"Gentlemen, I feel as though I've not only met Angelica Barton, but that I've also traveled over the plains and mountains of the frontier with the brave people who were in the Crawford Party. Reality is actually a very subjective concept. And you have to admit that if one's experiences were restricted to only the tangible, there wouldn't be much to life at all. Harley Fox created a very memorable experience for me."
"You should call the man and thank him," Paul suggested with a smile.
"He's received thanks enough. Olivia is financing his film."
"And that doesn't bother you?" Sebastian asked him. "I mean, this guy tried to make a fool out of you."
Block answered for his colleague. "Hollis wasn't truly deceived by him, and yet he had the pleasure of meeting Miss. Barton. This is what is commonly referred to as a win win situation."
Hollis smiled and glanced out the window.
"I did invest a good deal of emotion in the experience," he said. "So I did sacrifice something."
Olivia tentatively walked into his office after they left.
"Maybe I was afraid you were becoming bored," she said softly.
"That's why you tried to make a fool out of me?" Hollis responded angrily.
"I'm sorry, Hollis," she said with genuine remorse. "I told Harley about the diary
because I thought it would make a wonderful movie. Then he suggested using it to demonstrate his ability to create an illusion. I never thought it would go this far. You were supposed to see the ghost and come running into the house to tell me about her. Then I could have my laugh, and we would move on. I never expected you to treat her as a patient. And I left a message for Harley when you became ill, telling him to stay away. But he never received it."
Olivia looked into his eyes and was surprised. The anger she expected to find there had already dissipated, and instead Olivia saw contentment.
"You needn't apologize, my dear," he replied. "I shouldn't be angry with you for giving me what I wanted. I've always desired to meet my first love. Now I have."
A twinge of jealousy surged through Olivia, but it was quickly tempered by her lingering guilt.
"Why do I always feel the need to settle accounts with everyone, even the one I love above all others?"
"It's because you're human, Olivia. And since I feel the same way about you, I find the trait to be eminently tolerable."
They embraced, and never spoke of the woman from the past again.
In everyone's mind there is a garden where a person's deepest emotions and desires are nurtured, free from the cumbersome burdens of reality. On the nights when Hollis Simms retreated to that special place, he looked out the window towards Fairhaven's garden to find it bathed in an unearthly glow.
Angie was there.
YOU ARE READING
Angie of the Garden
Non-FictionAngie of the Garden is a story about a psychiatrist named Hollis SImms. He is an affable individual who is dedicated to his patients, and his family. Hollis is married to a provocative and wealthy woman named Olivia: their irrepressible teenage daug...
