by Rik Johnston
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
I
THE BEGINNING OF THE PATH
MONDAY, OCTOBER 23, 1995
The weekend had unceremoniously come and gone without incident, for which Tuesday was thankful. Nights without nightmares were treasured gifts to her, gifts which yielded good sleep. Tuesday had not known good sleep; they were literally strangers in the night. When those rare occasions occurred, and they were few and far between, Tuesday found herself most thankful for them.
Tuesday had managed to secure a slot with Doctor Frederiksen that Monday morning. More than anything, she wanted to kick this disorder of hers and live a normal life. But a secondary goal had grown in her heart like a beautiful potted flower; she was also very excited the prospect of getting back into school so she could see Jason regularly. And with that in mind, she was going to work hard and become everything she needed to become.
Tuesday entered the kitchen and saw her mom preparing some food for breakfast. She was excited to tell her mother that she was planning a visit with Doctor Frederiksen later that day, and that she was going to get herself back into school. The two of them had a conversation about it, and Megan found herself amicable to the taking Tuesday to see Doctor Frederiksen later that afternoon. She hadn’t yet signed the forms for Tuesday and was still uneasy about the process of hypnosis on her daughter even though she thoroughly read the literature included in the packet five or six times.
When the afternoon had come at last, Tuesday and Megan drove to The Millwork Tavern for her appointment with Doctor Frederiksen. They parked the car and Megan attempted to make a final plea to her daughter.
“Are you certain you want to go through with this?” Megan asked as compassionately as she could, hoping that Tuesday might look for another avenue to wellness. “We can try and find another way if you’re not comfortable with the hypnosis.”
“Mom, we’ve been over this.” Tuesday cut her off, feeling confident in her decision to seek treatment with Doctor Frederiksen. “I’ve got to try this, and this is the best hope I have right now. There’s nothing to worry about, this guy is a professional.”
“I had to try.” Megan said, lowering her head. “I wouldn’t be your mother if I didn’t.”
Megan had spent so many years of her life distrustful of people that she had now become distrustful of professionals such as Doctor Frederiksen. As a drug addict, her mind had become so twisted that even somebody with the sincerest of motives would raise suspicion in her fragile state. Now that she was forming the beginnings of a bond with her daughter she felt she had something to truly protect so her old failings had become her new defensive mentality.
“I understand Mom.” Tuesday nodded in acknowledgement. “I really do.”
The two of them got out of the car and found themselves in the reception area of Doctor Frederiksen’s office, which seemed reasonably warm and inviting on that cool October afternoon. Megan grabbed a clipboard and finished filling out the forms, frantically scribbling information in the spaces provided on the paper. When she had finished, she walked up to the counter and handed the clipboard to Michelle.
“Here you go.” Megan said, cautiously handing the forms to the receptionist. “I think I have everything you need on there.”
“Thank you.” Michelle replied over the dull thud of the big rubber stamp she was using to make Doctor Frederiksen’s seal on the forms. “I’ll let you know if you missed anything.” Michelle handed Megan some information about the sessions, including a page that listed pricing and payment options for Tuesday’s appointments. The fees seemed a little steeper than Megan felt as if she could handle. She sat there looking over the information as best as she could, but the costs kept creeping into her mind.
When Doctor Frederiksen finally came out to collect Tuesday, he spotted them and then smiled warmly at them as he approached. Megan stepped in to ask a few questions. “How am I going to pay for all these sessions?” Megan asked in a concerned tone. “Twice a week seems pretty steep to me.”
Doctor Frederiksen spoke to Megan in a calm and collected manner, “I’ll take her case for free, you have nothing to worry about.” Megan’s suspicions became suddenly aroused, as she had learned in her lifetime that if something sounds too good to be true, it probably is.
“Nothing is free in this world, Doctor.” Megan countered, snapping at him with a harsh sound in her voice. “What’s the catch? What’s in it for you?”
Doctor Frederiksen was well prepared for this line of questioning, and knew the best way to counter Megan’s suspicions. “I’ve been doing this for a long time, and I have a good success rate.” The Doctor stated. “I would be lying if I said there wasn’t anything in this for me. This is a chance to study and observe a unique case, one that nobody’s ever fully studied. This is uncharted territory in the field of dream therapy, this is a chance for me to…”
“A chance for you to what?” Megan cut him off sharply, realizing what he was all about. “A chance to get rich off my daughter? You science junkies are all the same.”
