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.
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).
