“I decided to go into my Mothers room.  Curtis had cleaned it all out.  All of her things were gone.  Things I wanted of hers.  I checked the attic nothing..I checked the basement nothing..I finally decided to check the garage and nothing but her car was sitting there. The only thing left of her.  I stared at it for a moment until I decided to get in the drivers seat.  I closed the door and saw that the key was in the console where she always left it. I was gonna put the key in and listen to the radio until I heard Curtis open up the garage door and stand right outside talking to someone saying that now he needed to figure out a way to get rid of me.  I couldn’t believe what I heard.  He actually wanted to kill me.  I knew then he did something to my Mother and I was sure he had done it for the life insurance policy I found on his desk.  I had to get out of there so I cranked up my Mothers car and sped out as Curtis tried to bang on the hood.  I drove as fast as I could and since we lived kind of remotely we didn’t have any neighbors or witnesses that night or they would have seen him chasing me through the road leading into the town.  No one saw until the end that is…Anyway his police cruiser was faster than my Mothers car and as I took a curve he sped up and blocked me making me swerve the car back and I careened off the high way slamming right into a guardrail.  The air bag deployed but the car caught on fire and flames shot through the dashboard catching my legs and arms on fire.  I was screaming trying to push the air bag down and reach for the door handle as the flames caught my chest.  I turned pushing on the door managing to get it open as the flames scorched my back and the back of my legs.  I rolled onto the ground screaming in pain as I sniffed out the  flames scorching the skin off my body.  I was close to passing out when I heard Curtis say “All too easy” and another voice a a few moments later say “I called 911”….I passed out after that and woke up in the burn unit being told I was in there because I tried to commit suicide. Curtis convinced everyone by saying I was depressed over my Mothers death and he even forged my handwriting to make it look like I left a suicide note. He couldn’t complete his quest in getting rid of me because of Principal Kirkland calling 911 and stayed at the accident.  He was the man I heard and later he told me what had happened.  He said he pulled up and saw Curtis standing there watching me roll around on the ground and did nothing to help me.  Nobody on the police force believed him because Curtis had every badge on his side and the community brainwashed not to mention he has..well had deep pockets”

I was exhausted.  I had spilled everything I had been holding in for years.  I sniffle and wad up another tissue I had been wiping my tears onto.  Dr Emily sensed I was done and turned her recorder off.  I waited for her to speak as she scribbled something down on her notepad.  She took her glasses off setting them down on the table along with her notepad and pen and walked over to me and knelt down beside me placing her hand over mine.

“I’m so proud of you Bette.  That took a lot of courage to open up and tell your real truth”

I looked her perplexed “Wait..You knew this whole time I wasn’t suicidal?”

She sighs and gives me a slight smile.

“I have been in this practice for over 20 years and I know when someone is suicidal and you Bette are not.  I knew this the moment we talked in our first session.  It was up to you to open up and tell what happened to you so we can start dealing with the true nature of your trauma.  That’s why all of this time I didn’t push any exercises on you because until you were able to confront your trauma and talk about it nothing would have worked.  I’m so very proud of how far you have come Bette”

I give a small smile and she stands back up folding her arms

“I feel this is a good place to stop.  I would like to see you again on Friday”

I nod “Yes.  Ok.  I will come after school same time?”

“Perfect.  I will pencil you in”

I nod and stood up saying goodbye and thanking Dr. Emily..I walked out of that therapy session feeling a little lighter than I have in a very long time.

tbc