ERNIE AND ERNESTINA: The Writer, His Wife, and their Afterlife

Book One, Part Two, Chapter 96: Resistance

I’m at my second session with Judith, the kind therapist. I know she’s kind because she’s charging me the lowest amount — fifteen dollars on her sliding scale — for the hour I’m with her.

“Tell me about your mother and father,” she says.

“I don’t want to talk about my mother and father. I want to talk about Ernie and me.”

At session’s end, she lends me a book. “Perhaps this will help you,” she says. “It’s helped me.”

I scan its pages. Short entries on grieving a husband, written by famous and not-so-famous women. Yes, perhaps it will help me.

When I leave, I don’t schedule another appointment with Judith. I can see that she and I aren’t exactly on the same page.