Read Online Night Visions by Thomas Fahy - Free Book Online Page A

for Larry Boyle. Larry wasn’t athletic, popular, or particularly smart, and he was pickedon mercilessly for his Coke-bottle glasses and two enormously gapped front teeth.
    She had a crush on Larry because of something he said to her by the tetherball courts at school.
    â€œI hate my glasses.”
    â€œYou can always get a new pair.”
    â€œNo, I mean…Well, I just wish I could see you without them, that’s all.”
    He smiled with those enormous teeth, and at that moment, she thought he was the next Simon Le Bon. They decided to go out on a date.
    Waiting for the date was maddening and exciting. She couldn’t believe that someone who wasn’t in the room had the power to make her nervous, excited, and frustrated at the same time. Two days later, his mom drove them to the mall, and they played video games while eating greasy cheese pizza off thin white paper plates. Their romance only lasted a few months, but to thirteen-year-old Samantha, it was magical.
    She felt some of that nervousness today, waiting for Frank to call, but these feelings only made her angry. He’d left for a career. He’d left because it was safer to fly across the country and start a new life than to wait for her love. His voice had sounded dry when he told her it was over, five months ago. He was already living in Washington, and the telephone connection punctuated his voice with static. She listened to him talk and didn’t make a sound, because she knew how much he hated silence. He rambled through apologies and excuses that were really neither. I’m sorry. We just don’t know how long we’ll be apart. What else can we do? I mean, you want to stay there for your job, to be near your father….
    The truth was that he didn’t trust someone who was afraid to say “I love you.” Maybe he was right not to trust her, she thinks. Maybe she couldn’t say those words because something was missing in her. She wasn’t sure then and still isn’t. All she toldhim that afternoon was “At least I’ll never lie to you.” She meant it, and believed herself to be honorable for it. But silence can be more hurtful than a lie.
    Frank sent her a letter a few days later with only five lines.
    Of all that you have done, and been; […]
    Of things ill done and done to others’ harm
    Which once you took for exercise of virtue.
    He’d always liked T. S. Eliot. He didn’t want to use his own words to hurt her, so he borrowed them from someone else. After that, he didn’t speak to her for six months.
    Until two days ago, in front of the church.
    Â 
    Sitting at the edge of her bed in the clinic, she looks up at Dr. Clay. “Did Phebe have any hallucinations?”
    â€œYou know I can’t discuss my other patients with you.” Dr. Clay looks tired and worried.
    For the first time she wonders if he has trouble sleeping. “I just didn’t get to see her this morning. Is everything all right? Arty said she was upset.”
    â€œDid he?” Dr. Clay asks, surprised and somewhat irritated. Then he admits, “She didn’t sleep well last night, but I’m sure she’s fine, Sam. We should get started—”
    â€œDo you think she’ll show up?”
    â€œNot tonight.”
    â€œWhy?”
    He pauses. “A lot of people are afraid to get clinical treatment.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œBecause they’re worried that it’s their last chance. That if they don’t get better this time, they never will.”
    He looks distracted as he flips through Samantha’s chart. She lies down and waits quietly for him to place the electrodes onher temples. He hands her the goggles, and she notices a tremor in his left hand.
    â€œDo you think this is our last chance?”
    He pauses before answering. “No, I don’t.” He smiles weakly and adds, “Not by a long shot. Besides, it’s working for