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. Whatever you say here is inconfidence.We ve all gone through sometype of extreme situation, but although ourexperiences vary widely, no one needs tofear sharing with the group.There s nojudgment here. She shot Rob a lookbefore addressing me. So, Jason, itsounds as if you d like to talk today. Uh, sure. With all eyes on me, Iwas suddenly a lot less buoyant than I dfelt walking into the room.Then Iremembered everything I d confided inAnna on a first date with a girl I wantedto impress, not drive away.If I could tellher about the accident, I could certainlytell these guys. Most of you know I was in a caraccident that left me with some permanentinjuries.There s not a lot to tell.I gotdrunk and drove, hit a guardrail andflipped the car.Got thrown from the carbecause I wasn t wearing a seat belt, andended up with some head injuries andother stuff, I blurted fast like ripping abandage off a wound, then exhaled inrelief.But Maxie wasn t finished with meyet. Those are the details of whathappened to you physically, but what arethe aftereffects? What do you feel aboutthe accident? Isn t there more you d liketo say?Not really hovered on the tip of mytongue.I shook my head. Not today, ifthat s all right. When you re ready. Maxiesmiled.She really was a sweet lady. Anyone else have something they d liketo share?The spotlight moved on, and I felt asexhausted as if I d run five miles.I dhardly said anything, but it was a start.From Rob s little sneer, he didn t agree.The guy really despised me.As I listened to the others pour outtheir grief or talk about their road torecovery, I started to really want to tellabout my date with Anna.It was too big tokeep to myself and made me realize I hadno close friends I could call just to shootthe shit with.When I d first been in the hospital,I d had visitors, or so my mom said.I wasin a coma, so I didn t know it.By the timeI was working through rehab, the visits,calls, and texts had dried up.FriendshipsI d made in college were too new toweather that kind of crisis.Old friendsfrom high school were scattered far andwide and focused on college life.Katieused to read me notes people left on myFacebook wall, but most of the namesmeant nothing to me, and by the time I wasable to read again, those messages hadstopped.It s pretty easy to fall offpeople s radar.The closest thing I had to friends now were the homeless gangthat hung out in the park and this group ofsurvivors struggling to reclaim their lives.I glanced at Rob and tried toimagine hanging out with the guy.Shit,why not? Maybe I d uncover the reasonfor his deep-seated loathing of me.Whenthe group broke up after an hour of talk,talk, talking, I approached him. Hey.Wanna grab a beer orsomething?He stared at me as if I were thestupidest person alive. I m an alcoholic,which you d know if you ever listened towhat people say in here. Oh right.I forgot.How aboutcoffee, then?His eyes narrowed. What s up withyou today? Nothing.Maybe I m hitting on youbecause you re so hot. I grinned.Should ve known better.Rob doesn t havea sense of humor.He kept staring at mewith pale gray eyes that could ve shot afreeze ray. Kidding, I said. I just thought itwas time to start being friendly with somepeople.I haven t been exactly social sincethe accident.He shrugged. Okay.When? If you don t have anywhere to be,how about now? I don t work until laterthis afternoon. I guess. Rob put on his jacket andpicked up the messenger bag he alwayscarried with him.It was all I could do not to makesome smart-ass comment about themysterious, ever-present bag.YankingRob s chain was too easy.The guy wastightly wound.But I minded my mannersand made small talk about the weather aswe walked out of the building and downthe block to a café.Rob sat at a table, clutching his bagin his arm as if it held state secrets heexpected to have stolen at any moment.Hewas a funny-looking guy, the kind whoseemed to be put together from spare partsthat didn t quite match: limbs gangly, earstoo big for his small head, and of coursethat slicked-back hairstyle did him nofavors. What do you really want? hedemanded abruptly. Nothing.Jesus! I was starting towonder why I d bothered.If I was goingto pick any of the people from group tomake friends with, why had I chosen Rob? Why are you suddenly volunteeringto talk at group and asking me to hang withyou? What happened? I guess it s like Maxie says, I mfinally ready to talk.So tell me moreabout yourself, Rob.You re in theinsurance business, right? Claims adjustor. He drummed hisfingers against his bag. Or I was.I m laidoff. That s too bad.Fucking economy,right? Fucking jerks running my office,more like.I bit down on another smart-asscomment.Can t imagine they d want tolose a guy with a personality like yours.Instead, I made the mistake of saying, Tell me about it.Rob did.In detail.For the nextforty-five minutes while I sipped my icedcoffee. That guy s been out to get me sinceI was hired.It was only a matter of time,Rob finished gloomily. That sucks, I repeated for the tenthtime, then changed the subject. You had ahead injury when you got mugged, didn tyou? Ever think of claiming disability?That launched Rob on anothertirade, this time against governmentbureaucracy [ Pobierz caÅ‚ość w formacie PDF ]