“Megan.” Doctor Frederiksen began in a cool and calm voice, “Where’s the harm in writing a paper on Tuesday’s condition? Or a book, perhaps? All the names and locations would be changed to protect her identity. I don’t understand why this is such a problem for you, as I will still be providing her treatment.”
Megan Moxley softened at hearing this explanation. This man was being up front and honest with her, telling her that he will document her condition, and that he will profit from it. But there is a gentility to his words that she succumbs to, one that makes her realize that he means her daughter no harm. “I suppose you’re right.” Megan agrees. “There’s no harm in that.”
“No.” Doctor Frederiksen said soothingly, “No harm at all.”
“If I sense that one thing is going wrong”, Megan threatened, only caring about the safety of her daughter. “I will pull her out of these sessions, that’s a promise.”
“That is, of course, your prerogative.” Replied the Doctor. “But this might be Tuesday’s last shot at getting back into school and getting herself back on track. If I can get Miss Moxley back into school, and Principal McCauley finds out she’s no longer attending therapy, he will most likely expel her for good. Like you, I just want what’s best for Tuesday, I want to help her solve her problems and get her back to school. Please, just trust me, I’ll treat your daughter very professionally.”
Megan finally gives in to what Doctor Frederiksen is saying, and reluctantly agrees to everything that he is willing to do for Tuesday. Doctor Frederiksen looks over at Tuesday sitting in her chair, and motions her to come to his office.
“Are you ready, Tuesday?” Doctor Frederiksen asked reassuringly.
Tuesday nodded her head as she stood up from her chair, walking toward the door to the corridor that leads to Doctor Frederiksen’s office. Before entering the door, she took a look at her mother, who didn’t know if she had just been shrinked herself. Doctor Frederiksen opened the door for Tuesday and they disappeared into the hallway beyond.
When they reached his office, Doctor Frederiksen opened the door for her and motioned to the door on the right-hand side of his office to the room she had done her intake meeting with him just the previous week before, the hypnosis chamber. Instead of the sofa, Doctor Frederiksen instructed her to lay comfortably on the day bed with her hands folded together on her stomach. Doctor Frederiksen strapped a blood pressure cuff around her arm and affixed some EKG leads to her to monitor her vital signs, assuring her all the time that everything was going to be alright. While she did as she was asked, Doctor Frederiksen was doing his very best to reassure Tuesday that the actual risk involved in the process was minimal.
“You know, Tuesday.” Doctor Frederiksen spoke, calmly and confidently, doing his best to calm her inhibitions. “I’ve never lost a single person in this process. The entire fear of that is completely unfounded.”
As Tuesda
y relaxed herself she listened to the psychologist go on about the intricate details of hypnosis, and was found that her level of trust was growing with each passing moment. What before seemed somewhat frightening to Tuesday now seemed like an everyday practice to her. She also felt herself making a personal breakthrough, the more that Doctor Frederiksen explained the process to her, the more interested in it she became and couldn’t wait to begin. But more than just trust in the process, she was beginning to feel as if she could trust him. This was a door she hadn’t opened to other psychologists before. She attended sessions with other professionals before, but felt that they were leading her on and weren’t really paying attention to her. It seemed to her that many of the doctors she had been to see were just listening to her to make easy money, not to help her with her problems. One of them had even fallen asleep listening to her, and told her dismissively that the entire episode had been all in her head. Nothing made Tuesday angrier that being ignored. But listening to Doctor Frederiksen was different. He seemed to care about her problem, and seemed to know his craft and his skills. “I trust you.” Tuesday whispered, barely audible even to herself.
“Okay, I’m ready.” Doctor Frederiksen boldly stated. “I will be putting you into a condition of deep hypnosis where I can project myself into your dreams.”
“Project yourself into my dreams?” Tuesday asked, seeking clarification as to what exactly that meant. “How do you do that, Professor Xavier?”
“Through hypnotic suggestion, I can communicate with you in your dream, to lead you, guide you and teach you how to overcome obstacles.” Doctor Frederiksen replied, cool and collected, explaining the process to her. “While I am not physically there in your dreams, your mind will make it appear that I am standing right there next to you, and I will show you what you need to do to control them. And since you will be dreaming in hypnosis, everything you say to me in your dream, you’ll audibly be saying here in the room. This is how we will communicate. Are you ready?”
