“Yeah, we are both in black and white,” Paula declared, her anxiety rising a little bit. “It feels a little quiet. Something should happen soon.” She didn’t know what would happen though.
Doctor Sanchez knew that it was time for Paula 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.”
Paula 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 Sanchez appeared in black and white still, the world around them seemed much more realistic, as Paula could feel the shift in her awareness sharpen, and the world around her connected itself to her.
“Okay, what am I looking for?” asked Paula, searching for the answers to questions she hadn’t yet asked.
“Only you can know that,” Doctor Sanchez encouraged her, hoping that she might experiment with a few things on her own. “What’s going on around you?”
Paula 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 in search of the exact thing happening around her. One moment she is seeing Doctor Sanchez and herself conversing near a light pole, the next moment she was skimming through the fog over the lake, surveying the steep, grassy shores. 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 lake. Paula 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 towards her. It was at this moment that the young aunt realized that the child was no longer on the playground. Frantic, she 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 Paula what was about to happen. Paula began to scream for somebody to help the child, but as per usual, nobody could hear or see her. Doctor Sanchez was wholly unimpressed with the action Paula was taking.
“That man is going to murder that girl!” Paula screamed at the top of her lungs, imploring Doctor Sanchez for an answer. “What are we going to do?”
“You’ve already learned that screaming about it won’t help. You need to take direct action; you need to try something else.”
“Like what? What do you want from me?” Paula began 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?”
Paula was 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 aunt is still heading off in the wrong direction with no way of finding or reaching the child in time. Paula is desperate for an answer; however, it isn’t an answer that Doctor Sanchez is willing to give her without some cryptic dialogue.
“Nothing ever comes easy with Doctor Sanchez,” Paula thought to herself, panicking, fearing this would end in another failure.
“What would you have me do?!” Paula screamed, desperately pleading for an answer to the dilemma before her.
“Calm yourself, Exert some control over your environment. The situation is yours to control.”
Paula closed her eyes and a myriad of options flood into her mind. Doctor Sanchez’s voice faded into the background, still coaching her on how to handle the situation at hand. Everything she is thinking of seemed impossible to her, nothing is feasibly reasonable in this crucial moment. Doctor Sanchez impressed upon her the sense of urgency in the matter, as his voice snaps back to the forefront.
“Relax. Think! What will slow the killer down until help arrives?”
In Paula’s vision, the killer is only about twenty feet from the child, raising his knife to slash the girl to ribbons. Paula is getting even more panicked, again looking to Doctor Sanchez for the answer, which he doesn’t seem willing to give.
“I... I don’t know. . .” Paula cried, fearing that this would end in tragedy. “What should I do?”
“Miss Lindsay,” 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 was about three feet from his target and was getting ready to swing the knife, ending the life of the young girl. Paula saw that the moment was at hand; it was either do or die.
“Okay!!” Paula screamed; a new-found confidence cemented itself in her voice. “I got it!!”
Paula closed her eyes and began to imagine a scenario that would save the life of the little girl. No sooner had the thought came to her mind, that the knife began its motion toward the girl. As he did so, he failed to notice that large amounts of water began seeping up from the ground, causing the grassy slope to become slippery. The child killer lost his balance, falling to the ground where his own knife plunged deep into his own stomach. The man coughed up his own blood. He was choking on it as well as spilling it out onto the grass.
Snapping back into Osprey Vision, Paula 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. Paula 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 aunt came rushing up to the side of the lake, scanning down the slope for her niece and spied her playing on the ice, having the time of her life.
Frantic, the young aunt 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 niece. 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 man and radioed it to dispatch, who called the police to come and ascertain what the story was. All the while, Paula was observing the whole aftermath in Osprey Vision.
“I did it, Doctor Sanchez!!” Paula exclaimed, congratulating herself for having changed the outcome of the situation. “Oh yeah!! I did it!!”
Pleased with the results, Doctor Sanchez was not above giving credit where credit is due. “Yes, Miss Lindsay,” 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!” Paula rejoiced, proud of her accomplishment.
“The next step is to lock away the previous outcome in your subconscious,” Doctor Sanchez said. “This is easy. All you have to do is focus on the outcome you created, and your mind will discard the previous one.”
“You’re saying that I won’t remember the child being killed when it actually happens then?” Paula asked somewhat doubtfully.
“Not if you choose not to. 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 possible future anymore?” Paula 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. We still have much to accomplish on our journey. Are you ready to wake up and celebrate today’s success?”
Paula took one more sweeping look through 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!!” Paula agreed excitedly.
5.
Navigating Through Nightmares
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 Lindsay’s strong suits as she had built her lifestyle around instant gratification. Paula had exploded from the back corridor and bounded across the room and into the chair next to her aunt.
“Are you okay? How did it go?” Megan asked.
Paula 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 niece to slow down long enough to explain the entire circumstances of the appointment in depth.
“It was so great! A man was going to kill this kid and I made water come up from the ground and he slipped and fell to the ground. I saved the kid! You shoulda seen it!!”
Megan interrupted her niece before she could get out another barrage of overpowering vocal histrionics, “Whoa, slow down there, turbo. What on Earth are you talking about?”
Doctor Sanchez emerged from the back corridor into the waiting area to speak to Megan about her niece’s progress. He had already sized up Megan and knew that she would be the most difficult part of the entire process of improving Paula’s emotional health. It took him the better part of ten seconds to figure out that Megan had substance abuse problems, had neglected her family, and had made herself available to a multitude of men. It wasn’t that he was judgmental; she was just easy to read. Her body language spoke volume. He could tell she was making great strides toward recovery, the signs were obvious, even if addiction wasn’t his field of specialty.
