Thirty-Eighth Session

Mrs K. could not open the door of the playroom because something had gone wrong with the lock. She therefore took Richard to her lodgings.

Richard was sad about this. On the way he suggested that if John was due to come soon after him, he would leave as soon as

Mrs K. asked him to, because he did not want to take up John's time.

Mrs K. replied that he could have his full session because John was not expected immediately after him.

Richard said very little on the way; once or twice he remarked that the Girl Guides must have done something to the door.

Mrs K. answered that she was sorry, but it would be all right tomorrow.

Richard emphatically said that it was a great pity and that it would be nice if it were all right tomorrow. When they arrived at Mrs K.'s lodgings, Richard put out the fleet on the sitting-room table. He did not seem very anxious, but sad and thoughtful. When Mrs K. asked him what he was thinking about, he replied that he was very worried over Mrs K. going to London and afraid that she would be bombed.

Mrs K. repeated that the part of London where she was going to stay was not particularly unsafe. (Obviously this reassurance had no effect.) She went on interpreting his fear of Mummy being bombed by the Hitler-Daddy and suggested that the fear of Mummy being destroyed went back long before the war, to the time when he was a small child.

Richard, who was obviously ill at ease, asked in a whisper whether they could be overheard. Where was the ‘grumpy old gentleman’? (referring to Mrs K.'s fellow-lodger about whom he had heard from John).

Mrs K. told him the lodger was not in, and interpreted that he stood for Daddy and that Richard feared and suspected that Daddy could find out whether Richard wanted to attack him. She reminded him that on the previous day he had been afraid of the ‘nasty’ man on the street attacking him just when he had smashed up Daddy's big tower genital.