“Yes.” Tuesday said nervously, but focused on the task at hand. “I want to make this go away.”
“Miss Moxley.” He said, his tone darkening just slightly, “There could be a possible side effect to this. This could awaken some very sinister things in your sub-conscious mind. Some of these things have been festering for a long time, and can appear quite frightening, but I assure you, none of them can harm you. Do you think you can handle it?
The briefest moment of apprehension flickered across Tuesday’s face, unprepared for this newest revelation. She knew that she had a lot of darkness pent up inside of her, and wasn’t sure if she were ready to release it or not. She took a moment to think, her eyes darting back and forth, looking for an answer. It was then that she noticed a piece of art on the wall. It had clouds illuminated by a crescent moon at night and a simple phrase was written up on it:
“Trust the Dreams, for in them is hidden the gate to eternity.” – Kahlil Gibran
This was all the confirmation Tuesday had needed. She suddenly understood that she needed to let go of the dark things in her mind so that she could have a fulfilling future. She couldn’t do what she needed to do unless she could find the strength to let go of the things that had haunted her for so long. It wasn’t going to be easy. She began to tremble slightly, but bit her lip and addressed the Doctor. “I’m ready.”
Doctor Frederiksen reached over and started the metronome, which immediately began ticking in its rhythmical fashion. Click, click, click, each timed with meticulous precision, constant and accurate. Tuesday let the sound take her to a place where she found herself easily relaxed. Doctor Frederiksen reached over and grabbed a remote control that allowed him to turn off the main light in the room and replace it with a blue tinted light. He began to speak to her, slowly and deliberately, “Miss Moxley, I want you to relax and soak in the atmosphere of this light. I want you to hear the clicking sound and try to time your breathing and heartbeat with it. Can you do that?”
“Yes.” Tuesday answered, her voice sounding relaxed.
“Good.” Anthony Frederiksen continued. “I want you to hear the sound of my voice as I talk to you as you feel yourself slipping into a state of complete and total relaxation.”
After a few more minutes of Doctor Frederiksen’s monotone, Tuesday’s eyes felt quite tired, and her eyelids became too heavy to keep open. As the Doctor continued to speak to her in quiet, cool monosyllabic tones, she found herself succumbing to sleep completely.
“When I count down to zero, Miss Moxley,” Doctor Frederiksen began, “You will be under complete and total power of suggestion. Do you understand what I am saying?”
“Yes.” Tuesday managed with a whisper, feeling her body relax in a way she hadn’t felt in many years.
“Ten. . . Nine. . . Eight. . .” The Doctor continued. “You are sliding into a deep slumber. . .”
Tuesday could begin to feel another state of consciousness take hold, as one reality started to slip away and another moved it to take its place. It seemed to Tuesday as if she had stepped into a tunnel between the two worlds and was walking slowly toward somewhere new.
“Seven. . . Six. . . Five. . .” Said the intoxicating voice of the Doctor. “You can only feel the sound of my voice. . .”
Without realizing it, Tuesday’s legs were moving, and she was walking further down the tunnel, toward a distant light, leaving behind everything she had previously known. She couldn’t turn around even if she had wanted to, nothing in her body would obey the commands of her mind and her legs kept propelling her forward toward the light, which was growing as she got closer to it.
“Four. . . Three. . .Two. . .” Said the voice of the Doctor, silky and smooth. “You should be arriving in your subconscious any moment now.
Her legs kept walking forward, further and further into the light. A moment later, the brilliance of the light surrounded her and her eyes had to adjust to the magnitude of its brightness. She could feel a coolness coming from the light, one she hadn’t felt before. Just a few more steps. The light seemed as if it were inviting Tuesday inside of it, drawing her in. For what purpose, she did not know. At that moment, nothing else existed for Tuesday except the light and the coolness.
“One. . . Zero.” The Doctor finished counting down, observing her vital signs to make sure his patient wasn’t in any real physical danger. Doctor Frederiksen continued to monitor her for some time, scrawling his observations in a leather-bound notebook. After a while, the EKG monitor blipped and Tuesday’s heart rate had increased. He looked over at her face and could see her eyes darting back and forth behind her eyelids, and indication that she had achieved REM sleep while in a state of hypnosis. It was time to join her in her dreams.
