The Therapist

“Dr. Binet, thank you so much for being there with Sage and me on her first flight. I don’t know if I was more afraid of flying or coming here to Virginia. I am so scared to go inside that house right now.”

“Don’t allow fear to keep you hostage any longer. This will be therapeutic for you. Keep in mind, I am here with you every step of the way.”

“I appreciate you so much. You deserve the Doctor of the Year Award. You’ve gone above and beyond for your patients, and I personally am forever indebted to you.”

“I just want to see you well. Now, let’s go inside, if you’re ready.”

“I am as ready as I am going to be. Also, instead of introducing you as my doctor, I will just say you’re a close friend, if that’s all right with you.”

“Well, I am, aren’t I?”

“Great,” I say and exhale.

As we cross the threshold, a chill runs along my skin. A bad omen. The faint scent of death, like the smell of a funeral home, is in the air, and I sense that spirits are waiting to torment us.

“My stomach is in knots,” I whisper.

“Is that you, Simone? I left the door open when I saw a car pull up. I assumed it was you,” a familiar voice shouts from another room.

Without any notice, I get this sick feeling from my gut to my throat, and then the cheeseburger that I had on the way comes spewing out of my mouth and coats Dr. Binet’s matte black ballerina flats.

“Are you pregnant again?” Terianne mocks.

Dr. Binet rolls her eyes at Terianne. “Do you think you could get something so I can clean this up?” Then she turns to me. “Simone, are you all right?”

“I think I am going to be fine.” But then I drop Sage’s hand. I dash toward the bathroom as the ghosts of Mimas’s house taunt me.

Running behind me, Terianne taunts, “Are you sure you’re not pregnant again? I am having flashbacks.”

“Do you mind not doing that!” Dr. Binet snaps.

Terianne gives her the once-over. “I’m just fooling around. I didn’t mean any harm. Who are you? Her lover or something?”

“There’s a time and a place for everything, and this is definitely not the time or the place. I am her friend, and she is not pregnant, so please do her a favor and do not ask that again.”

“My bad. Don’t be so uptight,” Terianne responds.

“How about we try to have some sympathy? Maybe this is a little hard for Simone. Did that ever cross your mind?”

I emerge from the bathroom and hear everything they are saying as they stand in the living room. As I enter the room, I interject, “Thank you Dr. Binet . . . I mean Brianne. I don’t think Terianne meant any harm.”

“You don’t have to make excuses . . . ,” Dr. Binet tells me.

“I don’t know what’s going on here, but I was just joking with my sister. Lighten up. It’s bad enough we have to bury Mimas tomorrow. We don’t have to be so uptight. I haven’t seen you in forever, for God’s sake.” She turns toward Sage. “Oh my God, she is beautiful, Simone. She looks just like”

“Go ahead and say it. Like Todd,” I bark, my blood boiling.

Terianne stares at me. “Why would she look like Todd? I was going to say she looks just like you.”

“You can’t be serious right now, Terianne. You know what? I think it’d be best if we met you at the funeral home later. I cannot do this or put myself through this again. I refuse to.” I burst into tears.

“Good idea.” Dr. Binet grabs Sage’s hand. “Let’s go, Simone.”

“You really don’t have to leave. There is more than enough room here, Simone. I apologize for whatever I did to upset you. Please don’t go.”

After stopping in my tracks, I turn to face her. “Honestly, I am not sure I’ll be able to stay here. Too many memories, and it still hurts just thinking about it.”

“You act like it was so bad here. We had it good. Mimas did good by us. It’s no one’s fault except your own that you got knocked up. It’s bad enough Mimas, Todd, and everyone else fell out because of you. It was like a domino effect after you left. Now, to make matters worse, Todd is in the streets somewhere and Mimas died from a broken heart. All because of you.”

With tears blinding my vision, I raise my hand, pull it back, and thrust it forward with as much force as I can muster, and it connects with her face. “You evil bitch. I hate you.” I charge her and knock her off her feet. “You let him rape me. You knew what was going on.” I pound on her, landing blow after blow.

“Mommy . . . no! Mommy, stop it!” Sage squeals.

Sabrina and Kathy race through the front door just then.

“What’s going on? Get her off her,” Sabrina yells as she tries to pull me off Terianne.

“Get off me! I am going to kill her!” Terianne shouts.

“Please calm down,” Sabrina pleads, her face wet with tears. She manages to pry me off Terianne, and then she wraps her arms around me.

“What happened?” Kathy says.

“All of you knew what Todd did to me. None of you helped me. I hate all of you. You were supposed to be my family,” I snarl. “Let me go, Kathy.”

“Don’t cry, Mommy. Let my mommy go,” Sage whines.

“Why did you just stand there and let this happen?” Kathy asks Dr. Binet.

“I—I had the baby. No one was hurt. Sometimes, we need to do whatever we have to do in order to channel our anger,” Dr. Binet told her.

* * *

“I can’t believe I allowed myself to step out of character like that in front of my daughter. I am so embarrassed,” I tell Dr. Binet as I pace back and forth in the hotel room we share.

“Don’t be. She deserved it.”

“Dr. Binet, I cannot believe you just said that.”

“I am your friend right now, and as a friend, I am telling you she got what she had coming to her. She was completely out of line. Evil and hurtful, for no reason.”

“If Sabrina didn’t pull me off her, I think I would not have stopped until I saw blood. I wanted her to suffer the way I did.”

