Spider Lake Read Free Page B

Ben.”
    The doctor still sat there, giving no reply. Ben continued to talk. “I have been having a dream which wakes my wife and I up each night, I mean, that is, I am having the dream and not my wife, but my shouting or rather my mumbling wakes her up and it is causing problems. We— I am not sleeping well.”
    Ben’s head ached.  
    Still the doctor listened. Ben stopped talking. Doctor Levine broke the silence. “Is that all that is bothering you?”
    Ben was astonished at the question. He didn’t answer. The doctor looked down at his notebook and started jotting something down. The doctor asked again, “Is there anything else bothering you besides the dream?”  
    Ben thought about what he should say. “Doctor, I am not sleeping well. I am having the same dream night after night. I am waking up my wife. I am out of work. I haven’t worked in three years. My home is being foreclosed. My family and I may soon be homeless. I keep having this frigging dream, and I don’t know why, and I am not sleeping.”  
    The doctor wrote more notes down in his notebook, and glancing over the lenses in his glasses he asked, “Are you depressed?”  
    Now Ben was feeling really agitated.
      The doctor asked again, “Ben, please answer the question. Are you depressed?”  
    Ben gave the question serious thought. He knew that his life was a mess, but he did not miss the daily grind of his job. He had learned over the last few years that he could only take each day as it comes.“No, I’m not depressed. I have plenty of troubles sure, but depression no. I guess I could say I am not depressed.” The statement made him feel better somehow.
    “Ben, I am going to ask you a few questions. Please bear with me. These questions are standard and they help me to get a sense of where your state of mind is, and afterwards we will address your dream. Is that okay with you?”
      Ben was calming down. He thought that he would play along, and that maybe this would not be as bad as he thought it would be. “Okay doctor fire away. I will give it a shot.”
    “Okay Ben, please keep in mind that this is only standard and asked of everyone. Do you have suicidal thoughts or do you want to hurt yourself?”  
    “Oh sure. I almost jumped off a bridge on the way here. No!”  
    “A simple yes or no is sufficient Ben. The quicker you answer, the better. Do you wash yourself regularly?”
    What an odd question, Ben thought: “Yes.”  
    “Are you socially anxious?”  
    “No.”
      “Do you have friends?”
      “Yes, a few.”  
    “Do you have a drinking or a drug problem?”  
    “I drink more beer than I should but—”
    “Just beer?”
    “Yes. Sometimes wine.”  
    “What are your goals in life?”  
    “Just to provide a good life for my family, nothing more.”  
    “What gives you joy in life?”
      “ I don’t know. My family, my wife.”  
    “Is there any mental illness in your family?”  
    “No.”  
    “Do you feel like you have a functioning family?”
      “I guess I do. My boys are always playing Nintendo, and my wife is pretty busy at her job, but I would say all in all I am happy at home.”  
    “Do you have any siblings?”  
    “No.”
      “Were you happy in your childhood?”  
    “Before the monkey I was.”
    It slipped out. The doctor looked up sharply. His eyebrows were noticeably raised.
    “The monkey?”  
    Now Ben thought that he had really stepped into it. “Yes, the monkey.” he said reluctantly.
    The doctor removed his glasses and gave Ben full eye contact. He stopped writing in his leather-covered notebook. Up until now, Ben thought that the good doctor was just going through the motions. Just another day at the office with a patient with a bandaged head and every-day problems, but with the mention of the monkey, the doctor seemed almost excited. Levine composed himself. He brushed his sleeves and chest with his hand. He shifted in his seat to a more forward position towards