Tuesday had taken her final steps into the light, which gave way to a beautifully reimagined version of the Municipal Park in Cadence Falls, as if the light had been a curtain that had been pulled back. All the greens were greener, the blues were bluer, and the whites were whiter. There was a layer of morning fog that hung in the air, and the sunlight streaming through the barren branches left trails of shadows that playfully danced upon the mist. A thin veil of fog hovered over the surface of the lake, swirling in the gentle breeze, not completely concealing the water beneath. Tuesday could hear the joyous sound of small children playing nearby, their laughter was music to her ears. It was then that she heard a familiar voice.
“Are you dreaming, Miss Moxley?” Asked the voice of Doctor Frederiksen, hoping to reach her in her newly discovered plane of existence.
“Yes.” Tuesday’s voice responded monosyllabically back in the office.
“Am I invited to enter your dreams?” Doctor Frederiksen asked her in a permissive tone.
“Yes, Doctor Frederiksen.” Tuesday replied without a hint of anxiety. “You are invited.”
A rare smile spread across the face of Doctor Frederiksen. “Very well, I am coming in now.”
II
/>
LEARNING CONTROL
Almost instantaneously, Doctor Frederiksen appeared next to Tuesday in the park. While not physically there with her, by granting her permission to enter her dream, a mental projection stayed by her side, instructing her through his voice in the real world by speaking to her through hypnotic suggestion. Doctor Frederiksen had been pioneering this sort of dream therapy for years, and had hoped that one day he could use his techniques to solve a case such as Tuesday’s. For a period, he had attempted to solve his client’s problems with a variety of prescription drugs, but could not achieve the results he was looking for as he couldn’t target the specific parts of the brain he needed to. The drug also tended to lock him out of the subconscious mind of his test subjects, so he finally accepted the medication as a failure, and moved on to other techniques. He tried simply therapeutic techniques with his patients, and each failure lead him to another bold step forward until he had become a leading expert on dream psychology. All of his research had led him to this moment, helping a patient with nightmares so severe that they hindered the patient’s development in their environment. He was now in uncharted territory in his research, and couldn’t wait to find out what his next failure would be so he could learn to move past it to the next step further.
Tuesday was pleasantly surprised to see Doctor Frederiksen in her dream with her, and began to speak to him as if he were actually there with him. It was at this point where the hypnotic technique melded into a state of complete transparency, and it seemed as if the two of them were just in the park having a conversation. The moment of seamless interaction between the two of them became a moment of joy for Tuesday.
“Are you ready to open your mind?” Doctor Frederiksen spoke with much less authority and more emotion in his voice than she had previously experienced. “Are you ready to take control of this gift of yours?”
Tuesday excitedly nodded her head in approval, “I am beyond ready!”
“Do you recognize your surroundings, Miss Moxley?” Doctor Frederiksen asked inquisitively, taking notes of what Tuesday was doing. “Tell me about what you’re seeing.”
“I am at the Municipal Park on the edge of town, out near the freeway.” Tuesday responded, trying to understand the differences between the material world and the immaterial world. “Though it doesn’t seem like I’m really there. This feels like a dream.”
“How can you tell you’re dreaming?” Asked the Doctor, looking for details as to what Tuesday was experiencing.
“I’m in black and white, and everything else is in color.” Countered Tuesday, observing both herself and Doctor Frederiksen. “Except you’re in black and white also.”
“That is how you perceive me. You invited me in, so I am a reflection of your own perception.” Doctor Frederiksen reasoned, explaining why the two of them were different than the environment around them. “These are important observations, and this is knowledge you will need to become awake inside your dream.”
“Awake inside my dream?” Tuesday asked, scratching her head, wading through the confusion of what the Doctor had just told her. “Am I not already awake inside my dream?”
“You are awake in the sense that you can see what is going on around you.” Doctor Frederiksen patiently explained. “But there is a difference between being awake in your dream and being conscious in your dream.”
“What’s the difference?” Tuesday continued in her line of questioning.
“The difference is that in your sense of awake you are only able to see the information going on around you.” Doctor Frederiksen continued. “Being fully awake in your dream will give you the ability to interact with your dream in whatever way you see fit.”
