American Chordata: Magazine of New Writing Issue One, Spring 2015 | Page 126

108
FICTION

reds and they would change to let her through. Jack knew how to
do it, too. So many nights when he had driven me home, he had
made a game of it.
“I deal with unhappiness all day long,” Mrs. Larkin said, cutting
through the silence. “Sometimes I can fix the problem using surface-level suggestions. Where we live is really terrible for health,
and people don’t see it. I say, ‘Perhaps you would feel better if you
didn’t sit at a desk for eight hours a day, and two hours in traffic.
Perhaps you would feel better if you stopped eating meals on-the-go:
too many carbs and trans fats.’ But sometimes that doesn’t work,
and I realize that maybe the client doesn’t feel well due to depression. Problems at home, lack of self-confidence—the disparaging
things that people tell themselves—a barrage of daily insults that
work horrors on the immune system. What you went through was
really hard. You must have so many questions. Why did this happen
to me? Will I still look like me? You might even feel depressed
because of poor nut &