Goldengirl

‘It goes deeper than that,’ said Dr. Dalton. ‘I’ve been with her a good deal over the last few days, remember. For much of the time she is perfectly rational, a sweet-natured girl, almost an innocent, to use an old-fashioned word. Then there are quite different phases of behavior, when she becomes aggressive, domineering and disturbingly irrational. For example, till Sunday she was sharing a room in the Village with two other girls, Janie Canute and Mary-Lou Devine. Sunday morning she accused Janie quite unjustly of having taken her gold medal from its case and tried it on around her neck. Both the others insisted nothing like that had happened. Goldine said Janie was trying to take away her power, something like that, quite weird. She insisted they should call her Goldengirl in the future.’

‘She came to see me,’ put in McCorquodale, ‘and told me this story, demanding that I move her into a single room, which is one reason why she’s now billeted here.’

‘She has also made complaints to the team manager that Dr. Nagel and I are not treating her with the respect due to a golden girl,’ said Dr. Dalton. ‘Apparently it offends her to be touched. At times she is highly abusive to us both, demanding a kind of servile approach.’

‘Which is what made me mention the incident with you,’ said Nagel.

‘Yet, as I say, on other occasions she’ll treat us normally, as if the hostile scenes had never happened,’ said Dalton. ‘Mr. Dryden, I’m no psychoanalyst, but I’m afraid this girl may be manifesting a split personality.’

‘Schizophrenia,’ said Nagel.

‘Which is why we venture to question her statements about the origin of her diabetes,’ said Dalton.

‘So you see why we want you to tell us some more about Goldine,’ said McCorquodale. ‘You’ve known her some time, I understand. We haven’t, and we have the responsibility of deciding what to do about tomorrow. She is determined to run, but we can’t put her in danger. What it comes down to is whether we can place any reliance on her statement that she has been diabetic for two years.’

So Dryden felt another clamp tighten. There was no escape from involvement in this nightmare. ‘May I ask you a question? Who suggested you should talk to me about this?’

Dr. Dalton glanced toward McCorquodale. ‘Shall I answer this? Mr. Dryden, I questioned Goldine pretty closely. She said you would verify it. She doesn’t know we’re also consulting you about her mental state.’

That was it, then. Goldine herself had put them on to him. The suggestion to mislead the doctors about the onset of the diabetes had come from him. She had returned the pass. ‘I don’t know that I can comment on her behavior. Certainly it was strange the other afternoon after the 100 metres, although the circumstances were exceptional.’ He flicked ash from the cigarette. ‘Goldine has been under tremendous pressure, with the kidnaping, all the interest of the media, the decision whether to compete. I was surprised, yes, but on reflection I can understand that the stress of that Final brought her to a mental crisis point. What you say is disturbing. I hope she can get over this. Looking at it as a non-specialist, I’d say the important thing now is not to interfere any more with her expectations.’

‘To let her run?’ said McCorquodale, beaming.

Dryden nodded.

Dalton said, ‘There’s still the question of her diabetes.’

McCorquodale turned to Dryden. ‘Well?’

‘I can’t say for sure when she contracted it, but it must have been established way back. If she says two years...’

‘That’s good enough for me,’ said McCorquodale firmly. ‘Gentlemen, Goldine runs tomorrow.’

They had put Serafin in a high-backed armchair like a throne. He was pale under the arc lamps, but there was no trace of nervousness in his expression. Behind him was a blowup of Goldine winning the 100 metres. Facing him, unobtrusively, on a low chair, his interviewer, clipboard in hand.

First they had asked him to talk through the videotape of the gold-medal performance as they ran it through in slow motion. He had done it confidently, commenting with technical know-how on the minutiae of the start, pickup and sprint.

Then the interviewer had taken him over the salient events in Goldine’s childhood: the accident on Huntington State Beach, her time in Tamarisk Lodge, the adoption. Clearly everything was on the clipboard. Stills were shown of Trudi in TWA uniform, Goldine at three, the Los Angeles Times report on the drowning.