Chapter 2 - THE VOICE BEHIND THE WALL
The file on my desk was thin. Thinner than it should have been for a child with Ethan's symptoms.
Ethan Walker. Age 8. Referred by school counselor. Presenting issues: social withdrawal, auditory hallucinations, disrupted sleep. Reports of "a man talking through the walls."
I'd seen cases like this before. Imaginary friends. Night terrors. The vivid imagination of a lonely child.
But the school counselor's notes made me pause.
Ethan told his teacher that the man in the wall has been there since before he was born. When asked how he knew this, Ethan said: "Because he told me. He's been waiting for me."
I closed the file. Looked out my office window at the Seattle skyline, gray and drizzling.
The first three sessions were the same.
Ethan would sit in the corner of my office, back against the wall, knees pulled up to his chest. He wouldn't talk. Wouldn't draw. Wouldn't look at me.
His mother, Dana, would wait in the lobby. Always early. Always anxious.
The fourth session was different.
Ethan walked in. Sat in his usual corner. But this time, he spoke first.
"He doesn't knock anymore."
I set down my pen. "Who, Ethan?"
"The man in the wall."
"Why doesn't he knock?"
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Ethan looked up at me. His eyes were dark. Too dark for a child his age.
"Because he knows you opened the door before."
