Page 135 of Last Girls Alive

Katie sipped her wine and watched her friends joke with one another and just have fun. She knew that this was home. It was where her family was and where she was supposed to be.

Fifty-Seven

Katie sat down on her couch, taking a deep breath several times before opening her laptop computer. She glanced at the clock and it was 6.58 p.m., two minutes before Dr. Carver was to log on for their appointment.

She was nervous, wringing her hands and feeling the moisture of perspiration. As usual, her heart rate increased and pounded in her chest. Her anxiety took a backseat, but it was still there—hovering.

Taking another deep breath, she looked around the room and realized how lucky she was with friends, family, and a job that suited her.

Cisco whined and snuggled in next to her—her constant and loyal companion.

A chime resonated, indicating that her appointment was logged in and ready to go.

The smiling face of Dr. Carver filled the screen. She had a calming effect on Katie with her low voice—it soothed her. “Hello, Katie,” she said.

“Hi, Dr. Carver.”

“It’s good to see you, Katie. How have you been feeling?”

“I’ve been doing well.”

“And work?”

“It’s been more routine and not as stressful. I’ve been learning to pace myself.”

“Is there something that you would like to talk about today? Something that happened this week?” she said, and gazed down to make some notes.

“Yes,” said Katie. “I want to talk about something that happened, but not this week.”

“That’s fine. An incident that happened this month?”

“No. It was an incident that happened in Afghanistan,” said Katie. She felt her mouth go dry, but she was going to talk about it, get it out in the open, so that she could begin to heal.

Dr. Carver looked directly at Katie with a slightly surprised look on her face. “Of course. You can talk about anything.”

“Well,” began Katie with a little bit of shakiness to her voice. “It was a typical morning, extra hot and dusty, it was soon going to reach a temperature of over 110 degrees, but that was normal. We were going out on patrol as a team because we had received our special orders from the Pentagon and the President. So Cisco and I took point as usual…”

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