“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.
“Because there is great therapeutic value in writing down one’s feelings. And that brings me to an important point: I want you to hand-write the letter. Don’t compose it using the computer or even a typewriter, if you still have one. Instead, I want you to actually pick up a pen and write your thoughts on the paper.”
“You have to be kidding. I haven’t actually written anything other than a check or a note to the housekeeper in . . . how many years? I don’t even know. I use the computer to do everything! I can’t possibly spend hours and hours writing all of this down in longhand.”
“We’ve been over this many times. If you are unwilling to do the work, I can’t help you. You might as well discontinue therapy,” Dr. Nolan replied in the firm but kind manner that her patients both loved and dreaded.
“All right,” she sighed deeply. “Since you are using emotional blackmail, I guess I have no choice but to comply.” She half-smiled as she said it, acknowledging that Dr. Nolan was asking her to embark upon a journey that could be lengthy but was absolutely necessary if she was ever going to understand her life up to that point. And, more importantly, face the future.
“Good. It won’t be easy, but you’ll look back on this as a turning point in our work together. If I weren’t confident of that fact, you know that I would not ask you to engage in such an excruciatingly difficult exercise,” the doctor reassured her gently.
“I know.” A single tear rolled down her cheek as she walked to the door. “I’ll see you next week.”
Click here to read Chapter Two
16 Comments
all those letters written… but never sent… great piece. I look forward to part 2…
A great start to a promising story. I look forward to future installments.
A word of warning – once you start you have to carry on! I wrote an open ended piece in responce to the prompt The Stranger’ six weeks ago. Now I’m stuck with it and I posted part 6 yesterday! I have no idea where it’s heading from one week to another!
Best of luck.
keith hillman’s last blog post..Writers Island – The Letter combined with Part 6 of The Stranger!
Oh, yes! Wonderful start and I’m looking forward to the next chapter!
Tumblewords’s last blog post..Writes of Mother Nature
What a great looking blog!
I can not wait to read the next installment.
Welcome to She Who Blogs,
Frances
Frances’s last blog post..NaBloPoMo November 25th
Guess she really needs to write that letter. Can’t wait for the second part.
lissa’s last blog post..Part 8 – Eating Christmas Dessert While Watching the Moon
I can’t wait to see how this unravels in its contiuation.
jadey’s last blog post..The letter (Writers island Post)
Great beginning. I’m looking forward to the next installment.
Robin’s last blog post..The Very Long Awaited End Of An Era
Great post. As if torn straight out of real life. Can’t wait to read the next part.
marja’s last blog post..The Letter
I think its very important to express, it may not mean that there must be some listener.. yep waiting for the next post …
Rambler’s last blog post..Times when I wanted to write a letter…
Great story! I can’t wait to see what happens next week!!
m’s last blog post..When One Is Too Many
Jenn,
I just noticed your blogroll – how did you get the recent post to show up like that? Is that a widget or did you do that manually? It seem like a much easier way to track updates.
You don’t have to answer if you don’t want to. I have you on my blogroll -just so you know.
your fellow She Who Blogs member
lissa.
lissa’s last blog post..A Christmas Gift
Thank you Jenn for the info. It’s too bad it doesn’t work on Blogger. But thanks anyhow.
lissa
lissa’s last blog post..A Christmas Gift
Jenn, Michele sent me. I’ve read the first part and I’ll be back later to read the rest. Merry Christmas!
kenju’s last blog post..Norman Rockwell ~ 9
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Hi Jenn,
Nicely done. It’s interesting to see some people trying out fiction online — there doesn’t seem to be too much of it.
Thanks for your visit over at Inklit.com.
If you don’t mind a suggestion — I realize this is a maintenance nightmare — there should be a single page with all the parts to it, and if you’re reading Part I and want to go read the next part, there should be a link to Part II, and Part II should link to Part III, etc.
Maybe that’s what there isn’t more fiction in blogs. Blogs read backward, while fiction goes forward.
Thanks again for the visit. Cheers.
John Lockwood’s last blog post..“101 Subscribers in 30 Days to a New Blog” – Campaign Progress Report
I’ve just found ‘The Letter’. It looks really good so far.
I’m all about time management at the moment, so I have to force myself to go away just now, but I’ll be back for part two tomorrow.
Tam (fighting with writing)’s last blog post..Sissy gloves