Tuesday had to stop and think about this for a moment, wondering if she had been awake in her dream every time and hadn’t known it. Surely, she hadn’t been, and if she had, then she could have exerted some influence over her dream and interacted with it as the Doctor said she could. “But how do I do that?” Tuesday wondered. “How do I interact with something my mind has pre-determined?”
“I know that I am dreaming Doctor.” Tuesday tried to explain, thinking hard to try and differentiate between the two. “I know it each time I’m dreaming, especially if it’s going to be a nightmare. There’s a difference. I guess there’s a difference between the way the two feel.”
“Good.” Doctor Frederiksen answered, nodding his head in the affirmative, writing Tuesday’s words in his notebook. “Knowing that you are dreaming is an excellent first step. Do you recognize any of the signs that we discussed the other day?”
“Yeah, we are both in black and white.” Tuesday said, her anxiety rising a little bit. “I just know that something is going to happen, but I don’t know what just yet.”
Doctor Frederiksen knows that it is time for Tuesday to wake up in her dream. “Now that you know you’re dreaming; and you have a full awareness of it, it is time that you fully emerge from you dream slumber. Become aware of your surroundings, look at it as you would see the park when you are actually there.”
Tuesday concentrated on the environment around her and suddenly the color shifted from its brilliant shade to a more normal looking world around her. While she and Doctor Frederiksen appeared in black and white, the world around them seemed much more realistic, as Tuesday could feel the shift in her awareness sharpen up, and the world around her connected itself to her.
“Okay, what am I looking for?” Asked Tuesday, searching for the answers to questions she hadn’t yet asked.
“Only you can know that.” Doctor Frederiksen encouraged her, hoping that she might experiment with a few things on her own. “What’s going on around you?”
Tuesday looked around the area of the park, and soon found that she could step outside of herself and view the park from any position she chose to. It was like seeing the world around her through the eyes of an osprey, flying and searching for the exact thing happening around her. One moment she is seeing Doctor Frederiksen and herself, conversing near a light pole, both in black and white. The next moment she was skimming through the fog over the lake, surveying the steep, grassy shores. And it wasn’t long before she was seeing the playground. One particular detail gripped her attention right away.
There was a man near the playground who was watching the children. Something didn’t feel quite right about him. While the children were gleefully laughing and playing, a three-year-old girl wandered off from the playground, through the hedgerow and toward the steep grassy slopes leading to the water of the lake. Tuesday circled her vision high and above to get a better look at the entire situation. Seeing the child, the creepy bystander got up from his spot on the grass and began to walk toward the child. It was at this moment that the young mother had realized that her child was no longer on the playground.
Frantic, the young mother began to search and headed out from the playground in the wrong direction. Meanwhile the man crept toward the child and revealed a sharp kitchen knife from the inside of his jacket. It had become all too clear to Tuesday what was about to happen.
Tuesday began to scream for somebody to help the child, but per usual, nobody could hear or see her. Doctor Frederiksen was wholly unimpressed with the action Tuesday was taking.
“That man is going to murder that girl!” Tuesday screamed at the top of her lungs, imploring Doctor Frederiksen for an answer. “What are we going to do?”
“You’ve already learned that screaming about it won’t help.” Doctor Frederiksen asserted, coaching her to attempt another action. “You need to take direct action; you need to try something else.”
“Like what? What do you want from me?” Tuesday begins to panic, desperately hoping to avoid witnessing another murder. “I didn’t come to this session to watch somebody else die!!”
“You need to find an alternate form of intervention; wouldn’t you agree?” The Doctor pressed, hoping that Tuesday would arrive at the answer hers
elf.
Tuesday is seeing the whole grotesque encounter play out in her newly acquired Osprey Vision as the child murderer is closing in on the girl, his pace quickening as his wicked desire to end the child’s life burns in his mind. The young mother is still heading off in the wrong direction with no way of finding or reaching her child in time. Tuesday is desperate for an answer; however, it isn’t an answer that Doctor Frederiksen is willing to give her without some cryptic dialogue. “Nothing ever comes easy with Doctor Frederiksen.” Tuesday thought to herself, panicking, fearing this would end in another failure.
