Eileen sat behind the steering wheel, waiting for the light to turn green. She had just dropped her father off at his appointment and was using the extra time to take care of a few of her own errands, or so she hoped.
From the moment she had left the doctor's office, what she was doing didn't seem real and part of her couldn't believe she was actually going through with it.
At every intersection, with every block she drove, she questioned whether she should go on or turn back. When this light turned, just like all the others she continued on.
She still was uncertain, but she knew that she had ignored the truth for far too long. It was time to take action.
"Hello, Arthur. It's good to see you again." Dr. Pons welcomed Arthur into her office and invited him to take a seat. "How have you been?"
"Not very well. Otherwise, I wouldn't be here, would I?" Arthur asked.
Dr. Pons seemed to ignore her patient's grumpy response and continued on. "What's been happening lately? What's been causing your life to be not very good?"
"What hasn't been?" Arthur replied. "I lost my business partner suddenly and then found out he had been lying to me. Because of that I lost my business and my health and apparently I'm making my wife and daughter miserable to the point they sent me here to see you."
"That's certainly a lot of change happening in your life to adjust to. How have you been dealing with it? What have you been doing with the extra time now that you're not working?"
Arthur scoffed. "What can I do?"
"There are plenty of things . . ."
"Oh, don't tell me to take up a hobby or do some worthless thing to occupy myself as I'm waiting around to die. I don't want to be a useless old man that somebody else has to take care of. If you want to know what my problem is, that's it."
"Well, I don't agree with the idea of you being a useless old man. Especially since you and I are about the same age," she said with a crooked smile. "We all have different ideas of what is useful or worthwhile. Besides work, what other things have you done that made you feel useful or seemed worth spending your time on?"
Arthur hesitated. "Working is what I've always done. Building a company from the ground up takes a lot of time and dedication. I didn't have a lot of time to get involved with anything else."
"What if you had been able to build your company with extra time left over, how would you have spent your time? Was there ever a time when spending time on your work took away from other parts of your life or kept you from doing other things you wanted to do?"
"There were times," Arthur admitted. "I used to feel guilty about not spending as much time with my family as I could have, especially after Abigail passed away. I missed out on a lot of time with Eileen when she was growing up . . . I don't know that I would change anything if I could go back, but if I did have more time, I would have spent it with my family."
"The last time you were here, when you were wrestling with the decision to retire, you talked about spending more time with your family and traveling as things you were looking forward to. Now you have the opportunity, but you aren't enjoying it. What's changed?"
"Clifford-"
"Forget about everyone else for a moment. I want you to think about you. How is it that what you looked forward to before is a misery for you now? That isn't something anyone else can cause."
As Arthur thought over that statement, Dr. Pons glanced at the clock. "I want you to think about that for next time as well as this . . . in the past your job stood in the way of spending time with your family and traveling, now the only thing standing in the way is yourself. If you want things to change, it's up to you to choose the way you look at things. I hope we can chat again soon, Arthur."
Eileen pulled into the parking spot and shifted the car into park. She closed her eyes a moment and took a deep breath as she gathered her courage.
As she reached for the door handle, she suddenly ducked back. Was that Hector's car that just drove past? She paused a second, her heart pounding, until she saw the car turn the corner and drive on without slowing down. If it was him, he didn't seem to notice her and if he did, it was too late to turn back now.
Hesitantly, she got out of the car and walked around the front of the building to the front door.
Eileen walked timidly into the police station. The place was bustling with activity and the sound of voices and telephones ringing.
"Can I help you, ma'am?" an officer behind the desk called out.
For a moment Eileen looked startled. Once she realized the officer was speaking to her, she stepped forward and took a deep breath. "Yes, I have some information on the Clifford Stuart murder."
The officer suddenly looked very interested. "Please have a seat, Detective Varner will be right with you."
No comments:
Post a Comment