Drama

160

Psychotherapist falls in love with handicapped client as they battle his Post Traumatic Stress Disorder. Explores possibility of normal life for a Chris Reeves type disability. Writer's Digest 2003 Self-Published Book Awards says: "overall commitment to a good premise/plot and an especially good opening chapter."

The scene is set as Toby Broughton, a handsome, wealthy, wheel-chair bound, New York businessman, suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder and his psychotherapist, Dr. Denise Lambert, visit a now abandoned State Institution for the Retarded. Dr. Lambert insists that Toby revisit the very setting where he had been erroneously incarcerated in his early teens following misdiagnosis of injuries suffered in a motor-vehicle accident to attempt to eliminate his disturbing flashbacks of the Institution.     

Excerpt
"How am I going to get out of this mess?" I sobbed to myself in my mind. "What if I have to spend the rest of my life in this place?" Despair flooded my features as I gave up my effort to fight the drug The Stethoscope had given me. I passed out as the drug reached my central nervous system.

"Toby, bring yourself back to the present!"

Toby Broughton felt himself return to the present with a start. He looked dazedly at Dr. Lambert who was shaking him.

"It's all right. It's fifteen years later. You're safe now." Toby stared at her with a non-believing stare.

"They left you tied down and all alone in that dungeon?"

Toby writes on his computer screen. Dr. Lambert reads the message aloud.

"All night and most of the next morning."

"Tell me how you're feeling now."

Toby writes on the screen.

"I'm fine!" Dr. Lambert stares at him with disbelief on her face.

"Never mind the bullshit. Tell me how you're really feeling."

Toby writes on the screen.

"Sweating like a pig, my heart is pounding, I'm gasping for air and my fingers are frozen to this pen."

"Take a deep breath, hold it to the count of ten. Like we practiced."

Toby inhales and holds his breath. The doctor nods.

"Will your body to relax. Will your heartbeat to slow. Think of that island your grandfather and you go to. The one with the sunshine and the warm, blue water. That's it."

Toby's breathing becomes more relaxed. After several minutes his features relax somewhat. Toby writes on his computer screen.

"It seems like yesterday." Dr. Lambert sights.

"Now you're being honest. Where's the back ward they took you to?