“What would you have me do?!” Tuesday screamed, desperately pleading for an answer to the dilemma before her.
“Calm yourself.” Doctor Frederiksen commanded in a stern voice, trying to give her an explanation. “Exert some control over your environment. The situation is yours to control.”
Tuesday closes her eyes and a myriad of options flood into her mind. Doctor Frederiksen’s voice fades into the background, still coaching her on how to handle the situation at hand. Everything Tuesday is thinking of seems impossible to her, nothing is feasibly reasonable to her in this crucial moment. Doctor Frederiksen is impressing upon her the sense of urgency in the matter as his voice snaps back to the forefront.
“Relax. Think!!” Doctor Frederiksen stressed, trying to set Tuesday on the path to correcting this injustice from occurring. “What will slow the killer down until help arrives?”
In Tuesday’s vision, the killer is only about twenty feet from the child, raising his knife to slash the girl to ribbons. Tuesday is getting even more panicked, again looking to Doctor Frederiksen for the answer, which he doesn’t seem willing to give.
“I. . . I don’t know. . .”, Tuesday cried, fearing that this would end in tragedy. “What should I do?”
“Miss Moxley.” The Doctor spoke in a calming tone, “You are the master of all here in the dream world. If a real-world solution can’t be used, think of something unreal. You have the power to make the impossible, possible.”
The child killer is about three feet from his target, and is getting ready to swing the knife, ending the life of the young girl. Tuesday sees that the moment is at hand, its either do, or die.
“Okay!!” Tuesday screamed, a new-found confidence cemented itself in her voice. “I got it!!”
Tuesday closed her eyes and began to imagine a scenario that would save the life of the little girl. No sooner than the thought came to her mind, the knife begins its motion toward the girl. As he does so, he fails to notice that large amounts of water began seeping up from the ground, causing the grassy slope to become slippery. The child killer loses his balance, falling to the ground where his own knife plunges deep into his own stomach. The man coughed up his own blood, choking on it, spilling it out onto the grass.
Snapping back into Osprey Vision, Tuesday realized that the child was not yet out of danger, as the moisture on the grass created a slipping hazard on the steep slope. And slip the child did, sliding down toward the water. Tuesday closed her eyes and thought of a thick sheet of ice over the top of the lake, and it instantly froze. The child slid off the wet grass and onto the ice where she was safe. A few minutes later, the young mother came rushing up to the side of the lake, scanning down the slope for her daughter and spied her laying upon the ice, having the time of her life.
Frantic, the young mother worked her way down the slope, but also lost her grip on the grass and slid down to the ice where she was reunited with her daughter. She desperately called for help and a few other people in the park, a jogger, a city worker and two of the other parents came to their aid. When they arrived, nobody would have imagined what they saw, the lake had frozen over in October. The city worker had discovered the body of the child killer and radioed it to dispatch, who called the police to come and ascertain what the story was. All the while, Tuesday was observing the whole aftermath in Osprey Vision.
“I did it, Doctor Frederiksen!!” Tuesday exclaimed, congratulating herself for having changed the outcome of the situation. “Oh yeah!! I did it!!”
Pleased with the results, Doctor Frederiksen was not above giving credit where credit is due. “Yes, Miss Moxley.” He replied, a slight smile of satisfaction pasted upon his face. “You certainly did. Very good job!”
“I saved that girl from that lunatic who would have killed her!” Tuesday rejoiced, proud of her accomplishment.
“The next step is to lock away the previous outcome in your subconscious.” Doctor Frederiksen said. “This is easy, all you have to do is focus on the outcome you created, and your mind will discard the previous outcome.”
“You’re saying that I won’t remember the child being killed when it actually happens then?” Tuesday asked somewhat skeptically.
“Not if you choose not to.” Doctor Frederiksen replied. “These are the first steps to the cure you’ve been seeking. We will learn that technique later in our sessions.”
“You mean I won’t dream about the real future anymore?” Tuesday queried optimistically, a sense of hope in her voice that she might be seeing the light at the end of the tunnel.
“Nothing is certain yet.” Doctor Frederiksen exclaimed, assuming that Tuesday’s progress would increase in the weeks to come. “We still have much to accomplish on our journey. Are you ready to wake up and celebrate today’s success?”
