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Richard was very pleased to see Mrs K. He mentioned that the weekend seemed quite short; it was as if he had only just left her. She was ‘about’; it was as if he had been seeing a picture of her (obviously meaning that she had been much in his mind).1 He told her in great detail all that had happened while he was away (Note I). He said he had had a very happy weekend. There was one tragedy: on the way to Mrs K., when he was going down the steps of the hotel, he twisted his ankle. … He asked Mrs K. to look at his new suit. Didn't the colour of the socks go well with it? He was in a communicative mood and went on to say that there was one thing that often worried him: he was afraid he might turn out to be a dunce, no good at all.
Mrs K. interpreted that his twisting his ankle on the way to her was an expression of his fear that he would injure his genital if he fulfilled his desire to be a man and put his genital into Mrs K's genital. When he pointed out his new suit to her and wished her to admire his socks, he also showed the wish for her to admire his genital. But that was followed by his fear that he was no good at all (his turning out to be a dunce), that he would never have the adult and effective genital that he wanted.
Richard asked a little later whether the electric fire belonged to Mrs K. He noticed now for the first time that one of the bars was broken.… He told Mrs. K. that the first person to greet him when he arrived home was Bobby, who gave him a great welcome. No, actually it was Daddy who greeted him first. Daddy was surprised—no, Richard had not meant to say that—Daddy seemed glad to see him. The canaries were not well. They seemed to have an illness and were going bald. When Richard was playing with his bow and arrows, an arrow happened to hit Daddy lightly on the head, but Daddy was not hurt and was not angry either.