The Project Gutenberg eBook, The Capgras Shift, by Sam Vaknin

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Title: The Capgras Shift

Author: Sam Vaknin

Release Date: January 2, 2008 [eBook #24109]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ISO-646-US (US-ASCII)

***START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE CAPGRAS SHIFT***

Copyright (C) 2007 by Sam Vaknin.

The Capgras Shift

Sam Vaknin <http://samvak.tripod.com/cv.html>

/*1. The Sinking*/

My marriage aborted, my private practice stillborn, I packed stale
possessions in two flabby suitcases and bade my sterile apartment a
tearless goodbye. On the spur of the moment, I had applied a fortnight
before to a government post and, to my consternation, had won it
handily. I was probably the only applicant.

It was an odd sort of job. The state authorities had just finished
submerging 4 towns, 6 cemeteries, and numerous farms under the still,
black waters of a new dammed reservoir of drinking water. The process
was drawn out and traumatic. Tight-knit communities unraveled, families
scattered, businesses ruined. The government undertook to provide the
former inhabitants with psychological support: an on-site therapist
(that's me), social workers, even a suicide line.

I had to relocate, hence my haphazard departure. I took the bus to the
nearest big city and hitchhiked from there. The fare just about
amortized my travel allowance for the entire week. I had to trudge in
mud the last two or three kilometers only to find myself in a
disorienting, nightmarish landscape: isled rooftops and church spires
puncturing the abnormally still surface of a giant man-made lake. I
waded ashore, amidst discarded furniture and toys and contemplated the
buried devastation.

My clinic, I discovered, was a ramshackle barrack, replete with a
derelict tiny lawn, strewn with rusting hulks of household goods. I was
shown by a surly superintendent into a tiny enclosure: my flat. Crammed
into a cubicle were a folding metal bed, military-issue blankets, and a
depleted pillow. Still, I slept like a baby and woke up refresh