The Writhing Session 2

Next week, Andrea returns to her therapist’s office in fear of reliving her traumatic memories. She sits in the therapy chair and notices her hands shaking.

“I redesigned the machine so I could pick which of your memories I want to focus on,” her therapist said.

“Is that all I am to you, a study, someone to study?”

“No, our past sessions were about getting to know each other, now it’s time for healing.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes, now put this back on.”

Marinda sets the helmet back over Andrea’s golden locks and she picks a simple memory. “Hm, how about this one?”

“Which one is it?

“You’ll see.” Marinda put on the goggles.

They zap into the memory of Andrea’s first day of elementary school.

“Is that you as a kid?” Marinda asks.

“Yes, after school, my dad was supposed to pick me up and bring me home. But he never showed up. I sat down on the curb and cried as it rained.”

“Did anyone pick you up?”

“Yes, my mom did when she realized I wasn’t home an hour after school.”

Andrea watched as her younger self cried. “That was the day I realized I had to grow up a little to help my mom around the house. My mom was too naive to realize dad was an asshole who never kept his promises. That’s another reason why I don’t want to see him. Because if I do, he might not keep the promise of seeing me. I mean if we do pick a time and place to meet, he might not show like he did when I was seven.”

“I’m sorry that happened to you, but people change.”

“People don’t change, especially my dad. If he did change, he’d change for the worse.”

“Let me be honest with you, people will only change if they want to or are willing to.”

“I don’t think my dad will do either of those things.”

“Maybe if you give him a chance, but when you’re ready. That’s — the end of our session.”

“What already? That wasn’t so bad.”

“See, this process is helping you move on. We’ll try something more traumatic next time.”

“No, this is good. I want to stick with this.”

“We have to watch more traumatic memories to move closer to getting over them.”

“But I like this. It’s simple and easy to talk about.”

“Okay, you do need a break after the last session. We’ll do a few more of these.”