Margit meets with the eccentric Professor Pine twice in her life.

(from Bobcat and Other Stories)

He seemed to think of engagement as an alternative to marriage rather than leading up to it.

This was a strange one, but I’m glad I stuck with it. Pine is a child psychologist, and young Margit is sent to him during an extended bout with depression over her parents splitting up. Even though she would not, at the time, have been able to say she knew that. Anyway, Pine cures her in one session with his nigh-magical idea of inducing a kind of out-of-body experience, imagining yourself hovering over the scene of your problems. Thirty years later, Margit meets up with Pine again, this time to have his translate letters she’s sure will prove her Romanian fiance is cheating on her. None of that really explains why this story was so strange. I’m stalling. I give up. I read this story late last night. It’s late at another night right now. I give up. I’m sorry. I’m a little sorry.