The Therapist Pt. 03

"They went inside and I heard dad arguing with them, and then they brought him outside. There were two cops holding him and they put him in the car and just drove away. It was only then that Melody was allowed out of the car and she went straight past mum to where dad's car was parked and picked up an iron bar and smashed the windscreen. I only found out from Anne when I was a few years older but then we'd left the farm and moved to Penrith to be closer to mum's parents," she leaned back and stared at Karen.

"So, the long and the short of it was, I became a therapist because I wanted to help my sister and understand my mother. Melody got counselling from social workers and therapists but in the end she moved way out west and never looked back. She's a lawyer specialising in family law but mum is stuck out in Penrith looking after her mother now that her kids have all flown the nest. Mum never got involved with another man again, it was as if dad's crime had killed that part of her. She had plenty of offers and now and then we'd drop subtle hints that it was okay to at least date but she has a way of pulling the lid over her emotions."

"Jesus," Karen exhaled.

"He won't help, they crucified him," she pulled a wry grimace.

"When I said tell me about yourself I," she stopped.

"Didn't expect me to talk about my paedophile father?"

Their eyes met.

"I've learned that the best way to deal with things that are painful is to talk about them. It's what I do every day with clients, get them to talk about their most personal problems. When I was younger I found people shied away or clammed up when I opened up about that. It's like they feel they have to share a similar horrifying story, but the truth is when I let it out like that then he loses the power to hurt me. He never touched me, but I found out later he'd started paying more attention to Anne, but she's always said he never touched her."

"So what happened to your father? Do you ever see him?"

"Afraid not," she replied, "he died in prison not long afterwards. At first the prison service said it was a suicide and that was always the line mum used, even to this day for some weird reason, but the coronial inquiry ruled it a suspicious death. There was no way he could have hoisted himself up to the noose with both hands tied behind his back but there were no witnesses to call and so she ruled it was suspicious."

"So it was murder."

"Pretty much, but mum never protested the verdict," she pushed away from the table, "I have to go for a piss."

While she was in the toilet, Karen made a fresh cup of tea and ruminated on the things she'd just found out about Valerie Warren. Still waters run deep, she rinsed out the cups, so what the fuck am I doing lusting after her? Am I some sex starved middle aged woman trying to get laid?

She was interrupted in her reverie by a child's cry but when she hastened to the stairs she heard Valerie hurrying to the bedroom and so she returned to the kitchen. Valerie's frank revelation had made her feel both guilty and drawn towards her, but was it a maternal bond or something deeper and should she even entertain that possibility? She'd noticed the wedding photographs in the bedroom and on the living room wall. Obviously this woman had been in love, and even if she wasn't, what gave her the right to fall for her?

Nevertheless, as she took the tray through to the living room where Valerie was sitting with Damien she felt a familiar pull, Valerie did look vulnerable just sitting there. She could have just been told her husband was screwing around behind her back.

"Does he want some milk or cordial?" Karen set the cups on the table.

"I think cordial," she rose, "he woke up hot," she ruffled his head.

Damien's face was flushed and she sat down next to him as Valerie went through to get some cordial. He still looked groggy and she settled back against the couch and rubbed his back absently as she waited for her to return.

"I think I might give him an early bath," Valerie announced as she returned with a glass of orange and mango cordial, "he slept longer than I expected, you must have worn him out."

"We were playing hide and seek," she replied.

"Thank you for listening," Valerie sat down on the other side of Damien.

"Look, it's fine, I feel grateful you trusted me."

"I do," she looked at her, "but you're the first client I've ever shared that information with, it's not that you can't find about it on the Internet. God, you can find out all kinds of things there but I don't tend to just come out and tell clients."

She stared at the door leading to the kitchen.

"Maybe it was because we weren't in the office?"

"Well there is that," she nodded.

"I should get going soon," Karen replied a minute or so later.

"Why? Have you got plans for tonight?"