Doctor Sanchez knew that he would have to set Megan Lindsay straight on the truth of the situation from time to time.
“Already your niece has shown great progress,” Doctor Sanchez 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 the psychologist. 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?! That’s a move to con us out of our money.”
Doctor Sanchez 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?”
To alleviate her aunt’s fears, Paula asked, “Can we get that in writing?”
If Doctor Sanchez hadn’t expected that very question, 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 Paula’s excitement over the situation, and Doctor Sanchez’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 Sanchez extended his hand to Megan, shaking hers, giving his word that his services won’t cost her a dime. “Good, it’s settled then. Please see Michelle at the desk before you leave to set your next appointment. I look forward to seeing you soon.”
Megan felt as if she had just made a deal with the devil. Doctor Sanchez turned his attention to Paula, who was still grinning about the progress she had made. “See you next time, Miss Lindsay.”
Doctor Sanchez 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 then obscured her sight of him.
Megan and Paula made their next appointment with Michelle, which turned out to be that coming Wednesday, just two days out. Megan couldn’t wait to get out of The Millwork Building for a couple of days, and certainly away from Doctor Sanchez’s smug attitude. No sooner had they set the appointment, had Megan wasted no time in walking briskly out of the office as she clutched her purse tight. Paula said her goodbyes to Michelle before she followed her aunt out of the building.
“I just don’t like him very much! I feel like he is psychoanalyzing me!”
Paula was doing her best to keep up with her aunt and her long strides. Fortunately, the two of them had to stop to wait for the elevator to reach their floor. “I don’t know why you let him upset you so much. I think he’s nice.”
“I just don’t trust people,” Megan shot back. “Nobody does anything for free. I want to know what we are giving up so he can write his bestseller?”
Paula was shocked. “If he can help me, what does it matter?”
“It matters,” Megan continued, trying to make her niece understand. “Because I know what men who seek notoriety are capable of. I know that powerful people like you and I are steppingstones to their greater glory.”
The dinging sound of the elevator door opening broke the tension of the conversation. The ride three floors down seemed to stretch on for long minutes, with no words spoken between the two of them. In fact, it wasn’t until they had gotten to the car that either Paula or Megan had said anything to each other.
Suddenly, Paula’s excitement got the better of her and she continued her spirited account of the events of her session to her aunt, as well as she could recall, every minute, every detail. She told the story of how she could see everything from every angle, and how she saved the child from not one, but two horrible fates. Her aunt listened carefully and took mental note of the tale, making sure to try and understand what had occurred in her session, just in case she needed to testify against Doctor Sanchez for messing up her niece’s mind. After Paula had finished her account of what had happened, Megan was disappointed that the doctor hadn’t done anything wrong. She really wanted to crucify him.
Out of nowhere, Paula asked, “Why don’t we spend some time out together?”
Megan brightened up at the idea; she always loved having a good time. “Sure, let’s do that. I’ve got no pressing work at hand anyway.”
“Good, follow me.”
The next few hours were spent window shopping at the luxurious The Shops At Columbus Circle mall, buying new clothing, and speculating upon the motivations of other people walking by as they rested on a bench. Paula and Megan were both laughing and joking, when a mall cop walked by, looked at them briefly before moving on down the corridor.
• • •
After finishing their coffee and discussion, Megan and Paula Lindsay left mall, going home for the night, with a brief stop at Sticky’s Finger Joint on the way home to pick up dinner. When they arrived home, they ate their food, and watched some television for the night, laying to rest the events of the day behind them. When ten o’clock rolled around, Paula found that she was unable to keep her eyes open as she stared at the television, trying to catch a little of the local news. Her efforts increasingly failed her, as she began to doze off on the sofa; Megan suggested she go get a good night sleep in the bedroom. Paula stumbled from the couch and upstairs to the bathroom, where
she brushed her teeth and changed into her nightgown, then trudged tiredly into her room.
Megan came up the stairs and into her room a moment later to check on her.
“Seems you have had a good time,” observed Megan, wishing each day could be as amazing as this one had.
“No,” Paula replied, doing her best to keep her poker face completely intact. When her aunt shot back with that shocked and dismayed look of hers, Paula countered, “I had a great day!” She placed special emphasis upon the word great.
“Oh you!!!” Megan retorted, grabbing one of the pillows from the bed, lightly assaulting her with it. “I’m glad you did, we both needed that,” she finished saying, holding onto the moment.
“I’m going to get a good night’s sleep!” Paula cheerfully stated, “All thanks to Doctor Sanchez.”
Megan walked slowly from the side of the bed and over toward the window, looking outside as if to make sure they weren’t being watched before speaking. “I don’t trust Doctor Sanchez,” she stated plainly with no hint of illusion in her voice. “I think he’s up to something. Anybody who would agree to treat somebody without getting paid is obviously up to something.”
Paula felt her defenses raised a little bit, much in the same way they did when she was confronted by her nagging friends. “Megan, he’s just trying to help, that’s all it is,” she explained carefully. “You’ve got to let go of all that paranoia that you’ve been holding onto for all these years.”
It had been such a great day, so in order not to spoil it, Megan decided to throw in the towel and just agree with Paula on this for the moment. “Oh darling, I guess you’re right. He is a professional and he is helping you. And you’re right, I need to let it go, but there’s something about him I’m having a hard time trusting and can’t quite figure it out.”
The Family Secret Page 6
