"What are your writing?" Bruce asked Adriana.
She was sitting alone at the table in their kitchen with a notebook in front of her.
"Well.." she said. "Nothing yet."
Bruce kissed her on the forehead.
"You're home early," she said. "Arsenio's asleep."
"Yes," Bruce said. "I just checked on him."
Adriana looked down at the blank paper in front of her and tapped her pen against it. After the first therapy session over a week ago with Dr. Foster, both Bruce and Adriana had already gone for two individual sessions with him. They had their second couple's session with him scheduled for the following day.
"I'm supposed to write a letter," Adriana said. "Dr. Foster said I should try to write it before our next session. He doesn't want to read it or anything, but he wants me to write it."
"A letter to who?" Bruce asked.
Adriana looked down.
"To Damien," Adriana said.
"I see..." Bruce said. "Well, he's dead."
"I know," Adriana said. "The doctor knows. He just wants me to write it to...I don't know...he thinks I don't have closure but I do. I don't need to write anything to Damien."
"So you talked to Dr. Foster about your abduction," Bruce said.
"It came up, obviously," Adriana said. "And when I've talked to Dr. Kapoor about it he's alluded to something similar. But I think they're wrong."
"If two professionals have the same opinion.." Bruce said and sat beside her. He took her hand. "I know it's not an easy thing to address...but I'm sure Dr. Foster just wants you to write a few sentences. I think it could help."
"But...." Adriana said. "What do I even say? Fuck you for what you did? I hate you? You're the reason me and my husband lost a baby?"
Bruce could see she was asking a question that was meant to be rhetorical. But the answer was in her question.
"If that's what you need to say to him," Bruce said. "Then you should write it down."
"I can't write that," Adriana said.
"You can," Bruce said to her.
"No," Adriana said. "But I could say it to his face."
"Well that is not possible," Bruce said as he saw Adriana standing up. "Where are you going?"
"The cemetery," she replied.
.
.
.
"Do you think I'm weird for this?" Adriana said as she and Bruce walked through the muddy grass at the cemetery. "To spit on his grave?"
"No," Bruce said as she held onto his arm. "Not at all. Here it is."
Bruce pointed to the headstone a few feet away and he and Adriana approached.
"Thanks for coming with me," she said as they walked a few more feet.
Bruce smiled at her and they kissed under the light rain.
"Wow...so here it is," Adriana said and looked down.
She read Damien's name. Saw his date of birth. His date of death. She stood over where he was buried. She had so much anger to spew at him, she had planned to spit. Bruce looked at her and watched her looking at the engravings on the headstone.
