Transparent - chapter 2

[masterofNone]

The darkness surrounded him like a cowl. The smoke from his cigarette streamed up to the rag top and filled the car's interior. It had been an odd evening's drive to Sydney's. The sky had been dramatic as the sun had set but during the twenty minute drive to the suburbs the ceiling of clouds had swept down and released a torrent. Even now the windshield was slick with the last of the rain. He sat in the parking lot of the Springfield United Methodist Church, waiting for his appointment and smoking. He always thought it ironic to visit Sydney here. Jewish by birth, Sydney had studied and mastered in psychology at Duke. He met his beautiful wife at a local Durham bar. She had been attending a nearby school in training to be a missionary for the UMC. After graduation he developed a fine practice in Boston, threw it all away to convert and become a missionary just to be with her. Reverend Sydney. What a concept. He still offered counseling through the local PC&CC organization and so Jonah was here. He glanced down at his watch. In the light from the street lamp he could see it wink over to read 6:57. His excuse for sitting in the car was to allow himself the smoking time, but in his heart he knew smoking was a justification for being anti-social. The thought of sitting in the waiting room with anyone made him literally twitchy. He snubbed out his cigarette in the MG's full ashtray, opened the door, and sauntered into the church.

Sydney, welcomed Jonah with a hug. "Smoking again are we?" he waved at his nose.

"Yes mom," Jonah said as he dropped his overcoat on the back of the couch. He went to sit down and then, thought better of it. "I... I think I'm going to pace a little tonight."

Sydney looked up with a cocked eyebrow. "Okay," He knew Jonah well enough to read the signs. Smoking, projecting his mother on him, inability to sit still. Something had him seriously agitated. And what was more, he knew Jonah knew the signals he was throwing off as well. Over the years the two had developed this shorthand to cut through the BS. "Well, let's not dwell on pleasantries, what the hell has got you so twisted up."

Jonah walked to the bookshelf. His finger traced the binding of a Melody Beattie treatise on adult children of alcoholics. "I drank the better part of a fifth of scotch last night. I've been smoking... chain smoking mostly... since we switched over to daylight savings time, or back from...

"Back from." confirmed Sydney, "yeah?"

"Jerrie and I had a thing. She's ready to move on... without me. She thinks I've already moved on, " he pulled the book away from the rest on the shelf and leafed through it absent mindedly. "Maybe she's right."

"Moved on to what, another woman?"

Jonah laughed, "Yeah I guess moving on implies a destination, huh?"

"Maybe the word she's looking for is 'retreated'? I get the sense you're pulling away, " Sydney was trying to cut to the chase but he could see he couldn't press to hard. When a patient won't commit to sitting they were saying in effect 'I'm halfway out the door'. Even Jonah could be lost. It was a thought that chilled him for a moment. Jonah looked up in time to catch that momentary wave of concern in his old friend's face. He put the book back on the shelf and thoughtfully moved to the couch. He sat and looked at Sydney for quite a while.

"I don't know, " he admitted, "but it started with this girl..."
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