Jill walked through the thick, vinyl door into an exquisite room. It looked like a high-class beauty parlor. The wallpaper was light yellow, dull but also bright. Lacy, silver patterns ran up and down each wall. In every corner, green flourishing plants hung. The couches and chairs appeared new. They were conservative colors, and impeccably clean. Several small tables glistened, their wood polished and nick-free, decorated with magazines, the subscriptions current.
"Jill?" the receptionist announced.
"Yes?"
"The doctor is ready to see you now."
Jill stood up, glanced once more at her surroundings, then entered another heavy gray door.
A small woman with short jet-black hair, wearing a beautiful knee-length skirt, a matching jacket, and dark beige nylons, beckoned her to have a seat in a tarnished metal chair.  Dr. Ak sat in a large flowery armchair. Her complexion was olive-bronze. ‘She's Korean, Vietnamese, or Phillappino,’ Jill thought.  The doctor's clothing was so elegant, Jill had never seen anything like it in the stores. ‘Money,’ the young girl smiled. Silk, she believed, with patterns of gold embroidered into the fabric. Jill stopped studying Ak’s clothing, and looked into the doctor’s eyes. The teenager became distracted by the thick bands of charcoal that came to a sudden stop halfway across her upper eyelids. ‘Odd use of makeup,’ Jill mused.
"Do you feel comfortable with me as your psychiatrist?" Dr. Ak asked. Jill hadn't come to any conclusions regarding this matter.  It was too soon for her to make any such determination.
"I guess so," she answered, squirming in her chair.
Are you sure you feel comfortable with me?" she asked again, her eyes of coal penetrating Jill’s.
"Yes," Jill said, wishing she was anywhere but in that chair at that moment.  Dr. Ak proceeded to administer a questionnaire concerning Jill's personal, family, and medical histories.
About a quarter through the long ordeal, the phone on the stand next to Ak's armchair rang. Dr. Ak became instantly animated, chattering away into the receiver at high speed, in a foreign language.
Jill had a sudden urge to leave.
"I have to go to the bathroom," she said.
The doctor gestured with her free hand, indicating with her finger for Jill to turn the corner once outside the door. Her foreign speech was never interrupted.

In the ladies room, Jill looked around at the golden tiling, complemented by a sky-blue sink and toilet. Out of curiosity, Jill opened the medicine cabinet, and was surprised to see a wide array of bottles containing various tablets and capsules. One was labeled "Clonazepam." Jill, knowing this was a benzodiazapene like Valium, thrust it into her pocket, and stole a large plastic bottle of Tylenol and some free samples of antidepressants and antipsychotics, as well. She returned to Dr. Ak's office.
In another twenty minutes, the fifteen-year-old thief estimated, Ak was off the phone.
"Now Jill," she said, turning towards the young girl, "Your parents tell me you're having troubles at home and school. You're misbehaving? I'm informed of destructive behavior and threats? I would like to suggest that you stay at the Adolescent Unit. It's not far from where you live, you would go to school there, be among people your own age…"
Jill stopped listening and her heart beat faster. She wasn't ready to trade the security of her home for a cold institution. The situation seemed strange - she was in the royal palace with the Queen of the Philippines, and at the same time entangled in danger. The looming threat of asylums and torture dungeons was never more real to her. She had images of tall gates with barbed wire, and armed guards pacing up and down the grounds carrying guns and machetes.
"I'm not destructive," Jill said, trying to control her shaky voice. "I don't think I need to go to the Adolescent Unit. I've become a lot more mature lately." She was, at the same time, in spite of her fear and racing heart, glad she had stolen Dr. Ak’s pills.
"Yes, I see," Ak replied. "I will speak again with your parents, and we'll discuss this more next week."
"Okay," Jill said, hurrying out the door. For the moment, the terror was past, but Jill eagerly grabbed her coat and maintained a quick pace out the building, and down the street to the bus stop, where she finally caught her breath. She immediately began mentally rehearsing a speech to her parents and to Ak at their next visit.

"So how was your meeting with Dr. Ak?" Eve asked Jill, as her daughter entered the house.
"I don't think I'm comfortable with her," Jill replied to her mother. "Her waiting room looks like a salon, she wears too much makeup, and her English is poor. I'd prefer a different psychiatrist, there are too many barriers to working with Dr. Ak. "
"Well, say goodbye to a hundred and ten dollars of hard-earned cash," her father said. He had just returned from work.
"Never mind that, Donald," Eve replied. "Jill needs help, and she needs a suitable doctor."
"I don't really need much help," Jill said. "But I'll see a different psychiatrist if you can find one."
"Well… okay, Jill," Donald said. "My therapist recommended a doctor to me the other day. Name is Barneswealth. Whaddaya think, Eve?"
"That sounds alright…  I'm not happy that Dr. Ak didn't work out, but if you really don't think you can get along with her, Jill, at least you've made the effort, and we'll try again. I'm glad you're being open about this.  You know that you and I can't even talk sometimes-"
"Sure, Mom," the young girl interrupted. "I just don't think Dr. Ak is suitable, and I'm just not comfortable with her and her personality."
"Do you want me to call Barneswealth for you tomorrow?"
"Yes, please do," Jill said.
Donald agreed.
Eve nodded her head.
Jill proceeded to climb the shoddy green stairs to her bedroom sanctuary. "Great, then it's settled!" she yelled down to her parents, trying to conceal the relief in her voice. “'Going to my room now!”
The girl remembered. She filled a Dixie cup with water from the tap, and swallowed her treasured prize, one of the stolen yellow Klonopins.