CHAPTER V
Never Go To A Doctor Whose Office Plants Have Died
"Mr. Alden?" A squatty receptionist peeked over desk, facing Eddie who sat as casually as he could in the waiting room chair with half of his body still broken.
He looked up reluctantly from an article he was pretending to read from one of the outdated magazines and regretting his response to the words coming.
"Dr. Summers will see you now." The receptionist smiled a huge, toothy grin as Eddie pushed himself casually up from the consuming chair and snatched up his crutch.
He tried to pace himself as he stumbled into the doors of hell, his heart immediately lodging itself into his throat.
Eddie took a deep breath and held it, hoping he could somehow disappear, but it didn't happen. Instead, he looked about the room, noticing the dark red wallpaper and the black leather couch along the back wall.
A big, open faced window looked out over varying sizes of buildings of New York and seemed to swallow up the sunlight. A few black and white pictures hung about the walls, coupled with a diploma and a synthetic plant sitting bleakly in the corner.
Eddie jumped as someone in the room cleared their throat, and he turned to face a woman staring quietly at him from her desk in a puffy chair adjacent to the couch.
Her red hair was slicked back against her head, a ponytail flowing out behind and brushing her shoulders with various curling tendrils. Her face came to smooth points and she looked at him from above a pair of black, square-rimmed glasses.
A notebook and pen sat readily in her lap and Eddie couldn't help but let his eyes linger down the sleek shape of her crossed legs.
He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out, instead the woman rose to her feet and pushed her glasses back up in front of her eyes. "Doctor Rachel Summers." She smiled, holding out her hand.
Eddie stood frozen, his mouth still hanging open and his body rigid. Then he realized what was going on. "Uh, Eddie Alden…" He said blankly, nodding his head toward her hand then motioning toward his crutch, hinting his dilemma.
"Oh yes, I see." She pulled her hand back - unscathed and dignity still intact - and instead motioned to the sofa lying against the wall. "Please, have a seat." She waited until Eddie was as comfortable as he could get before she sat down herself.
Eddie fidgeted as nonchalantly as he could, his eyes scanning the walls at things he'd already seen upon entering. He scratched his head and looked back to Dr. Summers, smiling back in kind when she smiled.
Then she sighed. "Okay, well, let's start off by my asking you why you're here." Dr. Summers sat back in her chair, and Eddie knew things were starting to get warmed up. He casually wiped the sweat from his palms onto his pants and sat back as much as he could.
"I don't really know," He lied, gloating his lie by pasting on an embarrassed smile.
"Then you're just here to regard my office?" The light-hearted joke hung heavy in the room as both of them smiled, but neither chose to follow it.
Eddie turned away from her and chewed on his lip, jumping slightly at the groan of moving leather, and he spun to face Dr. Summers again.
She was sitting forward slightly with her hands clasp on her lap and her eyes burrowing into his head. "I want you to feel as comfortable as you can Eddie. Try to relax."
He hesitated, before letting out his breath slowly and clearing his throat and just staring at her. "Is that relaxed?" She smirked.
"As much as I can push it." He smiled politely and tore away from her gaze. Her face suddenly fell into empathy and she eased back, her leather chair groaning again at her movements.
"Oh really?" A faint line formed between her eyes as her eyebrows stitched.
"Hence, the crutch." Eddie commented with a polite smile as her face switched into understanding. She turned to face her notebook and scribbled something on it before looking back up to him with an odd sense of emptiness in her eyes.
"May I ask what caused your injuries?" Her green eyes seemed to shimmer eerily in the lights and Eddie felt a chill run down his spine.
"Uh," Eddie's voice fell flat.
"Everything you say in this room is completely confidential, nothing ever leaves this room." She suddenly spoke as if he was about to tell her an enormous secret, but he just couldn't find his voice.
He smiled again and gently stroked his finger nervously over the scar on his belly over his shirt, trying to look as nonchalant as he possibly could.
"I had an acc…incident…" Eddie could feel the control of his mind and words slipping out from beneath him, and he felt himself fall into her power defenselessly.
"Tell me about the incident." Dr. Summers said smoothly. Her brilliant green eyes seemed to soften when he looked into them and he couldn't help but to tell her.
"…I…it…"He closed his eyes and tried to picture it in his mind then translate it into words.
"What specifics do you remember?" Dr. Summers had a way to control her words so that they sounded more like a coax than an interrogation.
"…I was just walking across the street, and it was dark…" Eddie pushed back the panic now rising in his body as reenactments flashed across his mind.
"And this car, from out of nowhere, came from the dark…and…I couldn't move, so I just stood there…and watched it come toward me…"
Sweat broke out across his brow and his body tightened like a coiled spring as he pulled in his arms and legs.
