The Retreat by Sherri Smith

Author:Sherri Smith
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Tom Doherty Associates

ARIEL

Fiiiiinally.

Dr. Dave and Katie’s session came to an end.

Ariel was sitting next to Paula in the living room, coloring a chakra wheel. Both their heads snapped up when Katie scrambled down the hall, thumped up the stairs, and shut the door to her room.

Ariel dropped her colored pencil and followed her.

“Katie? Can I come in?” She knocked softly.

“I just want to be alone right now.” Katie sounded congested, like she’d been crying. How did Dr. Dave make her cry?

“You sure? If you want to talk—”

“I am sure.”

“So what happened with Dr. Dave? With your session?” Ariel pressed her forehead against the door.

She tried the door handle. Her mind flickering to standing outside Rob’s very lovely ranch-style house. The ease with which their front door had opened. A cute turquoise-colored door. How quiet the house had been when she stepped inside.

“Please go away, Ariel. I need to be alone right now.” A sharp, sputtering command.

Ariel flinched back. What was she going to do? Storm into Katie’s room and do what she did to Rob’s wife?

But that was an accident.

It was.

She wandered back downstairs. Paula was gone and she didn’t want to color anymore. So she moped outside and made her way over to a hammock. It took two tries to get into it and get comfortable.

There was a light wind. She closed her eyes and listened to the lake gently lapping in the distance. Immediately a thousand images of Katie and Dr. Dave buoyed up like dead fish. In order to chase the images away she imagined a version of herself that lived by the ocean. Another too in which Ariel married Nate and was still living in New York, in the brownstone with Katie—in this kind of sitcom merriment. Never getting on each other’s nerves. If only Nate had liked her that way.

It was a game she played in her head, one in which she’d made better decisions and as a result had a more fabulous life. If only she’d been more willing to go without nice things and work nights and weekends, she could have stayed in New York without her parents’ financial help. Some internship would have led to a corporate career with lots of travel. She’d have money for a personal trainer and dietician, and be her ideal weight. She would never have worked at the Holiday Inn, never have met Rob, never have hurt Rob’s wife.

Something warm started to trickle down her scalp and she thought a bird had to have shit on her, but when she touched her head and looked at her hand, she saw a smear of blood. She was pulling her hair and not noticing. Now her scalp was lightly bleeding.

For a second, Ariel thought she might be sick.

Alone and thinking.

This was never a good mix for Ariel. It made her fretful.

Now she would be alone for the next two meditative hours. Carmen had taken off on a hike. Katie was locked in her room for some reason. It seemed like she was only confiding in Ellie about whatever was bothering her.

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