Deux Semaines (Two Weeks)
Deux Semaines (Two Weeks)
By Jeffrey Miska
Vol. #1 of the “Sessions” Series
Published by Jewimi Book Publishers
Copyright 2012
To find other stories and works by Jeffrey Miska, visit his website at https://www.timespirits.com
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Jay sat quietly watching the receptionist in the therapist’s office. He occasionally glanced at her through the glass partition as she spoke on the phone. The waiting room was almost empty, except for young woman seated against the opposite wall completely engrossed in her cell phone.
It was about then the side door to the room opened, and a thin man with glasses and light brown hair looked around the room. The therapist introduced himself to his newest patient. “Hi my name is Terrance Baynor, are you Jay?”
Jay stood up and shook his had with a pleasant smile, “Yup that’s me, nice to meet you.”
“Same here.“ he replied. He held the door open for Jay, motioning for him to enter. They both walked down a quiet carpeted hallway to his office and Jay could smell the scent French fries in the air, no doubt from someone’s fast food lunch.
Entering the therapist’s office, Jay glanced at the décor that was made up of unmemorable artwork and neutral colors. “Have a seat Jay“ the therapist said, “Oh, by the way, although my business cards say Terrance, and that’s the way I introduced myself, I go by Terry. For some reason, the medical center likes us to have our full name plastered on everything. God knows why.”
“Terry it is then.” Jay said. “As you can see, my name is a bit unalterable, so I’m afraid Jay is all you get.”
Terry smiled at the comment and sat down in his chair. He looked Jay over for a moment and asked, “So what brings you to see me on this perfect summer day?”
Jay replied, “Well, a lot really, but I guess I’m here because I need to talk to someone about the way I’ve been feeling lately. It’s not good, and I can’t really talk to my usual groups of listeners. I have a feeling it would impact them in a very bad way.”
Terry said, “Everything you need help with is listed on my job description so we‘re good to go. What’s going on?”
Jay replied, “What’s going on. Well right now, I feel great, but there are times I feel like I’m about to drown in grief and regret. They seem to be happening more frequently and becoming harder for me to recover from.”
Terry replied, “That’s not easy to go through. “You mentioned the word grief. Why grief? Did some one close to you die?”
Jay chuckled, “That’s an interesting question. The answer to it is a big yes and a confusing no. I’m not trying to be cryptic, but I did have someone immensely close to me die, but we haven’t been close for a while now.”
Terry replied, “I’m sorry, it can be crippling to lose someone close to you. Was this a family member?”
Jay said, “No, not family. No, Naeva was the love of my life once upon a time. I didn’t think it was possible to love someone as much as I loved that girl.”
Terry nodded his head, “I understand, have these feelings been getting in the way of daily activities like work, home, or sleeping?”
Jay thought for a moment, “I think I came today because I can see it going in that direction. I’m more or less just keeping it hidden inside, but it’s eating me up and getting worse the more I try to push it away.”
Terry smiled, “This may sound like I’m giving you the textbook answer but I‘m being sincere when I say, nice job coming to see me. Seriously, some people don’t even help themselves when they’re spiraling into deep depression. You’re doing the best thing in the world by viewing this as a problem and doing something about it.”
Jay nodded and smiled.
“You said you keep things hidden inside. If I asked you what those things are, could you describe them to me?”
Jay nodded, “Absolutely, in fact, it's those things trapped inside of me that are killing me. That untold story of how I met Naeva, how we fell in love and how it got to be this horror I’m dealing with. I feel like there isn’t anyone in the world who knows who Naeva was through my eyes, you know, no one.”
Terry said, “I think I understand. You feel like there is some legacy to her memory within your experiences with her?”
Jay got wide eyed and grinned. Snapping his fingers, he pointed at Terry and said, “Perfect! You nailed it, that’s exactly what I’m trying to say. I feel like someone else needs to hear my story and really understand what kind of a loss this was when she died.”
Jay looked thoughtful for a moment and then glanced up at Terry with a confused expression, “That’s kind of weird isn’t it? I mean it’s not like I’m telling the world about this. Talking to you won’t preserve her memory any more than now, but for some reason, I gotta do this.”
Terry said, “Sometimes it’s about validating your memory of her. Everyone has a story they want to tell. Your not unusual to need this as part of the grieving process, and as far as how you want to tell your story, keep in mind that this is your session to say the things you want to say. I’m here to listen and guide you, but if your story about Naeva is what you need tell, then by all means tell it.”
Jay nodded and looked seemingly happy with what Terry had told him. He said, “Wow, you caught me off guard with that. I was waiting to be grilled with questions. I’m warning you, it’s a long story, but you’ll be the only one who ever heard it”, and added, “or probably ever will.”
Terry picked up his notepad and looked at Jay giving him his full attention. With a grin he said, “I’m all ears sir. I could start you off with once upon a time, if you think it will help.”
Jay grinned and settled into his chair. Thinking for a moment he said, “Alright, here goes. This whole mess started a long time ago. I mean like when I was in my twenties. Naeva and I met near a little town called Saugatuck Michigan. There’s a beach their hidden in these huge sand dunes.
That‘s also where my friends and I would hang during the summer. It’s funny we chose to spend time there instead of the usual dune hot spots, because that beach was just about the least “cool” place for people our age to hang.
Saugatuck was known for its antique shops, artists and pricey souvenir stores and I would guess that the average age of the visitors there was probably, sixty years old. As for me an my friends, I don’t think any of us were over 23 back then.
At that age, people over sixty looked so old to me. How things change. Still having the old folks in the picture didn’t mean a rat’s ass to us, because we never hung out in town anyway. Our summer days were spent on the beach. God Damn, it was a beautiful beach. Probably the prettiest beach I had ever seen and I‘ll say that until I die.
You know, I got to spend time in LA for a few weeks, and I’ll never forget the way they went on and on about how “totally awesome” Malibu was. They would ask, “Dude! When are you moving out here to stay?”
The weird thing was, I spent time up and down the California coast, but for all of its hype, it didn’t even come close to the sand dunes and shores of Lake Michigan. In Cali, swimming in the salt water left me feeling sticky. Why would you prefer water that you need to rinse off of you when you climb out of it? The scenery was scrub brush hills, and grass. They were dull compared to the pristine
sand and green forests that covered the dunes back home. No disrespect to my friends from the west, but I’m partial to the smell and feel fresh water and huge oak trees. Anyway, I got sidetracked.
That summer when I met Naeva, we spent all day living in our summer skins on that beach. It makes me laugh when I think of how carefree we were. Some nights we’d build a campfire and fall asleep under the stars. It was the best.
We used to rent a room at this amazingly cheap hotel that was way out of the main part of town. The perfect thing about it was its location in relation to the beach. If you climbed this huge sand dune that bordered the beach called Mount Baldy, there was a set of stairs through the forest on the far side, and it ended about 1000 ft. from the door to the hotel. We all came in one car so how amazing is that? Most people never wanted to make that exhausting climb every time they need go to their hotel room, but we didn’t give a shit. It was cheap and clean and the owner and his wife were really nice to us. They treated us like we were their own kids sometimes. Really good