Zania Duroe had come to the end of the road. She was most unhappy, she had self harmed, she had low esteem and worst of all she was almost twenty one and her dad’s heath insurance only covered her until her twenty first birthday.

Dr Leggit seemed the last hope for the family. They already had power of attorney from the courts as Zania couldn’t make decisions for herself. They had put her in re hab three times but it had done nothing for her. Every time she came out she relapsed in weeks, picking up with a succession of low life boyfriends who loved that she loved BDSM, being whipped, degraded and everything which sent her spiralling down until she was so degraded degrading her wasn’t fun anymore.

She needed someone to love her for herself but she was so low that she had next to zero personality. She also had anorexia, tattoos up her arms and legs and the hair shaved off one side of her head, and incidentally one side of her pubes, and a wide variety of nose, tongue and ear studs, listing only those you could easily see, not counting the nipple rings and labia rings. She wasn’t exactly Hello magazine front page material.

Dr Leggit ran a retreat away up in the hills away from town, an old property with forests and a lake, even his office was part of an old ranch maybe ten miles off the highway down a dirt road through the forest. The Duroes drove carefully over the rutted track avoiding tree roots which rocked their cheap Ford Focus sedan around like a top in a whirlpool. They parked where it said “Visitors”

Dr Leggit welcomed them into his office, putting out his cigar as he did so. He wiped the ash off the papers on his desktop. and invited them to sit down. His white coat had seen a few days since it was last laundered and his shoes weren’t exactly sparking, the whole place looked run down and run on a shoe string.

“So Doc what do you think you can do?” her Dad asked.

“Take em back to basics,” Dr Leggit replied, “To where what they do don’t matter a fuck, if they wanna do it then let them, they soon get bored because there ain’t much they can do, not with plastic plates and no sharp knives or pencils even.”

“You really a psychiatrist?” Her Mom asked.

“Trick cyclist, hell yes, Unicycle, Penny Farthig, Electric trials bike, all in a days work,” he replied, “You were joking right?” He paused, “Here look my credentials, cost five hundred dollars to have these faked, you’re not expecting Harvard standards for a Wal Mart sticker are you?”

“Well, I don’t know.” Her mom said awkwardly.

“Look lady I get results, loads of testimonials,” he insisted rooting through a load of clippings in his drawer, “Shit treatment for Nickle and Dime price, still she survived, That’s my favorite,” he joked, maybe joked. “What do you expect for five hundred dollars a week with an opportunity for her to earn some tips to off set it?” “Hell you wouldn’t get a motel room for that down town.”

Dr leggit stared at the couple. A Secretary with a winning smile, legs up to her armpits and a body right out of vogue stepped into the room. “Excuse me Dr Leggit,”

“Fuck the fuck off I’m busy,” he said brusquely.

She shook her head, smiled sweetly, and left them to it, “She’s coming along nicely that one.” he opined, your kid could maybe do the same, maybe not, anyways round we’d have a job to make her worse.”

Zania grinned, no way would her parents leave her in the hands of this sham of a fraudster, and she was wrong, the checking accound always has a closer bond than wayward daughters.

“Just a fortnight to begin with,” Zania’s mother suggested, and her Dad agreed, though never seeing her again would maybe have been a better deal with three more, sort of normal, daughters to bring up.

“Holy shit you cannot be serious,” Zania spluttered.

“Let me see, John Mackinroe, nineteen ninety seven Wimbledon London?” Dr Leggit replied, “I really like those old quotes.”

“No,don’t be stupid Daddy!” Zania squealed but her Dad had already put his sugnature on the release form.

“AmEx OK?” he asked.

Dr Leggit waved him away, “Pay when you collect her we can offset any tips that way.”

The Duroes went to leave. Zania really freaked, she tried to leave with them so Dr Leggit had to grab her round the waist and wrestle her away from the door to let them pass. Zania struggled but fairly quickly she realised he was stronger than her and escape would have to wait.

Zania calmed down.