"It's alright Eddie, don't try to hold the memories back, let them come, they can't hurt you." Dr. Summers pushed lightly. "What else to you remember?"
"I remember standing there, just watching as the car came at me. And then I remember it taking my legs out from under me, and then I was flying through the air and then landing on the sidewalk."
Eddie was now wringing his hands nervously and rocking back and forth on the couch.
"Then there were these people, and they were just standing over me, just staring. And there was something about their faces…" Eddie suddenly fell silent, his eyes still closed.
"What about their faces? Tell me about their faces Eddie." Dr. Summers laid a hand onto his knee, and he opened his eyes only to turn away from her, embarrassed.
"I can't help if you won't tell me. Please, I'm here, there's nothing to be afraid of." Dr. Summers spoke with the kindness of a mother.
"The faces. They were them."
"Who are them?"
"All the women. The one's I have dumped. They were standing over me, just staring with cold eyes." An icy sweat had broken out across the rest of Eddie's skin and he could feel goosebumps forming along his arms and legs.
He swore that he could feel his core temperature plummet to a flat line ninety point nothing, and all he could do was keep talking and rocking and shivering.
"Was there anything else significant about the accident?" Dr. Summers took into account that he was convulsing and gently eased him back onto the couch, draping a blanket over him as he continued.
"The driver…of the car that hit me…"
"Yes?"
"It was 'becca."
"Who's 'becca?"
"Rebecca was my girlfriend, before I met Jane. I thought she was the one I was going to be with forever."
"Tell me about 'becca." Dr. Summers used the name that he was customary to and immediately noticed that the change of topic seemed to have a calming effect on Eddie.
"She was beautiful. She had long, red hair and vivid eyes that just stared at you and made you go weak. She worked as a nurse, and we got our first apartment together. But then, all of a sudden, she drifted."
"What do you mean 'drifted'?" Dr. Summers jotted a few more noted down onto her notebook before looking back up to Eddie, who had casually flung his good arm over his eyes.
"I just woke up one morning, and instead of her lying next to me…there was a note…"
"What did the note say?"
"Something along the lines of 'I'm getting bored, I think we should find different people.'" He sniffed and shifted himself so he was more comfortable.
"And so, we never met again, and I took up a job at the Diana Robert's Show and kept searching for the perfect women, the one to fill the gap that 'becca left."
Never Go To A Doctor Whose Office Plants Have Died
"Mr. Alden?" A squatty receptionist peeked over desk, facing Eddie who sat as casually as he could in the waiting room chair with half of his body still broken.
He looked up reluctantly from an article he was pretending to read from one of the outdated magazines and regretting his response to the words coming.
"Dr. Summers will see you now." The receptionist smiled a huge, toothy grin as Eddie pushed himself casually up from the consuming chair and snatched up his crutch.
He tried to pace himself as he stumbled into the doors of hell, his heart immediately lodging itself into his throat.
Eddie took a deep breath and held it, hoping he could somehow disappear, but it didn't happen. Instead, he looked about the room, noticing the dark red wallpaper and the black leather couch along the back wall.
A big, open faced window looked out over varying sizes of buildings of New York and seemed to swallow up the sunlight. A few black and white pictures hung about the walls, coupled with a diploma and a synthetic plant sitting bleakly in the corner.
Eddie jumped as someone in the room cleared their throat, and he turned to face a woman staring quietly at him from her desk in a puffy chair adjacent to the couch.
Her red hair was slicked back against her head, a ponytail flowing out behind and brushing her shoulders with various curling tendrils. Her face came to smooth points and she looked at him from above a pair of black, square-rimmed glasses.
A notebook and pen sat readily in her lap and Eddie couldn't help but let his eyes linger down the sleek shape of her crossed legs.
He opened his mouth to say something, but nothing came out, instead the woman rose to her feet and pushed her glasses back up in front of her eyes. "Doctor Rachel Summers." She smiled, holding out her hand.
Eddie stood frozen, his mouth still hanging open and his body rigid. Then he realized what was going on. "Uh, Eddie Alden…" He said blankly, nodding his head toward her hand then motioning toward his crutch, hinting his dilemma.
"Oh yes, I see." She pulled her hand back - unscathed and dignity still intact - and instead motioned to the sofa lying against the wall. "Please, have a seat." She waited until Eddie was as comfortable as he could get before she sat down herself.
Eddie fidgeted as nonchalantly as he could, his eyes scanning the walls at things he'd already seen upon entering. He scratched his head and looked back to Dr. Summers, smiling back in kind when she smiled.
Then she sighed. "Okay, well, let's start off by my asking you why you're here." Dr. Summers sat back in her chair, and Eddie knew things were starting to get warmed up. He casually wiped the sweat from his palms onto his pants and sat back as much as he could.
