And How Does That Make You Feel?
The therapist glanced at the clock. An hour had passed since the session started. The client sat on the couch, twiddling her thumbs. The client had only been expressing how anxious, depressed, and worried she was about her kids for the past hour."Anything else you would like to talk about today?" questioned the therapist. "Maybe about what exactly happened to your husband?"
"I told you that he's dead," snapped the client.
"I know. We've already been over that. But I want to know what exactly happened. I promise there will be no judgment. I want to help you ."
The client sat on the couch silently, continuing to twiddle her thumbs. She was afraid to talk to someone, in a matter of fact anyone, about her husband's death. The depression and anxiety was killing and preventing her from caring for her seven daughters.
"How bad could it be? I suppose I would feel better," said the client.
"I'm all ears. Whenever you are ready," replied the therapist.
The client took a deep breath and stopped twiddling her thumbs. "Everything was normal. My husband went out to collect thorns for a living, like he always does, and the girls and I were doing our spinning work so that our family wouldn't starve to death."
"You and your seven daughters, correct?" asked the therapist.
"Yes, all of my seven daughters and I. But when my husband came back that night, he had some very exciting and bizarre news to tell me."
"What was the news?"
"He said he encountered a long lost sister that he never met before. He claimed that this sister left home when he was a baby and now she had come back to find him. My husband said that his sister was very rich and could bring us out of this poverty-stricken life," explained the client.
" How did that make you feel?"
" I was caught be off guard. I never knew he even had siblings," responded the client.
"So then what happened?"
" Well, he took us to her and to her home where she entertained us, gave us plenty of food, and provided us with nice clothes. Our bodies began to change. We weren't skin and bones anymore. For the first time in our lives, we were well-nourished and happy."
"So what changed?" asked the therapist.
"Some time passed and I wanted to repay my new sister-in-law by cooking her a nice dinner to thank her for her generosity and kindness. After making her a tasty dish, I sent my youngest daughter to deliver it to her."
"Then what happened?"
"My daughter ran back home bawling and screaming. I asked her what on earth was the matter. The terror I saw in her eyes still haunts me."
"Terror?" questioned the therapist.
"Yes. My daughter claimed that she saw that her aunt, transformed into a wolf, was eating a man."
"No..."
"Yep. So I told my husband that his sister was a wolf, disguised as a human. I tried to explain to him that the only reason we were well fed was so that she could fatten us up and devour us."
"What did your husband say in response?"
"He denied it. He was furious that I accused his sister of being a wolf. I insisted that we leave at once to avoid being killed."
"So did you leave?"
"He refused. No matter how many times I begged, he wouldn't believe me. So I took my seven daughters with me and we fled. Two weeks went by and I hadn't heard from my husband so I went back to see if he was okay."
"What did you find?" asked the therapist.
"Blood. Dark red blood. All over the floor of our house."
"Was it your husband's blood?"
"Yes."
"Oh my..."
"My neighbor walked in when I was standing in the blood-stained house. He said he had come to deliver a package to my husband, and when he opened the door he saw a wolf devouring him."
"So you were right?"
"Yes. I almost wish I stayed and died with him. I don't know how my daughters and I are going to get over this."
The therapist looked at the clock. Two hours had passed since the start of the session.
"Your session has expired, but I won't charge you. Let's reschedule for tomorrow morning. We will work through this," said the therapist.
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| Wolf (by Arturo de Frias Marques) |
Author's Note
I based this story off of the original story from the Persian Unit, The Wolf-Aunt . The original story is about a family, with seven daughters, that is very poor and has to work hard to keep from starving. One day when the husband is out working, he encounters a random woman who claims that she is his long lost sister and that she wants to help him and his family. The husband believes her and immediately tells his wife that his sister will save the family from poverty and starvation. The family goes to live with the new aunt and is treated very well, with new clothes and an abundance of food. To show gratitude for the new aunt, the wife sends her youngest daughter to deliver a home-cooked meal to the husband's sister. When the little girl arrives at the aunt's house, she peers into the door and sees the aunt, in the form of a wolf, eating a man. The little girl is scared and tells her mom what she had seen. The wife tells her husband that the family needs to leave town or they will be eaten by the wolf-aunt. The husband, fooled by his sister, refuses to leave. The wife and seven daughters leave town, and the husband stays and is eaten alive by the wolf-aunt. I decided to tell this story in the form of a therapy session. The wife, the client in the story, tells the story to her therapist and is very troubled by the murder of her husband. I added the neighbor into the story so that someone could tell the wife what her husband is dead. In the original story, the wife never came back to check on her husband. I thought that the wife should come back and check on her husband, and also prove that she is not heartless and cruel. I chose the title based on a redundant question that therapists asks their clients. I had fun writing this story in a therapy session along using back-and-forth dialect with the characters!
