Transcendence

17: Soul Searching

"Tell me about your mother." The voice of a woman brought her thoughts away from the sounds of the early morning. The birds chirped and the smell of rain drifted in through an open window.

"What about her?" Her voice was like the soft cool breeze that permeated throughout the room.

"What kind of woman was she?" Eyes drifted away from the woman looking intently at her and focused them on the window. Such freedom existed out there in between the many limbs, branches and green. It was a while before she spoke.

"She was the one who began the cycle in my life. It all started with her."

*******

It had been three weeks since she had relocated to Seattle, Washington. In that time, she had been adjusting quite quickly. She had been blessed to come across a small studio apartment that didn't require too much furnishing and had a lovely view for a reasonable price. And even more so, she was grateful that Rossi had been more than lenient with her. He had noticed that she had been slipping to the point where he had asked her to sit out on a few meetings. Quite unlike her, he had asked what was the matter.

All the information that swam in her head... about her family... Lugiano...everything... it had gotten to be too much. She found herself like a ticking time bomb and with no place to release it, she was bound to explode. With this, Rossi had agreed to let her have some time off. He had put Shelley down as a fill in for her and agreed to give her overtime pay. The agreement with the stay was that she could spend up to 8 weeks in Seattle before she had to come back.

The counseling had started the very same week she had landed in Seattle. She had put it off the first couple of days while she had unpacked her things. On the third day, she knew she needed to go. She hadn't known where to begin and traveled to a few spots until she found the current office she was going to. Her clinical psychologist was a Dr. Atmikha Gupta and she was by far the only woman in the clinic that understood her. She was the only woman of color in an office with no color on the walls and she had been interested in talking to her to see what her experiences were, aside from her own. And so, she had found herself coming back to talk to Dr. Gupta and two weeks into her stay, here they were.

****

"Can you paint the picture for me? Take me upon your journey." Dr. Gupta's voice was calm and soothing and she took a deep breath.

"I'm not sure you want to go on my journey." Dr. Gupta smiled softly.

"I do Rae. " She swallowed and closed her eyes. The personal between them was still a little disconcerting but she was growing used to it.

"Okay then...brace yourself Atmikha."

*****

"Ebere."

"Yes?"