Page 11 of Fever Dream

Chapter Eight

Dr.Jay Branson

Journal Entry

At approximately 0900 hours, Mrs.Grace Solomon was brought to my office for our semiweekly session.She sat across from me, with her hands tucked under her thighs, rocking back and forth ever so slightly.When she intermittently removed her hands from beneath her thighs, in order to make a point, her hands shook.Suffice it to say, the patient exhibited nervous tendencies.I don’t recall this behavior during our first session, but this being only the second, and the patient having no prior psychiatry treatment on record, I had little to go on.

Grace Solomon appeared sort of childlike in the way she arranged herself, and her body language suggested she is hiding something.At one point, she folded her arms around her body and seemed to be hugging herself.

“Why don’t you tell me about the first time you and your husband—how did the two of you meet?”

The patient chewed at her bottom lip.“You mean like our first date?”

“Sure.”

“So I agreed to meet Charles.I told him I wanted to meet him in a busy place, a place where my friend could keep an eye on me.I asked if he’d mind meeting me at a café near campus, a place I frequented called The Night Hawk.He agreed.”

Patient’s behavior suggests paranoia.“And how did it go?”

“It didn’t.”

“It didn’t?”

“Before our scheduled date, Mrs.Solomon called the fabric store and invited me to the family’s New Year’s Eve party.”

“It was Charles’s mother who introduced the two of you, isn’t that right?”

“Well, at that point, we hadn’t been formally introduced.But yes, she was attempting to play matchmaker.”

“It seems to have worked.So, you met at a party, then?”

“Attending the party meant that I had to stay over in Houston.Alice insisted.”

“Alice?”

“My sister.”

“I see.”

“Even though she was only four years older than me, it might as well have been a lifetime.”

Patient appears to be compensating.“Why do you say that?”

“After Daddy passed and Mama got sick, Alice did most of the heavy lifting.”

“How do you feel about that?”

“I didn’t really get it then, how much work she took on making sure I was okay, that I was doing well in college, that I had everything I needed.It must have taken a toll on her marriage, I imagine, spending so much time attending to my needs.”

Patient alludes to feeling extreme guilt.“Go on.”

“I tried not to be much of a bother, but I know I sometimes was, which is why I wasn’t all that surprised when Richard announced they were moving halfway across the country.”

“That must have been difficult.”

Grace Solomon shrugged.“I liked my brother-in-law okay, but it was sort of clear from the get-go what kind of wife he wanted.”

“And your parents?”