Persian Tales, translated by D.L.R. Lorimer and E.O. Lorimer and illustrated by Hilda Roberts (1919).
Wow, I am glad you picked a Persian tale for this post! Being half Persian myself, I find all these old traditional stories very interesting! I love the twist of how the Husband was literally blind to the fact that his sister was a wolf, but rather was more interesting of just being well feed and nourished. I have heard many of these old tales from my Persian side of my family, but I have never been told this one! I enjoyed the style you chose as well with wife being in a therapy session! I may do something like this in my future posts!
ReplyDeleteAwesome story! I liked how you built up to how her husband was killed because at first I thought she murdered her husband. All of these old folktales are so interesting. I feel like the most unexpected dark things happen in them. Thats crazy that the aunt turned into a wolf and ate people. Was the man really her brother or was it just some crazy she-wolf that tricked people, which happens in most of these stories in this section. This was very well written!
ReplyDeleteWow, what a great story! The way this story was written kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. I loved how you put the story into a “therapy session” point of view. The dialogue really made me feel connected with the characters on a deeper level. What if the therapist didn’t believe the lady and thought she was crazy? What if the therapist also turned into a wolf at the end and left the audience on a cliffhanger? These are some good plot twists for when you revise your story! I loved the way you spaced out your paragraphs and used quotes to describe the scene. I think if you added one or two more photos to the story then it would really come to life! Overall, I thought you did an incredible job with this story! I was never bored and found myself wanting the story to keep going! Great job.
ReplyDeleteHey Bailey, I really like your portfolio and I think it was a great idea to add a picture for each story that you included. Immediately while reading the first part, I wanted to keep going to find out what happened to her husband. I really liked the title that you used. It's original and goes along with the whole therapy thing. The dialogue you included was great too because it helped the story flow together and it was a natural setting in which a story like this could be told. In the author's note, I'd like to hear more about what your overall goal of the story was. Is it that we shouldn't trust people that we don't really know? I wonder why the husband was so unwilling to trust his wife. It ended up costing him his life. It's a pretty tragic story and I understand why the wife must be so traumatized. Good job with this story! I wanted to keep reading the whole time.
ReplyDeleteHey! Great story! I really enjoy when just the title of a story draws me in and makes me interested in reading the story. Your title definitely did that because it left me trying to figure out what more could be talked about. So, once I began reading, I could tell that this story was going to be interesting, in fact, I could have continued to read the story if you would have written more. I've heard similar stories, and I like how you added your own twist to the story. You left little context clues along the way that made the reader want to continue on. That is very unfortunate that the mother is now left to raise 7 children all on her own after her husbands untimely demise. It would have been a nice little twist if when you said that the wife didn't know that her husband had a sister, that in reality, he really didn't have a sister. If the wolf really casted a spell on the husband to just say that that was his sister to lure the wife and kids to her house to eat them. Great story!
ReplyDeleteHey Bailey! I have commented on a few others and the thing I am noticing about people's stories are their titles. I think it is important for author's to make every element of storytelling important including having a strong title, which you definitely do! I especially like when title's have a question because it makes me want to know the answer without having any idea what the story is about.
ReplyDeleteThe second thing I liked about your story was the style. Since it was a therapist helping a mother of seven cope with something, the dialogue really helped bring that sense of back and forth conversation that one would expect if they were in therapy. Plus, when there is dialogue like this, it makes it easier for the reader to read the story.
I like that you chose a story from the Persian Unit. I myself did not choose this one so I was completely clueless on any of the stories from that unit. it was interesting read your take on it! I thought you did a great job with it and I am excited to read more from you!
Hello Bailey. Your story reminded more of the red riding hood story where red riding hood is almost tricked by the wolf and eaten. I probably have not read as many myths and folklore stories as you have for this class so my comparison may be to stories that you may consider a bit too simple for straightforward for this class. Also, there was actually someone in my Indian Epics class who chose to depict their narrative in a therapy session as well. Have you done this before with one or two of your other stories. I think that adding a modern spin to stories that are set in past eras can make the story seem more relevant and entertaining.
ReplyDeleteI wonder how the tone of your story would change if the antagonist in the story was a witch or some other type of mythical creature. Have you written stories about witches before?