Together
Again
PART 21
...For the next hour or so, not only Katie, but also Jessie was
stunned by the harsh lyrics and words that Sarah had sent her via
answering machine. Songs ranging from "gone" by nsync, "breathe" by
greenwheel, to "a thousand miles" by Vanessa Carlton and so on. Each
song only brought more pain to Jessie and to Katie; the anger grew as
the time went on. The last message was the most powerful, because it
was Sarah's words, she was no longer hiding behind the songs that had
filled up the rest of Jessie's machine.
"Jess, this is the last time I'm ever going to call you. I'm leaving
Oxford and I'm going to go back to school and become a psychologist.
I wish you would just return my phone calls and at least talk to me,
but if you'd rather not, I guess there's nothing I can do. Goodbye
Jess, I'm sorry I never meant as much to you as you did to me. Sarah"
Just then, a light bulb went off in Jessie's head and the scattered
pieces of the puzzle were coming into play, a puzzle that she never
even knew she was solving…
"Oh my God, Madison's therapist is Sarah! Sarah is Madison's
therapist!?" This thought went through Jessie's head as her eyes grew
as wide as those of a child and it seemed as though the room was
beginning to spin. She absentmindedly slapped her forehead and shook
her head. Katie, watching Jessie's little scene, was very intrigued
to find out what her fiancée was thinking about, besides it most
likely having to deal with her ex, Sarah.
Katie turned on the couch and looked right at Jessie. "Are you okay
honey? Looks to me as though you just figured something out." She
paused. "Care to share?"
It took a moment for Jessie to snap out of her trance, but she
finally responded. "Oh, sorry. Right. I think that Madison's new
therapist is really…well, she's Sarah…I think." Jessie ended her
statement in a near whisper, with vast uncertainty.
Katie's head kind of craned back as her eyebrows raised and a shocked
expression filled her face.
"Are you kidding me? How do you know that?" Katie politely asked.
It didn't matter too much to her that her future wife's ex-girlfriend
was now her fiancée's daughter's therapist, or did it?
"I'm as shocked as you are. I'm not one-hundred percent sure, but
since she just said she was coming to the states and becoming a
psychologist and…let me see here," Jessie trailed off as she removed
herself from the couch and went over to a dresser drawer on the other
side of the room. Rummaging through a stack of papers and folders,
Jessie finally found what she was looking for, raising her arm with a
paper or rather, set of papers high above her head, as if she'd one
the golden ticket. "Here it is. Let's see here." Jessie began to
read over the document as Katie walked over beside her and lightly
placed her hand around Jessie's waist.
"Oh wow," Jessie and Katie responded in amazing unison as their eyes
read the same words at the same exact time. In the middle of the
page, two words stood out like an elephant at a pet store: Sarah
Dumont, PhD.
"Well," Jessie started. "This certainly makes things…interesting…"
Her comment could have easily have been a statement as well as a
question, as she took her eyes off of the paper and onto her Katie's
face.
Meanwhile…
"So, tell me about your parents," Sarah asked as she swiveled
slightly in her expensive leather chair, clipboard and pen in hand
and lap, as she glanced up and looked Madison straight in the eyes.
"Well, there's not really much to say about either of them really."
Madison paused as she began to look anywhere but at Sarah. She knew
that if she would just say "oh, my parents are great, and everything
is fine" but she knew that was anything but the truth. She always
hated being so intimate with strangers, even though Sarah was the
first therapist Madison was actually growing accustomed to, and dare
I say it, actually liking, not like that, but as someone she could
actually give the whole truth to, in confidence that her secrets were
safe. So, with a slow inward breathe, she let her feelings about her
parents unravel. "As you probably already know, my father died when
I was pretty small. You're probably thinking that it had an extreme
psychological impact on me and that's a major reason to why I'm so
screwed up in the first place. If you think that, you're wrong.
Yea, it made things a hell of a lot harder for me, but I deal." As
Maddy grew in another breath, Sarah leaned into her lap and drew her
head to her hand with a deeply interested/concerned look of
interest. "With everything that's been screwy in my life, my dad
dying in a car accident, not having a great relationship, if any,
with my mom, not growing up with a very nurturing environment, I've
been able to deal. Make it seem like everything is just fine and
dandy, so no one would have to worry about me. I've always felt like
somewhat of a burden, maybe a lot more than I'd like to
admit." "Maybe that's why I excel in school and in sports and
music?" Maddy asked herself, out-loud. Shaking her head, she
continued. "Anyways, oh yeah, so you want to know more about my
parents. Well, since I never really knew my dad, let's talk about my
mom. Good old Dr. Jessie Sammler." Right then, Sarah's entire body
jerked into a full upright position. Was she hearing this right?
Was the young woman in front of her talking really Jessie's kid?
Jessie Sammler as in her ex-girlfriend Jessie? No, it couldn't be
JESSIE SAMMLER'S kid, no way. Sarah kept shaking the thought of
counseling her ex-girlfriend's daughter over and over again, until
Madison's voice broke her train of thought.
"Hey Sarah, are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." She paused, hoping to find the right way to bring
this up. "I thought your mom's name was Jessie Walker, that's all."
"Well, it was. But about maybe six or seven years ago, my mom
decided to change it back. Why, you ask? I have no clue." Madison
stopped talking, but only long enough to sort out what must have
really been going on. Why was Sarah acting so strangely about her
mom's maiden name? Wait a minute… "Hey, Sarah, did you ever live in
London?"
"…Yes, I did. I taught at Oxford for a few years, before I came to
the states. How did you know that?" Sarah was very puzzled. Sarah
never ended hanging up her diplomas from Oxford, including her
professorship, so how could Madison have known?
"Well, I know you might think I'm crazy, well, ha, you probably
already think I am so I'll just cut to the chase. I think you and my
mom have A LOT of catching up to do."