Continuing from our last story about Gertrude & Grace: to really understand Gertrude and her relationship with Grace, it’s important to understand Gertrude’s other relationship.
Null Paradox | Gertrude & The Bully
The pressure Gertrude feels which in part is the reason why her ability to communicate with Grace erodes, has much to do with who she is and how she handles adversity. But it’s also helped along in a very intentional way by The Bully.
While The Bully has remarkable physical strength, like the very few fully aware people who you’re bound to meet, it’s his unflinching willpower that makes him a true threat. And with Gertrude, he focuses his willpower on making her feel psychologically small.
Day in and day out he’s there with her. Putting effort into their relationship like no one Gertrude had ever met.
From Gertrude’s perspective, he is absolute torture.
But, she also recognizes that she shares with him a few secrets that she barely wants to admit to herself. And in an odd way, she feels comforted by the fact that someone understands her. Particularly her OCD (Obsessive-compulsive Disorder) and how he encourages her to see the benefits of OCD; especially how her OCD can be used to support her xenophobia.
Then one dark rainy night, Gertrude did something that changed everything. Her first instinct was to tell Grace. To confess. But she didn’t need to, because The Bully had been there observing her all along.
He was the one who helped Gertrude along the path of holding secrets back from Grace.
The Bully is Complicated
It would be simplistic and easy to dismiss The Bully as “the bad guy.” And he’d be the first one to help you down that path, because to him, everything was and is a multi-level chess game. By helping you underestimate him, you’d be helping yourself into one of his never-ending traps.
But, how do you reconcile his true love for Gertrude?
After all, when Gertrude almost died in an explosion, it was The Bully who ensured that all the other IEDs (Improvised Explosive Devices) in the area where disarmed so she would be safe.
He also recognized the true nature of the IEDs and why they had been planted around the The Ministry’s Psychological Easing Machines by The Cranks.
The Simple Answer
The Bully has a strategy. And his strategy goes beyond what even his boss has devised for him.