"I don't really know," He lied, gloating his lie by pasting on an embarrassed smile.
"Then you're just here to regard my office?" The light-hearted joke hung heavy in the room as both of them smiled, but neither chose to follow it.
Eddie turned away from her and chewed on his lip, jumping slightly at the groan of moving leather, and he spun to face Dr. Summers again.
She was sitting forward slightly with her hands clasp on her lap and her eyes burrowing into his head. "I want you to feel as comfortable as you can Eddie. Try to relax."
He hesitated, before letting out his breath slowly and clearing his throat and just staring at her. "Is that relaxed?" She smirked.
"As much as I can push it." He smiled politely and tore away from her gaze. Her face suddenly fell into empathy and she eased back, her leather chair groaning again at her movements.
"Oh really?" A faint line formed between her eyes as her eyebrows stitched.
"Hence, the crutch." Eddie commented with a polite smile as her face switched into understanding. She turned to face her notebook and scribbled something on it before looking back up to him with an odd sense of emptiness in her eyes.
"May I ask what caused your injuries?" Her green eyes seemed to shimmer eerily in the lights and Eddie felt a chill run down his spine.
"Uh," Eddie's voice fell flat.
"Everything you say in this room is completely confidential, nothing ever leaves this room." She suddenly spoke as if he was about to tell her an enormous secret, but he just couldn't find his voice.
He smiled again and gently stroked his finger nervously over the scar on his belly over his shirt, trying to look as nonchalant as he possibly could.
"I had an acc…incident…" Eddie could feel the control of his mind and words slipping out from beneath him, and he felt himself fall into her power defenselessly.
"Tell me about the incident." Dr. Summers said smoothly. Her brilliant green eyes seemed to soften when he looked into them and he couldn't help but to tell her.
"…I…it…"He closed his eyes and tried to picture it in his mind then translate it into words.
"What specifics do you remember?" Dr. Summers had a way to control her words so that they sounded more like a coax than an interrogation.
"…I was just walking across the street, and it was dark…" Eddie pushed back the panic now rising in his body as reenactments flashed across his mind.
"And this car, from out of nowhere, came from the dark…and…I couldn't move, so I just stood there…and watched it come toward me…"
Sweat broke out across his brow and his body tightened like a coiled spring as he pulled in his arms and legs.
"It's alright Eddie, don't try to hold the memories back, let them come, they can't hurt you." Dr. Summers pushed lightly. "What else to you remember?"
"I remember standing there, just watching as the car came at me. And then I remember it taking my legs out from under me, and then I was flying through the air and then landing on the sidewalk."
Eddie was now wringing his hands nervously and rocking back and forth on the couch.
"Then there were these people, and they were just standing over me, just staring. And there was something about their faces…" Eddie suddenly fell silent, his eyes still closed.
"What about their faces? Tell me about their faces Eddie." Dr. Summers laid a hand onto his knee, and he opened his eyes only to turn away from her, embarrassed.
"I can't help if you won't tell me. Please, I'm here, there's nothing to be afraid of." Dr. Summers spoke with the kindness of a mother.
"The faces. They were them."
"Who are them?"
"All the women. The one's I have dumped. They were standing over me, just staring with cold eyes." An icy sweat had broken out across the rest of Eddie's skin and he could feel goosebumps forming along his arms and legs.
He swore that he could feel his core temperature plummet to a flat line ninety point nothing, and all he could do was keep talking and rocking and shivering.
"Was there anything else significant about the accident?" Dr. Summers took into account that he was convulsing and gently eased him back onto the couch, draping a blanket over him as he continued.
"The driver…of the car that hit me…"
"Yes?"
"It was 'becca."
"Who's 'becca?"
"Rebecca was my girlfriend, before I met Jane. I thought she was the one I was going to be with forever."
"Tell me about 'becca." Dr. Summers used the name that he was customary to and immediately noticed that the change of topic seemed to have a calming effect on Eddie.
"She was beautiful. She had long, red hair and vivid eyes that just stared at you and made you go weak. She worked as a nurse, and we got our first apartment together. But then, all of a sudden, she drifted."
"What do you mean 'drifted'?" Dr. Summers jotted a few more noted down onto her notebook before looking back up to Eddie, who had casually flung his good arm over his eyes.
"I just woke up one morning, and instead of her lying next to me…there was a note…"
"What did the note say?"
"Something along the lines of 'I'm getting bored, I think we should find different people.'" He sniffed and shifted himself so he was more comfortable.
"And so, we never met again, and I took up a job at the Diana Robert's Show and kept searching for the perfect women, the one to fill the gap that 'becca left."