Let's Get Into This
Dr. Kratz pulled into his parking space in front of the unimpressive brown building where he worked. He assumed that his partner chose this building for a reason but, for the life of him, couldn't figure out why. Oh well. It never seemed to be all that important and his friend, Leo, was always a bit 'out there' with his ideas.
He checked his watch and saw that he had an hour before his the group meeting. He turned the radio to the local sports radio morning show and ate his breakfast and reflected on how he had reached this point in his life.
When Leo told him that he planned to start a private clinic, he thought it was insane. He'd only been out of college for two years. He'd only had one client when the offer was proposed. There just had to be someone more qualified to do this with. Michael Kratz had already been pretty lucky throughout his college life.
After going through his freshman year with financial aid, he decided he was going to walk onto the football team as a kicker. He did well enough to earn him a full ride athletic scholarship for the next year. As icing on the cake, he kicked a few game winning field goals. He continued to earn his scholarship for the next three years.
He was lucky enough to be drafted to a professional football team, although it was with the very last pick. He played for eleven years. He made pretty decent money and retired at the age of thirty two. He made enough money to pay off his one year of student loans and pay his way through graduate school. And at the age of thirty six he issued his final dissertation. He later, graduated with a Doctorate in psychology with a minor in counseling. Michael Kratz, football player, was now Dr. Michael Kratz. It didn't mean much at the time, but it was a title with promise.
He floated around for a couple of months before getting a job working for KND Psychology clinic. His luck had shone forth once again when he showed up at work one day and saw his friend from college, Leon Sharpe. After a quick meet and greet before his very first appointment, an African American couple from New York, Leon had told him that he wanted to speak with him over lunch. Leon insisted that he would be paying and Michael was never one to turn down a free lunch.
After they ate they began to catch each other up no their lives since graduating. Leon was a trust fund baby so he never incurred any student loan debt. He went straight through to finish grad school in eight years. For the next three years he was a guidance counselor. He had worked for KND Psychology clinic for the last eight years. He had just returned from vacation. He'd been gone for two weeks and had some time to think about his life.
Leo mentioned how he realized that he had all of these great things: A home, a wife who loves him, two kids who love him, and two parents that he doesn't hate. On top of it all he makes a great living. However, he never felt fulfilled. He loved his life, but he hated how he got there. Michael was, understandably, confused.
"What does that even mean?" Michael checked his watch and continued, "If you've reached the goal then doesn't it make sense that your path to your goal was satisfactory."
Leo chuckled, "Spoken like a man with the meanest lucky streak that I've ever seen."
Michael feigned hurt, "And just what do you mean by that?"
"What I mean is, that most of the time; when you're lucky you don't really care about the path you take to your goal. In fact, I'd say that you were so surprised and excited to reach the goal that the path you took wasn't even all that important."
Michael pondered the statement, "That's fair, but still, you can't have a life as good as yours and still be dissatisfied. Your wife Karen loves you. Your children Bruno and Madison, they love you. You have this great job, you make good money. It just doesn't make any sense. Anyone else would just sit back and enjoy the ride."
"Well," Leon finished his drink and signaled for the waiter, "I was never one to do things like anyone else. And I bet that if I asked your wife, Anne, was it? I bet that if I asked Anne she'd say the same thing about you."
Leon picked up his glass and set it back down on the table, "You and me, Mike, we're different from everyone else. You know how I know that? Because you can't be lucky without taking a few risks."
Michael nodded, "That's true." He sat in silence while Leo asked for the check. Michael scrunched his brow in confusion, "So what exactly are you getting at."
"Always the astute thinker huh, Michael?" Leo filled out the receipt and handed the check back to the waiter. "What I'm getting at is that, while my life hasn't become stale, I've become stale in how I handle my life."
"Leo, as much as I love riddles, it's, almost, time to head back to the office."
"I want to set up private clinic…" Leo stood up and looked Michael in the eye, "and I want you with me Mike."
Michael was flabbergasted. He was literally, struck dumb.
"You don't have to answer now, just get back to me after you talk it over with Anne."
And he did. Anne was all for it. She told him that he seemed like he was 'losing his way'. Which was ridiculous to Michael because, he was unaware that he even had a 'way'. In addition to that, a venture like this one could bring them to ruin. His home, his son, his wife, his marriage… one misstep and it could cost him everything.
"But Anne, what if it all falls through. Granted, I only have one client at the moment, I would be stealing that client away from them. I'd be burning the only bridge that I've established in this profession."
"Michael, you have one client, I'm certain they won't hurt too much from that."
"But what if I turn out to not be any good at this?"
"If you weren't any good at it, you wouldn't have gotten your degree in the first place."
"There are a lot of bums out there with degrees."
"Sure. But how many of those bums graduated at the top of their class?"
"But what if Leo and I have a falling out."
"You two have been friends since your sophomore year in college. And even after entering the NFL and being apart from each other for eleven years, with very limited contact; you two met up and immediately hit it off. Didn't miss a beat."
"But what if..."
"What if, What if, What if. This right here, is what I mean when I say that you've lost your way." Anne walked over to the mirror where her husband was standing, "You were never the type of guy to doubt anything that you really wanted to do. You were never the type of guy to doubt anything. For as long as I've known you, you were always the type of guy to jump in head first and hit the ground running not caring what was left in your dust."
