For Love, Service and Faith

Group Therapy

Sam stood up, and quickly walked out before Miss Mae could change her mind. She threw up a peace sign and called back "Catch ya on the flip side Dr. LeBoux".

Sam continued to walk back to her room, avoiding eye contact with everyone she passed. She slipped back into her room and pulled the sheet back for her side. She turned on the radio and opened her book. "My white whale is getting the hell out of here," she mummered to herself.

The next day she continued to keep to herself and stay in her room. She made her way downstairs only once, around 5:30. Using the back stairs, she crept into the kitchen and made 3 peanut butter sandwich as quickly as she could, folded them into a paper towel. She grabbed 3 bags of lays potato chips and filled her water bottle up and stealthily walked back to her room, making sure no one noticed her smuggling food. She spent the day reading, and went to bed early.

The next day, she awoke to find a note on her door. " Please be advised no food is allowed in individuals rooms. Food must be consumed in the kitchen or dining room, preferably at meal time." - Miss Mae; but Sam was not surprised by this. But she certainly wasn't happy about it either. "At least I got one day to myself" she thought dreamily. She got up, did her morning plyometrics, relishing how her muscles ached from the push-ups. "Here goes nothing." Sam pushed open the door and was thankful that the hallway was empty. Moving quickly, she made her way down to the bathroom. She took a brief shower, and scampered back to her room; closing the door quickly behind her. She toweled off and braided her hair. She went to her closet. "It feels like the first day of school. I wish I just had a uniform." But she grabbed a pair of jeans, an orange t-shirt and slipped into her shoes.

She walked down into the common room, and saw the chairs arranged into a circle. “Well this should a hoot and a half,” she thought to herself. She plopped down into one of the blue felt chairs pulled her knees up to her chest and started to doodle on her notepad. The rest of the crowd started to slowly trickle in, and began talking amongst themselves. When Miss Mae walked in the group quickly quieted down. “Good Morning Y’all. You probably noticed we have a new member in our group, Samantha, would you like to stand up and introduce yourself?”

“Not really…” Sam mumbled to herself, but she stood up lazily and said “Hi My name is Sam and it has been 3 days since my last drink.” An older gentleman chuckled on the other side of the group. They went around and everyone quickly introduced themselves. There was Rachel a young African American girl with beautiful brown eyes, and cropped hair. Elvira, an older woman from Louisiana; she wore she long silver hair back in a braid, but it hung down over her right eye in an attempt to cover the large purple bruise that encompassed it. An older mustached gentleman introduced himself as d**k, she assumed it was a nickname for Richard. Next to Miss Mae sat an empty chair. As Elvira began talking Sam let her mind drift, and was trying to imagine how you could connect the Star Trek, Star Wars and Marvel Universes when she heard, “Anything you would like to add Samantha?”

“Well there would obviously have to be a wormhole, to help get through the space-time continuum,” she said aloud. She put her hand to her mouth. Miss Mae looked at her incorrigibly. “Is there anything you would like to add to the discussion of goal management?” “You should set achievable goals, if you want to actually achieve them.”

“Well thank you for that.” Miss Mae said with a hint of sass in her voice. She turned her gaze to the whole of the group. “I will see you all next week, keep believing, keep working, and you will see improvement. Please continue to strive for interconnected independence, and reach out to me if you have any issues.”

Sam stayed in her seat until everyone in the group ambled out, doodling the Enterprise with Jabba the Hut riding on top of it.

“Nice drawling,” she felt someone over her shoulder. She jumped up, startled, and whipped around to see a familiar face. 

 “Jackson?! Jackson Scalano? What the hell are you doing here?”

“Hey! Sam! This is a crazy f*****g coincidence! You try and shoot your brains out too? The distance get too tough, the loneliness and desperation finally kick in?”

Sam was taken aback at his brashness. She tried to hide her shock and frustration. “Actually no; although that would be a much more reasonable explanation to be in the loony bin. I had a glass too many of wine after taking a sleeping pill and fell asleep in the bathtub. Not great decisions but I’ve been declared “mentally unstable” and they won’t release me until someone takes legal responsibility for me.”

“Well that’s some bullshit. How long you been here? Where’s Jake, deployed or contracting?”

“About a month and a half ago, incident happened March 31, was in a coma for about two and half weeks. Was in the hospital for another week and a half. Then they send me to live here and answer to the Queen of the Crazies. What happened to you?”

“Well Sam, I guess you’d call me “one of those crazies”. After an IED took my arm and leg, I tried the new recovery program to help keep soldiers with prosthetics. But I didn’t make the cut so they discharged me, and I didn’t want to live anymore. Didn’t make sense to.”

“Oh well, I’m sorry Jackson. I don’t really know what to say.”

“Well you could apologize for being such a callous bitch.”

Sam was fighting back tears. “Sorry!” she blurted and then turned and walked away as fast as she could.

Sam went to the side door and out to the grounds. She walked through the field and towards the trees. Sam wandered through the thicket and was soon surrounded by Whispering Willows; she heard water gently moving. She looked through the branches and saw a creek with a pond. She crumpled to the ground and started to cry. She didn’t remember falling asleep, but awoke to a soft female voice with a Southern drawl. “Honey, it’s getting dark now, you gotta come in for supper.” She looked up to see Elvira’s black eye, and hoped she didn’t grimace. Sam was too exhausted to fight with her, she let Elvira help her up by the crook of her elbow and the two walked slowly back towards the house. “I know it’s rough when you first get here, but you have to remember that we’re all here for our own reasons, and you don’t have to pretend like you don’t have your own. No use in that!” her laugh was soft and melodious. Sam ate her stew in silence, and considered the old woman’s words. Sam thanked her for dinner, and trudged up to her room. Fortunately sleep came easy, and she drifted off to her peaceful dreams for the night.