Welcome to another exclusive character interview. Today it's from Author Victoria Pearson who I'm deeply thankful to for writing up this guest post. So without further ado read on and enjoy, and if you like the character interview you can grab Victoria's novelette here.
Today we will be joined
by Dr Charles Prinze and social worker Gloria Gilbert, both of whom work for an
oddities and anomalies hospital. I'm not entirely certain what that is, so I am
hoping to find out more in this interview.
The couple arrive, late
and fairly breathless, to the cafe we are meeting at, still dressed for work.
Dr Prinze is in his white lab coat and green scrubs trousers. He looks too
young to be in charge of of an entire ward, despite his three day stubble and the
hint of grey at his temples. Ms Gilbert is in head to toe blue scrubs, and she
has several pens sticking out of her afro. I'm not sure if she is aware they
are there or or if she has forgotten. Dr Prinze looks serious, tired, like he
has just come off a night shift. Ms Gilbert is his opposite, bright smile and a
bounce in her step like coming here is is the highlight of her day. I get the
immediate impression that her smile is as much a part of uniform as her scrubs.
I have been pre-warned that their time with me
is short today, so as soon as they sat
down and coffee has been ordered, we dive straight in.
Tell me about your job?
Dr Charles Prinze:
Well, we work in a very special hospital called-
Gloria Gilbert:
Wait, are we allowed to say the name of the hospital?
Charles: You don't
think we should?
Gloria: Best to err
on the safe side, I'd say. You know what they're like.
Charles: I thought
the rules had been relaxed for this interview?
Gloria: Well
obviously. But still, we don't want to
break any confidentiality rules or anything. Perhaps it's safest to say that we
work in a hospital that deals with aliens, supernatural beings and other
oddities and leave it at that.
Supernatural beings?
Aliens?
Gloria: Oh yes. Take
Malcolm for example. Lovely lad, more humane than any human I have ever met,
but he definitely comes under the supernatural umbrella, being a were-fox and
all.
Charles: And then
there's the ETs. All aliens that want to seek political asylum on earth have to
be quarantined first. It's our job to look after their health care and screen
them for obvious signs of disease or parasites before they can move into the
asylum centre.
Aliens seek asylum on
earth?
Charles: All the
time! Aliens that come from Earth-like planets can generally pass as human or
as other animals and can integrate easily into our societies. Some aliens can't
though, particularly gaseous aliens, and they have to settle permanently in bio
- domes with purpose built atmospheres.
That sounds....expensive
Gloria: That isn't
really our area, we aren't politicians. We deal with their health care,
including their mental health care. A lot of those people are fleeing
unimaginable horrors, war zones, dying planets, all kinds of things.
Charles: Gloria is
quite right, that isn't our area. We are straying into territory we don't have
security clearance to discuss.
Fair enough. I'm not
sure I have ever heard of a were-fox, can you tell me more about them?
Gloria: They aren't
very common, as far as we'd know. They were hunted to near extinction in the
early eighteenth century and few survived. We are working on finding the
remaining wild ones now.
Charles: Don't panic
though, they don't pose a danger to the public or anything.
Gloria: Oh yes,
don't worry Honey. Like most wild creatures, they are far more afraid of you
than you are of them. We are hoping to find them to preserve and learn about
the species, and help them to integrate with their human sides more fully. Many
were people are ostracised by their
families and feel excluded from society. We hope to remedy that.
Charles: Inclusion
is a big part of what we do.
I'm a bit thrown by this
revelation, and I feel my interview is going a bit off track so I do my best to
stick to my pre-prepared questions.
So how did you get into this line of work?
Charles: Well,
everyone in our hospital was headhunted, even down to the cleaning staff and
caterers. Our workplace requires a certain skillset not everyone has.
I was working in a private clinic when a man named Jones came
and offered me the job. I thought he had mental health problems at first to be
honest.
Gloria: I was the
same. I was working as a social worker,
helping out a young girl who turned out to be possessed. I think the
fact that I took her seriously when she said there was a magical cause for her
behaviour is what led Jones to me actually, although I don't know how he found
me. It wasn't until he took me to the training
academy that I realised he was being serious about the job offer.
Charles interrupts: You know I can't bear that
word.
Gloria: Which word?
Charles: Magical.
There's no such thing as magic, just science we don't understand yet.
Gloria: It's same
thing.
Charles: It's not
the same thing.
I can tell this is an
argument the duo have had a lot of times before, so I decide to move things
along.
That all sounds so
interesting! So what's the best part of
your job?
Charles: I think for
me, the best part is the variety. When that klaxon goes off we never know what
is going to come through the door. Will they be Alien, Supernatural or Other?
Will they be happy to be here, or here against their will? Are they just
passing or will they stay a while? Every day is different.
Gloria: I really
like the human side of things. Everyone we encounter is struggling somehow,
usually when we first meet our patients they are grappling with their identity,
their place in society, challenges within their family unit. I like helping
them come to terms with the changes they are facing and build their self esteem
back up again.