Michael looked up into the mirror and saw his wife walking up behind his left shoulder. Anne looked up to the right corner of the mirror and pulled down a picture of Michael when he graduated from high school.
"Would the guy in this picture doubt something that really wanted to do?" Anne placed the picture on the dresser and picked out the picture of Michael in his college football uniform,
"Would this guy question any of his decisions?" She placed that picture down on the dresser next to the first picture and picked up one of their wedding photos.
"How about this guy?" She placed that one with the other three pictures laid out in front of Michael.
"These three guys, couldn't even spell doubt. These three guys… didn't even know that 'what if' was a real question. These three guys would have accepted Leo's offer on the spot."
"Anne, I don't even know if I want to do this."
"No, you definitely want to do this. Mikey, if you didn't want to do this, you wouldn't have even brought it up to me."
Michael sighed, "I hate it when you call me Mikey. It's a name for children."
"When you stop being a big ole baby then I'll stop calling you Mikey."
Michael pouted and watched as his wife sauntered over to their bed. He looked at the pictures of himself when he was younger. He lifted his head to look at himself in the mirror. He smirked at his reflection. Then he looked at his phone and took a deep breath.
He picked up his phone and walked out into the hallway. He scrolled down to Leo's name and pressed send.
From there it all went very fast. They went looking for available buildings. They found a horribly nondescript brown building. Leo claimed the location was great. Michael didn't know much about real estate so he just went along with it. His first clients were the first clients in the new building at the new clinic. He was never sure why he took so much pride in it, but, he figured that it didn't really matter all that much.
Fast forward to eight years later and that phone call to accept Leo's offer was one of his greatest decisions, also one of his luckiest. He realized now that those two things often went hand in hand. And as he thought it over while getting out of his car, he figured that while luck wasn't as reliable as he liked, it certainly was fun.
He walked up to the building and entered the front door to see his secretary sitting at her desk with her fingers on her temples. In the silence he could hear a ruckus on the other side of the door leading to the group therapy room.
"Is everything ok, Claire?"
With her finger still rubbing her temples, and without opening her eyes she replied, "Your, uh, morning appointment is here."
"Oh? They're early. All of them are here?" He was quickly answered with the sign of what sounded like a stack of books falling to the floor.
Claire glared up at Michael, "Every. Last. One."
"Oh… Uhh… Tell ya what. How about you take a long lunch." He heard a thud, followed by a resounding 'You bastard!'
Claire continued to glare at Michael.
"The rest of the day off?"
Claire rose from her desk, picked up her purse, and walked out of the front door. "See you tomorrow?"
"We'll see."
Leo walked into the office to see Claire leaving, "Oh, hey Claire. Another long lunch?"
The only answer Claire offered was a noncommittal grunt as she shut the door.
"What's with her?" Leo said as he looked over his appointment sheet.
"My, uhh, morning appointment got here early." His comment was followed with the sounds of someone saying, 'Guys, I don't think you're supposed to touch that.'
Leo chuckled, "How do you get getting these rowdy types? Remember how feisty your first clients were?"
It was Michael's turn to rub his temples, "Don't even remind me. I'd never seen anything like it. And now-" he heard the sound of a vase smashing.
"and now, it's all you seem to get."
"Yeah well, I suppose I should get started."
"Good luck, man."
"I'm gonna need it."
He entered the room to find the long strawberry blonde, Ichigo, and the portly man with too much chin, Harold in a standoff in the middle of the room. The man with the bright blonde hair was standing in the middle of them screaming at them. All the while, the plain one, Freddie, the odd shaped head, Arnold, and the hipster, Beck, were all yelling trying to diffuse the situation. There was a smashed vase in the far corner of the room, one of his smaller book cases was thrown to the floor, while the books themselves were strewn all over the room. This type of thing would be normal with the bickering couple. But these guys all met each other, with a couple of exceptions, a week ago.
Michael sighed and said to himself, "Well let's get into this."
This was going to be quite the session.
Well there ya have it. Another chapter from yours truly. Thank you for taking the time to visit my little slice of the internet. I hope you enjoyed reading as much as I enjoyed writing it. Review if you'd like, if not Thanks again for reading.
However, on this the day before the beginning of the end of this show that we, for better or worse have devoted ourselves to; let us not be sad that this show is ending (at least not yet) let us be glad for the good times that it has given us. In celebration and memorandum a bunch of authors decided that we'd give it another go. So, be sure to check out these fics that either, have already, or will soon be posted. I can assure you that you won't be disappointed.
Author Name: Story Title
DwynArthur: The Puckett Acquisition (new chapter)
TheWrtrInMe & DwynArthur: Until The World Ends (new story)
SMAAD4Seddie (listed under TheWrtrInMe): Since You've Been Gone (new story)
AnnieRocket: Just Kids (new story)
ThatSamGirl: Dear Sam (new story)
ExpressionsofAWriter: icarly The Movie (new chapter)
Purple255225: Now and Then (new story)
Pigwiz: The Apartment (new chapter)
IAMCAGE: The Hollywood Massacre (new story)
butterflylovesicarly: iBurn (new chapter)
KingxLeon21: BAAGBoys (new chapter)
PrincessPurplee: Contagious Chemistry (new story)
Moviepal: The Last Time I Felt Like This (new story)
Heartlines12: Playing House (new chapter)
Random Drama21: Kiss Me, Kill Me! (new chapter)
That about wraps it up for me...
Until next time
Deuces
KL21