"We're doing truths," Sarah says to me in a tone that hides none of her annoyance; a 3rd grade teacher tone. She says it like we've discussed this before, so I respond agreeably, "Truths, cool. Sorry I'm late Catherine---"
"It's your dime, Mr. Castleton [she uses my last name to reprimand me, not unlike a 3rd grade teacher] - the one you should apologize to is your [she pauses to remember what the status is] ... your wife, Sarah here."
"Sorry Sarah."
Her mouth says, "It's nothing" while her body says, "It's everything"; she hasn't heard me apologize in so long that her parts can't decide what to do with it. The two 3rd grade teachers share a look that I catch in the wall mirror as I turn to hang my coat. There is so much collusion in this room it's stifling.
"Now, where were we?" Sarah resets.
"Sarah, I want you to take this pad and write out 25 things that you are too afraid to share with... [did she just forget my name?!] share with Gavin."
"Ok."
"And Gavin, take this one and do the same," she hands me a pad and pen.
"What kind of stuff am I writing here? Truths that she can't share with me?" I stall, feigning befuddlement.
"Truths. These are things that you feel strongly about but are too afraid to tell Sarah because... you're afraid to admit them... or you think you'll hurt her feelings... or she'll judge you---"
"We tell each other everything! There isn't one thing---"
she settles a hand on Sarah's knee, "It's just an exercise. Even in a very intimate relationship there are still things we keep hidden from one another---"
"Ok, here I go. Truths. Truths," I begin to play along. This is $400/hr, so I do my best to limit the amount of time we spend listening to Sarah pontificate. I am annoyed at how textbook an exercise this is, but if I'm going to get things back to normal - if I'm going to GET A KEY TO MY OWN HOUSE AGAIN(!) I have to jump through these stupid hoops and at least give off the appearance of cooperation.
My first few truths are, admittedly, sarcastic, but, to my surprise, somewhere after the first few the whole thing becomes a bit cathartic. When Catherine calls "Time!" I've only laid out 24 truths. I spent the last five minutes of the session trying to figure out which of eight remaining truths should be my number 25. I did not have time to notice if Sarah had struggled to complete the task. We gather our things and stand to leave, shaking Catherine's hand. I feel lighter, relieved even. I tell myself I will do this exercise on my own, regularly. "Good session guys, we are making progress. You have to believe that. Now next week we'll exchange lists and discuss." The blood drops out of my face and I lunge for the pad but she anticipates my reaction and pulls back, "Uh, uh Mr. Castleton! You have to TRUST here! This is all about PROGRESS!" It is at this distinct moment that I realize she and my wife have every intention of ending our marriage, and they've managed to get me to pay for the rope I will hang myself with.
12 comments:
This is my favorite future post to date. Seriously. I don't know how you come up with this stuff. It's like you're from the future, are you? Seriously, are you from the future?
Write a god damn book.
bravo big guy. pretty interesting slice of things. #22, fucking ouch.
Thank you for continuing this story.
I found this to be truly heartbreaking, and yet I so badly want to read more.
I wonder how many people really do worry about you.....I laugh at certain things, but other things scare the hell out of me....good work.
#23 made me blow snot out my nose.
There's really no reason why it should take anyone who considers themselves a writer that long to prove such as simple and obvious to anyone who's tried a relationship.
The seemingly random breaks from the mood of the story is really annoying and has no reason existing (!).
There's never a reason to use words like "pontificate" unless you're tyring to sound like a dick who thinks they know proper diction.
It's kinda sad you don't have enough faith in your writing to feel as though you don't need visual aids.
Yeah, try harder man.
"and has no reason existing"? Seriously? Dude, proofread your scathing critique before you click submit.
See Cory, the thing about talking about literature (which is a huge compliment given what Gavin wrote), is that one should always talk in present tense (perfect present if possible) so I don't really see what you're trying to get at.
Re-reading the sentence though, it would probably flow better as "The seemingly random breaks from the mood of the story are very annoying and have no reason existing (!)."
incapacitant: he's not really a writer, he's a greek chef. And you aren't really a writing professor, you're a child.
Dude, Gavin is official now. Dorks are arguing grammar on his blog.
I am better than this, but I can't help myself.
Incapacitant: Your reconjugation of the verbs "be" and "have" has nothing to do with verb tense nor "flow", dipshit. "Is" and "has" were completely incorrect when describing the plural noun "breaks". And you still need to work in some kind of preposition between "reason" and "existing" for your critique to make any sense at all.
hey hey. No need for name calling... Incapacitant is entitled to his opinion (why he wouldn't wait to post it until after the effects of the acid had worn off is beyond me).
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