Therapeutic Shorties

Hi boys and girls- my name is Ethel, or if your parents taught you well, Mrs. Falkenberg. I promise that everything I am about to tell you is true- or, in my advanced age, I just misremembered.

After the events of the last few days I was concerned- my fun loving, mischievous Brother had turned into quite the sadist, and I was afraid he was going to drag me and Shorty with him down an evil path.

I invited (Name Redacted- Shorty’s real first name) to stay with me, and sure enough, he took me up on it. So did all of his “cousins”, so now I have 9 of them staying with me!! As (bad) luck would have it, they came over in the night on Friday…

When I woke up Saturday morning, the 17th, I can hear a lot of noise and commotion. Getting up to investigate I find out that there’s 9 Shorty’s in my house. One comes up to me and says “Thanks for letting us stay here, Ma’am. I let them know they could come over since you said I could stay here.”

The others are just talking and making lots of noise and messes all around the house:

“Who keeps eating the food I’ve been cooking?”
“This place is so weird but it’s better than the factory.”
“Hey, quit hogging the bathroom!”
“I think I clogged the toilet.”
“Oh, is it time to get up yet?”
“I think the factory was more comfortable than that couch. How old is it anyway?”
“This T.V. doesn’t get enough channels. I can’t find Ball Handlers!”
“Oops, sorry” as a breakable object is knocked over and shatters.

And on the day of the monthly tour!

I immediately find, well, lets just call him Shorty 1, the one that said thank you. He is a nice boy.

“When I said you could stay,(Name Redacted- Shorty’s real first name), not all of your- cousins? Brothers? I have tours here scheduled from 9am- 4pm today- they need to go now, and you can help me clean all this mess up! It is 5am- we only have 4 hours until the first tour!”

He helps me get the others on board, and they leave for the day- just in the nick of time.

You see, my house is the last of its kind. This whole community was filled with the “House of the Future”, like this one my Father bought, but now this is the last one standing.

So now I give tours once per month to raise some extra cash. The whole house is rather unique- I am sitting in one of the chairs in the picture at the top of the page. I have a lot of my photos on the wall as well, and may just sell a few with the extra exposure to the public. The tours are every third Saturday of the month, and are doing quite well. Some extra cash for my thrift store runs!!

The next day, while shopping, as feeding 9 Shorties is a lot of food, Garrick had stopped by, and left a note and a pie. Of course they ate 98% of it, but the Shorty’s did leave me a tiny sliver. With it was a strange, pie-stained note:

“Mrs. Falkenberg, I apologize if I have offended you I will not contact you again, I am very, very sorry.
– Garrick”

I wonder what brought that on? Did I come off as angry at him? I have been carrying around a lot of anger, but what a strange thing to say. Well, we are supposed to get together next week, I hope to talk to him then…

Monday rolls around, and I grab my horoscope as always. “Personal issues may be getting you down, but that doesn’t mean you should treat yourself to a nice dinner of comfort food tonight! You may actually need a therapist, not have meatloaf, mashers and creamed corn!” I decide it is time to talk to a professional about my brother, and my anger issues. I am tired of being so angry, and want to be my happy-go-lucky self again! I had made a good friend in Nancy, my lawyer, Alan Grayson’s secretary, so I rang her.

She promises to get back to me, and sure enough, does in the afternoon, with an appointment scheduled for Thursday with Dr. Erikson. We make arrangements to do dinner soon, and I am already excited.

Thursday rolls around, and I am giddy! Long story short, here are the highlights:

“Dr Erikson, I am very concerned about the anger I feel.” I tell the whole story of Sharon, my husband (spit), and myself. “I am a happy person by nature, and I want to learn to let go of this anger, and be my happy self again.”

He says, “You have been hurt. Letting go of this anger will take time. It won’t happen overnight but it can happen. You can’t change what they did, but you can change how you let their actions continue to affect you.”

After this response from him, I later talk about Jake. “My brother, Jake, has been not himself either- although this may be who he is now, as I had not seen him for 40 years.”

Dr. Erikson just looks at me for a moment, expressionless. It’s hard to tell if he’s judging me or just letting me realize I solved my own issue there. “People can change a lot over time. As you re-connect more with your brother you’ll see more of these changes, but as you talk with him about his experiences you may learn how he went from that person you once knew to the person he is today.”

I talk more about how Jake used to be- mischievous, but would not hurt people. Now he seems to enjoy others pain.

“But does he enjoy it? Or have you projected your frustrations over Sharon, your husband, and how much your brother’s changed into your perceptions of him?” He takes off his glasses and continues. “Ethel, how you feel is valid. It’s easy to look at the past and think on how much better things were then, especially when what’s happening today is so frustrating. I think as we keep meeting I’ll be able to help you learn how to come to terms with these feelings. It will take time though. Are you prepared to work with me on that?”

I answer that I am, and with that the session is over and he tells me that he hopes to see me again at her next appointment with him.

I feel like I am on a good path! Now to make dinner for 10!

 

Ethel picture of Grece Ghanem
House picture from Yesterland