The Uninvited

Stephanie. ‘Hesketh mentioned it.’‘Yes, I thought he’d get there,’ he says,smiling. Naomi pulls up a chair for theprofessor and he settles next to her with asideways smile. He is what the Frenchc a l l bien dans sa peau: at ease withhimself. Or literally, ‘good in his skin’.Often he used to drape his arm over myshoulder and call me ‘son’. He made mefeel bien dans ma peau too.‘So let’s get started. Children andadults wreaking havoc in a dissociativestate. Different methods, same result:sabotage. Family and wider socialstructures in one case, economic in theother. Hesketh, what do you observe in theadults?’Still watching the red-clad childrenmilling about in the background, I give