Storybook

This is a snapshot story from a storybook that contains clinical presentations of various mental disorders. The characters present maladaptive (and adaptive) psychological features that are associated with their disorders.

Agra felt a surge of dread wash over her as her assistant, Fera, said that she had parked her car in the parking lot.

It was Agra’s practice to park her car in front of the building of the software house. She had asked special permission from the CEO of the company, to allow her this. Unfortunately, today, she had made the mistake of giving her car to Fera to fetch breakfast for her. And the assistant had decided that the parking lot was to be the best place for a car to be parked.

Agra began shouting at Fera.

“I gave you one job! You know I cannot park my car anywhere other than the front of the building!”

But the assistant was simply clueless. Agra had kept her fear hidden from the people around her for over a year. She remembered this and she tried to calm herself down.

Agra had never been a fan of airy, vacant spaces. They seemed to stretch on forever. It had always felt like the scariest thing in the world, crossing from one end of the road to the other when she was trying to get to home from college later in the night. She had been an employee at this software house for 2 years and she had never really liked the parking lot either.

It seemed vacant. And endless.

And then, a year ago, a colleague of Agra’s was robbed in the parking lot. That was the final nail in the coffin. She could not go there. Even after the firm had assured all the employees that security was now tighter than ever, she could not walk towards the lot. As soon as she entered the space through the basement floor, she felt that she could either just not move or she had to run to her car.

Who knows what could happen in this empty, endless vacuum of a place?

To quell her concerns, the CEO had allowed her to park the car in front of the building. Even that seemed a bit of a hassle. But Agra knew that this was the best he could do about it.

But Agra let the work consume her for now. She buried her face back in the files.

Finished with work, she packed her stuff. As she remembered that the car was parked in the parking lot, she felt a surge of dread. She tried calling her assistant, but then remembered that Fera had taken off earlier as she had to run some errands.

Agra felt cold as she walked down the basement. The stairs seemed unbearable. As she opened the door to the lot, she frantically spotted her car and sprinted towards it. It was like she could hear her heartbeat and each running step seemed to take her only a little closer.

Finally, she got to the car, fumbled with the car keys, got in and slammed the door shut.

She then took a deep breath and hurtled out of the parking lot, toppling a bin over on her way out.