15



Four days later…

Dr. Edward Baines sat behind his large oak desk when his office door opened and Sarah Mitchell stepped into the room. He stood to his feet and motioned to the couch against the wall opposite of his desk. A wooden, glass top coffee table set in front of the couch with a box of tissues and a bowl filled with candy on top of it. Dr. Baines sat in a chair beside the coffee table while Sarah walked up to the couch. She was dressed in white patient scrubs and her hair hadn’t been combed or washed in two days. She sat on the plain brown leather couch and pulled her knees up to her chest with her rear in the corner farthest from Dr. Baines.
“Sarah, it’s Wednesday and you haven’t said a word to me the last two days. That’s not how this treatment works. In order for this to work, you have to talk to me,” said Dr. Baines.
“So, you call this treatment? I called it prison, or better known as the seventh circle of hell.”
“That’s good. Looks like you got your sense of humor back. What do you want to talk about?” he asked as he picked up a legal pad and pen from the table beside his recliner.
“Was it necessary to ban me from using shampoo and body wash?” she held up a few strings of her oily hair.
“Well, believe it or not, we’ve had people try to commit suicide by drinking their shampoo or body wash.”
“Is shampoo or body wash that toxic?” wondered Sarah.
“Not in the least, but sometimes people will do anything to get out of here,” he crossed his legs and wrote on his legal pad.
“Crazy people,” she smiled a little. “Do you think I am crazy?”
“Not in the least,” he replied.
“In that case, when can I start using shampoo and body wash?”
“When you start telling me what is bothering you,” answered Dr. Baines.
“What do you want to know?”
“What is your earliest memory?” asked Dr. Baines.
“I remember a time when I was child, playing with other kids on a military base. I remember the kids and playing in the front yard, but I don’t remember where it was.”
“How old are you in this memory?” questioned Dr. Baines.
“I don’t know. Maybe, five or six,” she relaxed a little, crossing her legs on the couch.
“Did you grow up on army bases your whole life?” he wondered.
“Yes, it seemed that we moved every few years.”
“Did that frustrate you growing?”
“Not when I was younger, but the older I got the more I hated being the new kid in school,” she replied.
“Why did your father accept his permanent position with the National Guard in Ruston?”
“I always thought it was because he was from this area,” she answered.
“Your father was from West Midland?”
“Yes. He met my mother while they were attending ULM, I think it was NLU then. After college he enlisted in the Army,” said Sarah.
“How old was you when your father accepted his permanent position?” asked Dr. Baines.
“I was thirteen.”
“Did you ever think he took the position because you didn’t like being the new kid in school?” questioned Dr. Baines.
“I always thought it was because he had grown tired of uprooting his family.”
“How did your father die?” he asked her.
“One evening he was driving home from work when a drunk driver crossed the lane and hit my father’s car head-on. My father was killed instantly.”
“How old was you when he died?” asked Dr. Baines.
“I was a senior at Trenton High School.”
“Shortly after that you joined the military?” wondered Dr. Baines.
“Yes, but I know what you’re thinking. I didn’t join because of my father’s death. I had been thinking about joining since I was sixteen. At first, my father didn’t want me to join, but my mother convinced him to let me. The reason I wanted to join was so I could go to college,” she replied.
“You met your husband in college?”
“No. I met him about five years ago. Tanya introduced me to him,” said Sarah.
“How’s your marriage?”
“What do you mean?” she reached towards the coffee table and grabbed a piece of candy.
“Are you happily married?”
“For the most part,” she stuck the piece of candy in her mouth and threw the wrapper in a trash basket beside the couch.
“What do you mean?”
“Well, we’re like most couples. We have our fights from time to time,” she sucked on the piece of candy.
“What did you fight about? Money?”
“Money was never a problem. His father was in the oil business and he left David a fortune when he died. Besides his inheritance, David is a very successful prosecuting attorney. We fought because he wants to start a family,” she replied.
“You didn’t want to start a family?”
“No. Not yet.”
“That’s odd. Normally, it’s the husband that puts off starting a family, not the wife. Why don’t you want to start a family?” questioned...