Abstract
This story was written after the conclusion of a period of therapy with a patient who had experienced severe childhood trauma. It was one of those occasions when it didn't feel right to even enquire about the possibility of publishing a paper on the basis of our work together. The priority was to avoid any intervention that might constitute an intrusion into an individual who had already been too much intruded upon. Having come to that conclusion, I found myself writing this short story. The events described are entirely different from those described by my patient. However, the story captures part of the emotional truth of the patient's situation and state of mind and, in this sense, constitutes a reworking of the material that emerged in therapy.