"Not really," she shrugged, "it was supposed to be a quiet night at home. The three oldest ones are out of home and the youngest will be with her girlfriends. Jonah is with his latest partner, he took to staying overnight a few years ago but this last year that's been extended to whole weekends."

"So stay for dinner," Valerie urged her, "he's staying overnight at a mate's house or on the boat, so it'll just be us."

Karen looked at her for a moment as Valerie went on.

"Look, you've looked after Damien for the morning, I can't have you going home alone and I'm on my own. Dinner will be easy to make if someone is minding him."

"Okay," Karen nodded, "thanks."

Cooking was one of the methods Valerie used to unwind. Granted Robbie took his turn but whereas he treated it as just a means to an end, she relished the journey from raw produce to cooked meal. She had a large selection of cookbooks and loved cooking shows, it was a counterpoint to Robbie's passion for rugby league and cricket. When Valerie cooked she found herself unwinding and the solutions to problems seemed to emerge from the chaos of a mind totally focused on her clients or her son.

Tonight was no exception, Spanish chicken with chorizo and potatoes, and it was all the more enjoyable cooking for someone like Karen, who stayed in the living room with Damien. The woman had an easy familiarity about her when in a social setting, she laughed frequently and by the sounds of it, Damien was warming to her. It still felt bizarre however to have pleasant music filling the house while she was cooking instead of the news or sports. Karen watched her fair share of television but Robbie had the lion's share by far, Valerie tended to retire upstairs with her Kindle or a Netflix movie.

At one point she wandered through to find Karen on the floor with a game of Surgeon, the 'patient' was filled with rather bizarre objects and removing them without activating the buzzer caused both of them to break out into laughter. She propped against the door jamb, her arms folded as she watched them playing. Children and animals were a good barometer she'd often heard, if they distrusted an adult then there was probably an underlying reason.

Karen looked up briefly and Valerie smiled.

"We're failures as surgeons," she announced rather proudly, "I think the patient is fading."

"Oh well, dinner is nearly ready."

"Do you want a hand?"

"I'm fine," she replied as she stepped back into the kitchen.

***

It could have gone further than the dinner she mused later that night as she stepped out of the shower and proceeded to dry herself off. The dinner was a success, the conversation around the table both illuminating and entertaining, Damien's vocabulary now included chorizo and Spanish and afterwards Karen had washed the dishes while she bathed Damien and got him ready for bed. She came downstairs some time later to find Karen watching When Harry Met Sally and the older woman stretched and yawned when Valerie sat down beside her.

"I can rewind it if you want."

"Don't bother," she smirked, "I watched it just a few months ago for the umpteenth time and not just for the orgasm scene. It reminds me of how it was between Robbie and I when we first met, I was so bloody determined not to fall for him."

"It's often the way."

Valerie slipped the nightie over her head and let the silk garment slide over her body. The admission had come out of the blue.

"I nearly went out with a woman once," she confessed, "I was going out with the Scotsman and it was before we got kind of serious. This bisexual woman from the local gym asked me out."

"And?" Karen looked at her.

"We went out for coffee at a café, I was dipping my toes and I can admit now that I was curious but nothing ever came of it. We agreed to meet up again for dinner but then Alex, my Scotsman got bitten by a huntsman but at the time he thought it was a funnel-web and so it was a trip to the hospital before the nurse told him he was mistaken."

"And you never saw her again?"

"Oh, she called of course, but by then I'd become rather attached to this big hulking male who was shit scared of spiders and insects," she giggled.

Damien stirred in her bed as she slipped beneath the duvet. His arm was flung out and she pushed it under the duvet and rolled onto her side.

Damien was the best thing to happen between her and Robbie. There were times she could quite easily end the marriage, but the thought of causing a rift between father and son was more than she could stomach. Lately he'd talked about having another child but she'd always baulked at the idea, thirty six wasn't old but it was old enough to say no more. Robbie on the other hand was thirty one and there were times he forgot he was married to an older woman.

