“I don’t know, I just can’t get her off my mind. And I can forget what happened,” Bob told his psychologist.
“I’m not telling you to forget, Bob. I’m telling you to move on and stop blaming yourself for her death. It wasn’t your fault,” Dr. Jake explained for the hundredth time to his patient.
“I know but if I had just...” But before he could finish Dr. Jake cut him off.
“Stop right there. I’m sorry but that’s all the time I have for today. I’ll see you next week,” Dr. Jake stated as he stood and showed Bob out the door.
Why did you give me such a horrible incident to deal with? What did I ever do wrong? Bob Moffatt asked God as he turned into Sandy Lane to his huge but cozy mansion. Bob was now 28 and the accident happened when he was 26. So shouldn’t he have at least moved on by now? Oh well, he thought to himself. Bob pulled up the familiar driveway and watched as the tree branches hit his maroon corvette as they did every afternoon when he returned from work. He parked his car and walked into his house.
“Daddy, Daddy, your home!” Katie sang as she jumped into her father’s arms.
“Hi honey. How was school today?” Bob asked as he walked into the kitchen and set down his brief case.
“It was good but...” Katie started. Bob looked down at his daughter who seemed to be puzzled with something.
“But what?” he asked as he took a seat next to her.
“But we’re doing math, and math is too hard. I can’t do it,” she answered.
“Didn’t Uncle Scott help you?” Bob asked as Scott entered the kitchen and headed towards the cupboard.
“No. He said that I had to try and do it for myself,” Katie frowned.
“Scott!” Bob accused. Scott looked over at the father and daughter with a puzzled look and snorted.
“What?!”
“Your supposed to help Katie with her homework, not sit and watch her do it!”
“Okay, okay,” Scott said. He placed the box of cookies he was devouring back into the cupboard and sat beside Katie.
“Katie, I’m sorry can you ever forgive me?” Scott pleaded with the little girl and gave her his best impression of puppy eyes. Katie scrunched her lips for a minute then replied, “Yes I forgive you Uncle Scott.”
“Good now go upstairs and finish your Journal for the week and your Dad will be up in a minute to help you with your homework,” Scott advised as he smacked her on the butt. Katie hurried up the stairs and as soon as Scott heard her door close he began his discussion with Bob.
“How’d it go today?” he asked. Bob hesitated before answering the question.
“I don’t know...I guess it went all right,” he answered as he got up to make Katie Spaghettios for dinner. Scott watched his brother open the can of soup. His brow was scrunched up, his eyes watery, and his hands were shaking.
“Come here bro. It’s gonna be okay,” Scott informed Bob as he gave him a hug. Bob returned the hug but did not let his emotions pour out. He never did, it just wasn’t right for a man to cry. The cry of the telephone shattered the men’s thoughts. Bob walked over to the wall where the bright blue colored phone hung.
“Hello?”
“Hi, is this Bob Moffatt?” a female voice asked.
“Yes, this is Bob. Who is calling?”
“Mr. Moffatt this is Nancy Sullivan, the principle of Morris High School. We recently had a loss of a student and some of the kids here are having trouble dealing with her death. Since you suffered such a tremendous loss we were wondering if you would like to help us with these kids. You could tell them your story and tell them how your dealing with your loss.” Bob sat down on the bar stool nearest to the phone. Should I do this? he asked himself. Well maybe it would help. I haven’t been able to talk about her and what happened, maybe this will give me closer.
“Sure Nancy. I would love to do this. And to tell you the truth it would help me deal with her loss,” he informed her.
“Oh thank you so much Mr. Moffatt. It is greatly appreciated.”
“Your welcome.”
