The Letter – Page 5 – Mixed Metaphor

The Letter (Chapter Three)

The Letter

The ringing telephone startled her. She had been so deep in thought, remembering that night all those years ago when she first began writing about her life, that it took her a few moments to become acclimated. When she looked down at the blank notepad, she again felt the full weight of Dr. Nolan’s assignment.

“Take a message,” she muttered as she heard her own voice emanating from the answering machine in the next room. “I’m busy.”

She got up from the kitchen table and walked over to the sink where she poured her now-cold coffee down the drain.

“Maybe taking a walk will help,” she thought, striding toward the closet for her coat and an umbrella in case the weather report calling for late afternoon rain proved accurate.

As she got into her car and backed it out of the garage, with the notepad tucked into her bag, she knew where she was headed, but resisted consciously contemplating her destination until she arrived there. Turning up the radio, she drove dispassionately, yet purposefully. She knew this was a trip she had been destined to make, but had put off making, for many years.

The Letter (Chapter Two)

The Letter

“This is ridiculous,” she thought to herself as she stared at the blank piece of paper in front of her. “I should just compose this using the computer.” She thought about sitting down in front of the keyboard as she gazed at the stationery she had selected that morning.

“I could compose the letter using the computer and, after I perfect it, copy it to the page in longhand,” she said to herself. “Dr. Nolan would never know.” With that, she pulled out a pad of ordinary lined paper from her desk and picked up the pen to begin writing.

She stopped just before the ink began to flow onto the page.

She would know that she had not completed the exercise in the manner Dr. Nolan advised. And that would be a problem. As silly and pointless as she tried to tell herself the assignment was, she could never lie to Dr. Nolan about how she completed it. Deep within herself she acknowledged its inherent value and understood precisely why Dr. Nolan had insisted that part of the exercise be the experience of actually sitting down with pen and paper to write about her feelings.

As she continued staring at the notepad, she was transported back to a simpler time when her life lay before her and she willingly spent countless hours engaging in just such an exercise. Relished it, in fact, as so many young women do.

The Letter (Chapter One)

The Letter

“Write him a letter. Tell him how you feel,” Dr. Nolan said during one of their weekly sessions. “You don’t have to mail it. We’ll deal with whether or not you should do that at a later date. Your assignment this week is simply to write.”

“I don’t know if I can do that,” she declared matter-of-factly.

“You might need to work at it gradually. It may be too difficult for you to write everything you need to say in one sitting. You may have to write it all down over the course of the week. And, frankly, you may not be finished by the time we next meet. This may be an ongoing process for a period of time. But this week I want you to get started. Next week we’ll assess your progress.”

“Why are you asking me to do this?” she asked pointedly.