Book Two, Prologue: Searching
NOTE: Welcome! If you’re a follower and “missing” chapters, please go to ernieandernestina.medium.com to catch up. Also, I haven’t posted any photo of Ernie or Ernestina, which are nicknames, on medium.com or google, so any photo showing up is not a photo of either of us.
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Book One, Chapter 125: On the Periphery of Madness
It’s six o’clock in the morning, and something has kept me awake all night.
Thinking it was hunger, I ate oranges, guacamole and chips, cookies and chocolate. That didn’t work.
Thinking steamy water would ease me into sleep, I took a…
Book Two, Chapter 124: The Outpatient
After Joshua drives off from our lunch meeting, I cross Jackson Street to the university’s outpatient center and ride the elevator to the sixth floor, entering the suite where the mental-health offices are.
Jene, my cognitive-behavior therapist, opens the reception-room door to wave me…
Book Two, Chapter 123: First Breath and Last
I meet Joshua for lunch at the City Cafe. Not the one that closed last Thanksgiving, obviously. This one’s set amid a medical complex, across the street from the building where I’ll meet later this afternoon with therapist Jene.
Joshua seems edgy.
…
Book Two, Chapter 122: Invasive Me
It’s the second day of the arts fair — always the weekend before Derby — and I call Joshua to ask him to the fair.
“I spent yesterday at Churchill Downs,” he says. “This morning I met with Carrie and Jesse to pick up…
Book Two, Chapter 121: Scavenger Hunt
Wandering through my neighborhood’s annual arts fair, I hear a high little voice behind me. “Excuse me. Excuse me.”
I turn. The voice belongs to a little girl, maybe ten years old, who’s with two other little girls, one of whom leans on crutches…
Book Two, Chapter 120: Mind to Hand to Mind
Often I find myself with my hand on my cheek.
Whatever I’m thinking brings on a feeling of dismay, and that’s what my gesture reveals — dismay, bewilderment. Ernie put his hand to his cheek — sometimes a hand to each…
Book Two, Chapter 119: Rebound Mode?
Joshua found a 1965 R-60 BMW motorcycle on e-bay.
Not only found it, but bid on it and won it. But now he’s wondering whether to go through with the deal. Shipping it from Philadelphia will cost nearly six hundred dollars. …
Book Two, Chapter 118: The Second Honk
Walking back from the library, I see out of the corner of my eye a white van. I hear a honk.
I keep walking. I’m carrying six books in my left arm and a tote bag loaded with soup and eggs and jam…
Book Two, Chapter 117: Good-by to Charles Street
Joshua and I take a break from the last round of work at Charles Street to rest on the back steps and look out at the long yard. …
