15 Nov Chapter One: Fog

Not being able to fall asleep is a dream come true. Jay re-reads a simple line he wrote the night before… pondering the line. At first glance, or first read, it appears to be a rather morbid start to a piece of writing, especially for Jay, however, he can’t stop thinking about the philosophical undertone.

After contemplating for a few moments he realizes the conundrum exists as; in order to dream, one must be asleep, however, at the same time, in order to dream one must be awake. His alarm clock goes off and he wakes up to a foggy scene:

“What time is it?” he says out loud, but Jane is already in the distance getting ready, oddly over-dressed and looking good. Confused, he says to her, “Where are you going?” Jane responds with a condescending sneer, “Out.”

Jay is fatigued from not being able to sleep very well, “Out…? To where?” Jane rolls her eyes and says, “I guess you forgot… again.” and she brashly walks out of the room.

Groggy from the foggy scene Jay gets out of bed and walks into the kitchen to make a cup of coffee when he notices a post-it note placed over the coffee maker;

‘Therapy Session: 1 pm. You better be there.’

Jay sighs, looks at the clock and the clock says it’s noon, “Fuck.”

He takes his coffee and sits down at the table, staring out the window, slowly sipping his coffee.

He looks down at his open composition book (it is typical for Jay to leave paper and pens around the apartment) and sees Jane’s handwriting over something he was working on,

“You’re writing sucks.

– Jane”

Jay can’t help but laugh, so he finishes his coffee, closes the composition book and returns to the room to change… under his breath he says, “She doesn’t appear to be too happy.”

Jay decides to call Jane… after the fourth ring she picks up, “Hi Jane.” he says to her.

Jane responds in high octave, “Yeah?”

Jay continues, “What have I told you about writing over the work in my composition books?”

Jane hangs up the phone.

Jay speaks to himself, “Well… at least she answered..”  So he makes another cup of coffee and walks out of the apartment.

—

Jay walks into the front door of the Therapist’s office when he overhears Jane having a conversation with the desk secretary, “…and he’s just drunk all the time – what is someone supposed to do with someone like that?”

Jay walks around the corner and clears his throat so his presence is known. Jane rolls her eyes and proceeds to walk into the therapist’s room, she walks with a seductive, teasing manner as if she wants her figure to be tantalizing and exhibited.

Jay sighs and walks past the secretary, grinning he says to her, “Well… here we go again…” The secretary doesn’t look up.

Jay enters the therapist’s room to see Jane already sitting, unpalatably in one of the chairs and the therapist (their 5^th therapist in six months named Susan) is sitting at her desk, with a page full of notes already written.

Jay sits down at the chair next to Jane, looks at her and whispers, “Jane… how does she already have a page of notes written, it’s only been like three minutes with you waiting in here with her.”

Susan interrupts, “Hi Jay – how nice of you to join us… are you sober right now?”

Jay looks offended, “Of course I’m sober… what kind of question is that?”

Susan leans over the desk and squints her eyes at him, “So you’re not drunk right now, correct?”

Jay stands up angrily, “Yes…. I mean no, of course I’m not drunk… look I don’t think much has changed since our session last month so I don’t even know why I have to be here…”

Susan sits back in her chair and takes a long, loud sip from her coffee mug, while still deeply squinting at Jay, “Okay well, why don’t we just begin – Jay please take a seat.”

Jane fixes her posture and begins to speak, “So, like I was telling you Susan – ever since his ‘friend’ Isabella’s gallery, where he ‘passed out’ in front of everyone… he’s just been acting really strange.”

Susan responds, “Jay – you passed out? Are you feeling sick? Were you feeling sick?”

Jay gets serious, “No… I mean its not like a I passed out, or fainted, it was just this like overwhelming feeling that I never felt before…. And I don’t know – I Just sort of passed out I guess.”

Jane laughs,  “So you didn’t pass out, but you passed out? Wow the man who self-proclaims to be the best writer alive is really profound when he needs to be, don’t you think Susan?”

Susan intervenes, “Jane lets not be condescending this could be a serious health issue…”

Jane rolls her eyes yet again and Jay continues speaking, “So yeah, anyways, I feel fine now, haven’t really had any episodes like that since and I don’t think I’ve been acting strange at all – so what is there to talk about here?”

Susan writes a few words in her notepad then looks up, “So Jay… before you walked into the room, Jane was subtly saying to me that you have been acting violently towards her… can you please explain that to me?

Jay quickly responds firmly, “Of course not. I’ve never acted violently towards her, or anyone for that matter – that’s just not in my DNA.”

Jane commandeers the conversation, “Oh really? Why don’t you tell her what I heard you saying to your friends?”

Jay starts getting a little anxious, “Jane… I don’t think that’s necessary, especially in the context of this session.”

Susan calmly intervenes, “Jay – given the severity of her concerns, I do think it’s necessary, please do tell.”

Jay nervously explains, “Well… I, uh, well I basically said that I beat my girlfriend and that I enjoy it.”

Susan abruptly stands up in astonishment, “You beat your girlfriend? This is way worse than I thought…”

Jay looks down slightly ashamed, “Yeah… pretty much every day. Sometimes two or three times a day it just really depends on how I’m feeling, or rather, how she’s feeling.”

Jane giggles and Susan looks confused, “Jay, this is a serious crime, I think I need to call the local law enforcement… this is beyond the need for therapy.”

Jay continues, “Look… Susan, it’s not what you think. Ever since I passed out, or whatever at my friend Isabella’s gallery, if a girl likes me, or loves me or whatever, I can hear their heart beat – and it sounds musical. So, I turn that sound into an instrumental beat that I then write to. So… yeah, I guess one could theoretically say that I beat my girlfriend.”

Susan sits back down in her chair and appears to be overwhelmed, “I’m totally confused right now.”

Jay looks over at Jane, who now has a big smirk across her face, “What about you Jane? Why don’t you tell her what you said to me at dinner last week?”

Jane shakes her head no and Susan looks completely exhausted by the conversation, “What did she say Jay?”

Jay gets serious, “Well, we were eating dinner last week and while we are sitting there, Jane looks at me and with the most menacing innocent tone begins to say to me, ‘If I were to kill you, do you know how I would do it?’ I mean… who says that?”

Jane stands up, “Okay, that’s enough – we’re here because you beat me Jay.”

Jay also stands up angrily, “I don’t beat you! And it’s not just you Jane, I beat a lot of girls.”

Jane disgustedly says, “You’re a pig.” and storms out of the room. Susan looks up at Jay completely dumbfounded and says, “You both have some serious mental issues – I’d like to see you all again next week.”