alcop's desk. He'd stayed there for at least a half hour whimpering.

"They're here doc!" came a lousy yell from outside Alcop's office. He pushed away the urge to throw his head upon his desk and call it quits.

Alcop gathered a few spare papers and attached them to his burgundy clipboard, all the while consciously reminding himself to clean out his office and desk, and reluctantly gathered himself to look presentable.

It was a mess. There were notes scattering his entire desk.

"Bring him in!" he croaked back, sitting up straighter and plastering a proper look of concern on his face. He sighed one last time and waited to face yet another let-down patient. He was entirely discouraged to meet and greet with the next patient, and the lack of information he had on them only doubled his despair. 

He could not help the small tendrils of hope that sparked in his mind when he whispered out his memorised mantra, 'Something new...please. Something meaningful.'