Caren J Werlinger Year of the Monsoon (epub)

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.She heard the study door click shut.Bronwyn pushed her wet nose under Leisa’s elbow, squirming onto her lap.Leisa sighed and hugged her.“Not sure why we bothered to wait.” She clicked the television off.“Come on.One more time outside, and then off to bed.”In the study, Nan opened her e-mail.There it was.She hadn’t really had time to read this message carefully when she first saw it.Vaguely, as if she were observing someone else’s behavior, she noticed that her fingers poised over the buttons on the mouse were trembling.She read the message through a couple of times before deciding to delete it.She made sure she deleted it again from the “Deleted Items” folder.Chapter 3NAN GAVE HERSELF A mental shake, hoping she hadn’t betrayed her momentary inattention to her client.She tried to focus.Damn, it felt like this week was never going to end.And the tension between her and Leisa wasn’t making time go by any faster.Leisa had been a little cool this morning after Nan was so late getting home, and even through her own pre-occupation, Nan had picked up on it.“I’m sorry I was so late last night,” she apologized, coming over to where Leisa was waiting for the toaster to pop and giving her a hug from behind.A smile tugged at the corner of Leisa’s mouth.She never could stay angry.“Tell you what,” Nan continued.“Let’s go down to Fell’s Point this weekend.We can bring Bron and spend the day together, just us.”Leisa turned to hold Nan.“That sounds good,” she said, her voice muffled as she nuzzled into Nan’s neck.“How has your week been?” Nan asked as they each finished getting breakfast ready.“It’s been kind of a weird week,” Leisa replied.“You remember the little girl I had to go to the police station for? Well, yesterday –”They were interrupted by the ringing of Nan’s cell phone.“This is Dr.Mathison,” she said.It was the ER of one of the downtown hospitals informing Nan that one of her clients had been admitted.Nan looked at her watch as she hung up.“I’m sorry, hon, I’m going to have to stop by there on my way to the office,” she said as she abandoned her cereal and filled a travel cup with coffee.“But you haven’t even had breakfast,” Leisa protested.“I’ll grab something later,” Nan assured her.“See you tonight.Love you,” she said as she gave Leisa a quick kiss.“Love you, too,” Leisa said as she sat with her toast.As Nan reflected back on that conversation, she realized Leisa never got to finish whatever she had started to say.“I’ve got to remember to ask her,” she said to herself when, at last, she finished her last session of the day.She gathered up her things and hurried out to her car.Why is Friday traffic always so much worse than other days of the week? Nan wondered as she drummed her fingers impatiently on the steering wheel, oblivious to the fact that the soothing Native American flute music playing on the stereo wasn’t calming her in the least.When she finally got home, she parked quickly behind Leisa’s Sentra and ran up the steps to the front porch.Inside, she could hear Leisa’s voice coming from the family room.Something was wrong.“I don’t understand,” Leisa was saying in a choked voice.When Nan entered the room, she could see that Leisa’s eyes were filled with tears.Leisa handed the telephone wordlessly to Nan and collapsed on the ottoman.“Hello?” Nan said cautiously.“Oh, Nan,” came Jo Ann’s voice, “I’m so glad you’re home.”“Jo, what’s wrong?” Nan asked in alarm.“It’s Rose.” Now, Nan could tell that Jo Ann was also crying.“She collapsed this afternoon.They rushed her to the hospital.They said it was a heart attack.She’s dead.”“Are you sure you’ll be all right for awhile?” Nan asked the next morning, holding Leisa closely.Neither of them had slept for more than short bits and the little they got wasn’t restful.“Yes,” Leisa sniffed.“I’ll be home as soon as I can,” Nan promised, holding Leisa’s face and kissing her tenderly.A few minutes later, Nan jumped as the driver behind her honked his horn irritably at her failure to notice that the light had changed.She was on her way to the office to re-arrange her schedule for the coming week.Bruce had left immediately after Jo Ann called yesterday afternoon, insisting on driving to New York to pick her up and bring her home.“I don’t want her coming back on the train –” He cut himself off before he could add “alone”.They had gotten home sometime around four a.m.Leisa and Nan were going over to their house later to eat lunch and then go on to the funeral home.As Nan wove her way through traffic, she tried to figure out how to prioritize her caseload.Everyone seemed to be in crisis mode lately.Going through her schedule at the office, she picked out the clients who most needed to be seen.When she looked at the list, she realized she could still put in half a week seeing them.Nan shifted uneasily, recalling a conversation she’d had with Maddie before Christmas.“Remember to take care of what’s important,” Maddie had said, refilling Nan’s wine glass.“What’s that supposed to mean?” Nan asked sharply.When Maddie didn’t answer right away, Nan said, “You say something like that and now you’re going to get all cryptic on me?”Maddie swirled the wine in her glass, watching the ruby reflections on the granite of the kitchen island.“You’re working a lot lately.”“So?”“So it’s work.” Maddie looked at Nan.“You’re a good therapist, but if you died in an accident tomorrow, your clients would find someone else to go to.Your work is not your life.” She took a sip of her wine, and asked, “Is there a reason you’re working so many hours?”“No,” Nan replied emphatically.“No, it’s…” But she didn’t know exactly what it was.“Don’t you want to be home more?” Maddie watched her closely.Nan lowered her eyes.“Nothing is wrong, exactly, we’re just in one of those phases where we don’t seem to talk anymore.I feel like I might as well be at work,” Nan admitted.Maddie reached out and squeezed Nan’s hand.“Remember to take care of what’s important,” she repeated.Sighing, Nan looked back down at her list of clients and decided to cancel the entire week.She couldn’t remember the last time she’d taken a whole week off.“Leisa is the most important thing right now,” she reminded herself as she reached for the phone.A couple of hours later, she and Leisa were seated at the kitchen table at Jo Ann and Bruce’s home a couple of blocks from their own house and from Rose’s, all within easy walking distance of each other.“Tell us what happened,” Leisa said as Bruce laid out a platter of ham and turkey for sandwiches.Jo Ann removed her wire-rimmed glasses and wiped her eyes with a tissue.“She was complaining of indigestion,” she explained in a tremulous voice.“We thought it was all the rich food we’d been eating.We went back to the hotel to rest [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]

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