Home Again (10)
"I thought you would understand." Daniel said slumping in his chair.
After breakfast Daniel continued sleeping at Stephen’s house, he had disturbed sleep. He tossed and turned in bed. Nightmares made it impossible for him to sleep in peace. He was being chased by Burns in a dark alley naked, he even had a nightmare vision of himself being eaten by a shark.
"Daniel! Daniel!" Stephen shouted and shaking him to wake up. Daniel opened his eyes in panic and bolted upright in bed.
"It’s ok! It’s just a bad dream." Stephen said gently.
"Oh my God! I can’t take it anymore Stephen! I can’t close my eyes without seeing terrible things." Daniel said, breathing heavily.
"Are you ok now?" Stephen whispered.
"I don’t know." Daniel answered and raised his eyes briefly up to look at Stephen.
"You need to get ready now, we’re going to Dr. Evans now."
"I don’t want to go, please." Daniel begged.
"No, you have to, first because we need to tell him about the nightmares and second, I don’t want your father to kill me." He said jokingly.
"Does Dad kill people?" Daniel shouted in panic.
"No, he doesn’t! I’m joking!" Stephen said.
"That’s what Fred said too today!" Daniel said, yawning.
"What a terrible coincidence!" Stephen grinned.
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After Dr. Evans’s session, Stephen took Daniel to a restaurant down the road for lunch. They ordered Turkey sandwiches, fries and Coke. Daniel was kind of relieved because Dr. Evans prescribed different sleeping pills that would make him sink in deep sleep and forget the nightmares in the morning, according to what he said.
"How did the session go?" Stephen asked.
"As usual, nothing new." Daniel said carelessly.
Stephen eyed him and said, "Your therapy is important in your treatment, Daniel."
"But I don’t like it Stephen, I don’t want to go again! It doesn’t make me feel better or anything." Daniel grunted.
"Maybe because you are stubborn and don’t like it, you are determined not to make it useful dear." Stephen said.
Their order arrived. The server arranged the plates on the table and walked away. Daniel was clearly disappointed. He took a bite of the sandwich, realized that he had no appetite at all and put it down.
"Now what?" Stephen asked with a mouth full of fries.
"I thought you would understand." Daniel said slumping in his chair.
Stephen sighed and said impatiently, "You know this issue is peremptory."
"Is what?" Daniel asked.
"Is not up for discussion." Stephen elaborated.
"Dr. Evans is doing what he does for a living, he doesn’t care! He wants me to talk, to tell him everything, but I’m sure if I tell him a slice of the horrors that I’ve seen, he’d just nod, write something in his notebook and continue his stupid questions." Daniel said angrily.
Stephen stared at him intently, took his hand and held reassuringly and said, "Ok, I promise that I will talk to your dad today about changing Dr. Evans."
Daniel looked at him gratefully, it wasn’t exactly what he hoped for, he wanted to stop the therapy all together. Something is better than nothing, he thought.
Daniel smiled heartily and said, "Thank you."
Stephen smiled back and said, "Now, I want you to finish all your food."
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P.S to my precious readers: I keep the chapters short because they are submitted on the Internet, if the chapter is too long on a computer screen, it will be uninviting to read and you will get bored easily.