“Yes,” I said, the nervousness about the subject from before making a return. “What’s your point?”
“Well, when you find someone making mistakes, do you immediately suggest they be terminated?”
“That...isn’t a yes or no answer.”
“Then what is your answer?”
“It would depend on the mistake, its severity, cost, repetition, and the motivation behind it. If they make a repeated mistake because they were trained incorrectly, the fault lies with management rather than the worker. If it’s simply incompetence, it depends on how much the employee has cost the company and whether it’s fixable. But if it’s clear they were a lost cause, a detriment, then yes, I would give that advice. And obviously, if it’s found to be malicious, it should be self-apparent.”
Mr. Shepherd flipped his hand around to gesture at me with outstretched fingers. “That is no different from what we would do with a resident who has a violent outburst.”
“Resident, not guest,” I repeated.
He smiled. “Much like your Guide, I’ve worked for a few care facilities in my time. The terminology has stuck, but I suppose it would be more accurate to call someone a resident at that point than a guest. After all, if you’re willing to commit violence, then a plan needs to be agreed and acted upon.”
“More restrictions and rules, in other words.”
“Oh, certainly. Required one-on-one sessions with a therapist as well as group sessions. Among other behavioral changes, requiring them to at least attempt one of our creative arts sessions, as well as ensuring they do something active daily and something calming, like our meditation and yoga sessions...something I noticed you don’t join.”
“And if you’ve read my file, you know why,” I said with a frown. “Or was that a barely concealed attempt to coax me into talking about the accident?”
He chuckled. “Reggie mentioned you could be blunt to the point of prickly.”
I narrowed my eyes. “What exactly was your role at those care facilities?”
He smiled, chuckling softly. “Now I see what else Reggie meant.”
“I suppose this is where I ask what it was he said.”
“That you and I have similar sorts of minds, but with noticeable differences.”
“And which of us is taking the greater insult there?”
At that, he grinned. “Knowing Reggie, he would never say that about a guest, so if hedidmean a criticism, it was leveled at me, rather than you.”
“I suppose there is some comfort in that.”
“But I do see his point; there is a certain similarity in your mind that I can sympathize with, even understand.”
“And what similarity is that?”
“You are a careful man, methodical, and serious. You seem more cynical and doubtful than I am, but I, too, do not take what is presented to me at face value. I am fond of taking a conversation after the fact and twisting it in my head to see it from every angle. Facts are facts and cannot be argued with, but how they are interpreted matters a great deal and can change from context to context.”
“Doubt is healthy,” I said.
Self-doubt was a lesson I’d been forced to remember. I had assumed after a few days that everything was barely contained chaos, without any guidance for people who would have been lost without structure.
Yet, Luka encouraged me to get involved in the program, practically dragging me at times. Didn’t the therapists host group sessions and offer private ones to those who sought them or were encouraged to take advantage of both? Weren’t there options aimed at helping people through meditation, yoga, guided mindfulness, or self-awareness?
I had to take notes at times for my report. I had to remind myself and future me that I had arrived expecting one thing only to find something else. My notes would ensure a proper judgment when the time came.
“It is,” he agreed smoothly. “And doubt is precisely what led me to begin this resort.”
I frowned. “And now you’ve lost me.”
He shrugged lightly. “I doubted traditional therapy, recovery, and rehabilitation. There was enough evidence to support a new way of doing things that shouldn’t be available only to the rich and famous, but also to others with...less means. Yet those ways weren’t being utilized, and everything was presented as the only way to do things. I disagreed.”
I cocked my head. “I’ve asked this question before, but now I’m dealing with the founder being honest; why male only?”