“She deserves to suffer. Especially if she knew what was going on. She really knew, huh? You never told me that.”

“Yes, she knew. I am not certain Kathy and Sabrina knew, but I know for a fact Terianne was well aware of what was going on, and she did nothing. She turned against me.”

“You know this for a fact? How?”

“I saw her.” A single tear escapes one of my eyes. “Mimas was at a doctor’s appointment. She always made appointments while we were in school or were off from school during holidays. I can recall it exactly as if it was yesterday. I was in the kitchen, doing my chores, and Todd came up from behind and stripped me from the waist down. He used his free hand and pushed my face into the sink. I begged and pleaded for him to stop, but he ignored my pleas and shoved himself inside me. My head dropped into the sink and fell to the left. When I lifted my head and opened my eyes, in the reflection of the refrigerator, I saw Terianne standing there, watching. She never said anything to me about it. Instead, she’d make sly comments and call me names under her breath.”

“I am so upset with her right now. You should have killed her. She deserves to pay just as much as Todd does.”

“I know you’re saying that in anger, but parts of me wish she could pay for standing by and doing nothing. She treated me just as bad as Todd did. He raped me physically, and she raped me verbally and emotionally.”

“Yes, she did, and she needs to pay for her sins,” Dr. Binet insists.

“It’s too late now. I don’t even know why I came here. This just made me relive everything. I feel like I was just raped all over again,” I say and begin to weep.

A sudden knock on the door frightens us.

“Who is it?” Dr. Binet jumps to her feet.

“Ka-Kathy. It’s Kathy.”

“You can let her in,” I say.

Dr. Binet opens the door and allows Kathy to enter.

“I hope you don’t mind. I followed you back to your hotel to make sure you were all right,” Kathy tells us.

I nod. “I guess I will be all right eventually. Thanks for checking up on me, Kathy.”

“Can we talk?”

Dr. Binet shakes her head. “Now really isn’t a good time. She just got Sage settled down for bed.”

“It’s fine, Dr. Binet. Come and have a seat, Kathy.”

Kathy takes a seat, but her eyes never leave Dr. Binet. “Doctor?”

“Yes, she is my therapist. She came down here with me because she knew how hard this would be for me,” I explain. “Right now, I am beating myself up, wondering why I even bothered to come.”

“Because you’re so brave,” Kathy responds. She pauses for a long moment, then blurts out, “I blame myself. Even when I was old enough to tell someone, I just allowed it to continue. I guess I must have liked it or something.”

“No matter how old you were or were not, rape is rape,” Dr. Binet tells her, clarifying matters.

I can’t quite believe what I just heard. I look Kathy straight in the eye. “So . . . Todd hurt you, Kathy?”

Through a thunderstorm of tears, she nods her head yes.

“I am so sorry. I had no idea,” I say, my voice barely above a whisper.

Staring blankly, fixated on the brownish-beige carpet, Kathy begins rocking back and forth as more tears escape her eyes. As she rocks, she says, “Do you remember I was the house alarm clock? Mimas sent me into everyone’s room to wake you all up for school. Every time I went into Todd’s bedroom, he’d touch my private parts and threaten me not to tell a soul. I was five years old. At a time when kids my age are living carefree lives, I was being fondled and molested. By the age of ten, he started penetrating me. My only escape was going to school. That bastard raped me up until the day Mimas threw him out. You’re so right about Terianne. She stood guard every day after school while he raped me. She’s no saint either. Since I was younger than her, she made me do things to her, Simone. She wanted me to be gay, just like her.”

I step over to her, lock my arms around her, and hold on to her for dear life. “I am so sorry, Kathy. I had no idea.”

“It’s good to get it out. Is this your first time talking about it?” Dr. Binet says.

Kathy nods her head yes.

“You’re off to a good start. What happened with Mimas and Todd?” I say.

“I was in bed, sick with the flu. It was my senior year. I’d been ill for five days straight. We’d run out of Theraflu and ginger ale. Those two things and toast were the only things that I was able to keep down. In any event, Mimas hadn’t been feeling well for quite some time. She’d been seeing a cardiologist. They said she had acute endocarditis. At the time I didn’t know it was severe and that her health was failing.” Kathy took a deep breath.

She went on. “Terianne stayed by her side at all times, so the two of them went to the store together. Todd, on the other hand, thought he’d pick up were Mimas left off in taking care of me, and used his penis to take my temperature through my vagina.” Her lip quivers. “While he was on top of me, Mimas walked into the room. Of course, he tried to say I pulled him on top of me, but Mimas knew better. She would always say how she should have done better by you, so I knew that deep down inside she knew you were telling the truth.”

“What did she do when she found Todd raping you?”

“She pulled him off me and beat him until he was black and blue. Todd may have towered over Mimas, but she was much stronger. She pummeled him with all her might. After putting him out, Mimas called the police, and no one’s seen or heard from him since.”

“He was never arrested?” Dr. Binet asks.

“No, he wasn’t, Dr. Binet. Mimas called the police after he was long gone. She wasn’t been the same after that. She’d stay in her room in the dark and cry all the time. Thank God for my scholarship, because I escaped the misery and went off to college. I work and go to school, and I hope I never come back here. If Mimas hadn’t passed, I wouldn’t be here now. That house, this town . . . they are haunted by the ghosts of Todd and Mimas.”