Tuesday took one more sweeping look with the Osprey Vision, which was rapidly becoming her favorite thing about the entire process. She swelled with pride as she reviewed the aftermath from a variety of angles. The ability to see things from every viewpoint was both wonderful and invaluably useful to her. She couldn’t wait to explore this further. But that would have to wait for another day.
“Let’s do it!!” Tuesday agreed excitedly. “I can’t wait to tell mom about this!!”
III
A SUCCESSFUL SESSION
The door to the corridor leading back to the office area burst open unexpectedly. Megan had remained in the waiting area for what seemed like many hours, when in reality, it had only been an hour and fifteen minutes. Patience was not one of Megan Moxley’s strong suits as she had built her lifestyle around instant gratification. Tuesday had exploded from the back corridor and bounded across the room and into the chair next to her mother.
“Are you okay?” Megan asked, clearly concerned about the well-being of her daughter. “How did it go?”
Tuesday was chattering so quickly that she wasn’t making a lot of sense. Megan could pick out words like “child killer”, “ice” and “osprey vision”, none of which had any meaning to her until she could get her daughter to slow down long enough to explain the entire circumstances of the appointment in depth.
“Omigosh, Mom!” Tuesday blurted out, her words in one long, continuous stream. “It was so cool!! You should have seen it, this guy was going to kill this kid and I made the water come up from the ground and he slipped and fell to the ground and saved the kid! You shoulda seen it!!”
Megan interrupted her daughter before Tuesday could get out another barrage of overpowering vocal histrionics. “Whoa, slow down there, turbo.” Megan stated authoritatively. “What on Earth are you talking about?”
Doctor Frederiksen emerged from the back corridor into the waiting area to speak to Megan about her daughter’s progress. He had already sized up Megan, and knew that she would be the most difficult part of the entire process of bringing Tuesday back to emotional well-being. It took him the better part of ten seconds to figure out that Megan had substance abuse problems, had neglected her daughter, and had made herself available to a multitude of men. It wasn’t that he was judgmental, she was just easy to read, wearing it all on her body language. And he could tell she was making great strides toward recovery, the signs were obvious, even if addiction wasn’t his field of specialty. Doctor Frederiksen knew that he would have to set Megan Moxley straight on the truth of the situation from time to
time.
“Already your daughter has shown great progress.” Doctor Frederiksen told Megan in his most professional manner. “But I need to have more sessions with her to continue her journey to complete wellness.”
Megan’s attitude changed for the worse upon hearing the thought of more sessions with Doctor Frederiksen and didn’t know how she would swing the cost. Sure, he had told her that he would waive the costs of the therapy, but until she got that in writing, she didn’t trust a word he said on the matter. He probably needed the book he was planning to write to sell well so he could pay off the exorbitant amount of student loans she suspected he took to become the professional he is.
“More sessions?!” Megan exclaimed with some urgency! “I can’t afford more sessions. I can barely afford this one as it is.”
Doctor Frederiksen was already way ahead of her, “I’ve already explained to you that I’ll waive the fees. Her case intrigues me and it would be my pleasure to continue to work with her, if that’s alright with you?”
Megan’s suspicions always got the better of her. “Can I get that in writing?”
If Doctor Frederiksen hadn’t expected that very question from Megan, he would have rolled his eyes. “I’ll have Michelle draw up the contract and have it ready by the time we have the next session.”
This shut Megan down quickly. Between Tuesday’s excitement over the situation, and Doctor Frederiksen’s generosity, how could she refuse? “Alright, I guess it’s not a problem, since we’re not paying for these sessions.” Megan caved, feeling somewhat defeated by the logic of the issue at hand.
Doctor Frederiksen extended his hand to Megan, shaking hers, giving his word that his services won’t cost her a dime. “Good, it’s settled then.” the Doctor assertively stated. “Please see Michelle at the desk before you leave to set your next appointment. I look forward to seeing you soon. I’ll fax the forms to the school to get Tuesday back in classes.” Megan felt as if she had just made a deal with the devil.
Doctor Frederiksen turned his attention to Tuesday, who was still grinning about the progress she had made. “See you next time, Miss Moxley.”
Doctor Frederiksen had a slight smile on his face, which Megan felt was suspicious. She watched him carefully as he disappeared into the corridor back to his office, the door obscuring her sight of him.