The age difference had surprised Karen.

"I think the attraction was the fact he made me feel young," Valerie explained, "I was thirty and going out with a twenty five year old guy, and he got off on the fact he had the older woman, so that kept us together for nearly four years."

She stared at the photograph showing her leaning over the chair. Just recently she'd thought of taking it down now that Damien was getting older, although it was tame enough to pass muster unless she used her mother's metric. She had shown Karen the album Jacqueline had made up for her, it had felt dangerous but also strangely arousing, as if she was giving up a part of herself to this former swinger who'd decided to end her marriage. That had come out suddenly not long before she left and Valerie didn't press her on it.

"We'll talk about that on Thursday if you want."

"Thursday it is," she leaned forward, "well, it's been great but I'm afraid I have to love you and leave you. Thank you for the dinner and the company and I'll see you Thursday."

"Thursday it is," she shifted forward and picking up her wineglass, drained the dregs.

The light from the street lights cast a warm glow over the street and both women turned as a black Holden Commodore cruised down the street, it pulled over just opposite her house and Valerie pulled a wry grin.

"That's my drug dealing neighbours, a guy and his girlfriend, the car is an unmarked cop car, the cops must be using them for information because they haven't busted them yet."

A man came out of the house a few minutes later and jogged across to the car and leaned into the car to speak to the police. The conversation didn't last long because the man stepped back very quickly and the car moved forward, the siren came on and the lights started flashing.

"Well something's gone down, no doubt we'll read about it in the next few days," she glanced over at Karen, "are you okay?"

"I'm fine," she smiled crookedly, "I recognised the female passenger, Janine, she and I were lovers for a few months."

"I'd like to hear more about that."

"About that," Karen looked past her as a huntsman scampered further up the wall, "why did you ask me to go into such detail? Not that I cared, I was just kind of curious."

Valerie reached inside to pick up an old straw broom she kept for such emergencies and swung it at the wall, the bristles sent the spider tumbling to the ground and she swept it into the garden.

"And stay out," she shivered, "ghastly little fuckers, sorry, you were saying?"

"My last session, you asked me to go into a lot of detail."

"Oh that," she grinned, "I guess it's just plain old fashioned curiosity. To be honest I didn't expect you to go into such lurid detail but I wasn't about to stop you," she looked at her.

"And yes, I was turned on, it doesn't mean I'd go that far with a woman but it's been one of those parts of my sexual identity that I do question from time to time."

"Okay," Karen nodded.

"I've had offers from time to time but for one reason or another I always back out, not because the idea disgusts me, it's more to do with the person making the offer. I pay a lot of attention to the kind of baggage people carry with them. Robbie didn't carry excess baggage, he still doesn't seem to carry any even now. It's one of the reasons we're still together. I can predict him, more or less but some of the women who were attracted to me have deeper agendas. It's one of those things that keeps my legs closed, so to speak."

"So you look before you leap."

"Well that's one way of putting it, considering my family history. People aren't always what they seem, take my neighbours. Evan is a manager at a used car yard, his wife works in an office and to look at them you'd never guess they deal in drugs on the side but they do. I don't know the details but I don't want to know either. When it comes to getting involved with someone I'm not one of those kiss on a first date girls, I may not even kiss after the tenth date but if I do kiss you then you can be sure I've thoroughly analysed you."

Valerie rolled onto her back and stared at the ceiling as she contemplated that parting comment. Was she falling for a client? It wouldn't be the first time, but Valerie had always accepted that sexual tension between humans was perfectly natural. You might think the guy working down at the local Coles was hot but it didn't mean you had to fuck him. Jacqueline was one example of a hot client who'd openly flirted, even if it was in a joking manner. Karen was flirting but it was subtler, more mature even but as she let the events of the day filter down into her subconscious, Valerie couldn't help thinking that the relationship was evolving. But would she evolve with it or just stay on the sidelines and consider her options?

To be continued...