Charles: And there
is the small matter of getting to save the world every now and then. There's a
certain amount of job satisfaction in that.
Gloria: That's a
pretty big perk. The money is very good too.
That does sound like a
dream job! Are there any downsides?
Gloria: Well, like
Charles just said, we never know what's going to come through the door. We
often have to make split second decisions that affect another person's life.
That's a lot of pressure sometimes.
Charles: It can get
a little lonely too. We aren't allowed to discuss work, as a rule. It would be
nice to be able to vent after a long day but in our line of work that just
isn't possible.
Gloria: Yes, we can
be very bound by procedure in that way. Sometimes you'd rather use your own
methods to help a patient out but your hands are tied. It can be frustrating.
Charles: Not that
that always stops you. I've noticed you always seem to find a way to get your
own way when it comes to patient care.
Gloria: Well most
laws do have a loophole if you search long enough.
Charles: That's
true. I can almost always find a way out of doing most of my paperwork to be
honest.
Gloria: Yes, you
usually dump it on me!
She gives him a playful
shove on the arm and they both giggle. It's quite clear that as well well as
being work mates, these two are good friends.
Working so closely with
long term patients, you must build a relationship with some of them. Are there
any inmates you feel closer to?
Charles: I tend to
try and keep a professional distance from all of our patients, but you can't
help but end up being friendly with people you work with every day for years.
Doing my daily crossword with Porker,
chatting to Croaker each day,
keeping an eye on the phases of the moon for Malcolm - those things have
become little highlights of my day.
Gloria: Yes, you
become close with all of the long termers. You'd have to be made of stone not
to. I have a slight soft spot for Malcolm. He is only young, and he has no
family. He doesn't seem to mind, but I think he must be lonely. Foxes are solitary
creatures, but teenagers aren't.
And what about your love
life? Is there a special someone in your
life?
Both Ms Gilbert and Dr
Prinze seem uncomfortable with the question, shifting in their seats. Gloria
seems intent on studying her nails and Charles appears suddenly fascinated by
the carpet pattern, his face slowly turning a shade of fuschia.
Gloria: Well, work
takes up an awful lot of time, you know. It can be hard to meet people in our
line of work.
Charles: And like I
said before, we aren't allowed to talk
about how we spend our days, so it can be hard to be close with someone.
Working in the hospital takes up a lot of our lives.
So what do you tell
people you do if work comes up in conversation?
Gloria: I just say
I'm doing social work. My mum knows that social work involves dealing with
confidential information, so she tends not to ask too much. My sister is in a
similar field, she works with an agency we work closely with, so I can be a a
bit more relaxed with her.
Charles: We are told
to say "I'm not at liberty to discuss my job". I find that makes
people even more curious, they think you are a spy or something. I just say I'm
a lab geek nowadays.
So what is next for the
two of you? Do you have plans for the next few years?
Charles: I've worked
my way up to a fairly high position in the hospital now, I'm in charge of one
of our biggest wards. I think if I stop feeling challenged there I would
consider a move into field work.
Gloria snorts, and
shakes her head a little.
Charles: What?
Gloria: I just can't
quite picture you in the field is all. Getting your hands dirty isn't really
your thing.
Charles: Are you
saying I'm soft?
Gloria: Not at all!
I've done field work though, remember? You do a good job at the hospital, I
can't quite picture you in another setting is all.
Charles: What about
you then, Miss I've Worked In The Field You Know? What will you be doing in
five years?
Gloria: Still
mopping up your disasters I should think, Honey!
But seriously, I like the hospital, it is just starting to feel
like home. I'm in the process of becoming a fully qualified ET doctor, but I do
enjoy social work. I'm hoping to improve our inclusion strategies within the
hospital. A lot of our patients are at least
partly human, but when they come to us, or just before anyhow, they have lose
their old lives and their families. I would like to work on ways to make them
feel more in touch with their human sides, reconnect with their families and
start to feel included in society again. If-
Gloria is cut off then
by the piercing shriek of her pager, just as Charles' starts wailing at the
same time.
Charles: I'm ever so
sorry but we are going to have to cut the interview short. We have a level 4
situation back at the the ward.
Gloria: I don't
understand how they can possibly have let the imps escape again! We have four
magic sigils on that door, and it was
triple charm locked!
The pair rush out of the
cafe and I watch through the window as they sprint across the street to their
car, leaving me with more questions than I started with.
You can see Gloria and Charles in action in A Tale Of two Princes by Victoria Pearson.
Some longer stories featuring Gloria and Charles are planned.
If you would like to keep up with Victoria Pearson's other
books and stories you can:
check out out her
website: victoriapearson.co.uk
or follow her on twitter
@vspearson85
Or in facebook: https://m.facebook.com/VictoriaPearsonWriter
And you can read some of her flash fiction and poetry free on
her blog: strangenotebook.blogspot.co.uk
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