Softly Awaken

 

 

Chapter Two

 

*****

Reckless words pierce like a sword,

But the tongue of the wise brings healing

                       Prov. 12:17

*****

 

Luka entered the large gym.  The walls were a dull grey and the floors a putrid green.  In the far-left corner, there was a group of three men huddled around a table with an orange cooler and coffeepot.  “Excuse me?” Luka called out.

 

An older gentleman dressed in plaid turned and acknowledged the cautious doctor.  “Yes, how can I help you?  I’m Derek.”  The man held out his hand.

 

Luka accepted his welcome.  “Uh, I was wondering if I could talk to someone who’s in charge?”

 

Derek motioned to a group of empty chairs that sat at the other end of the gym.  “What can I do for you?  Our next meeting is in an hour,” he informed Luka.

 

Luka shook his head.  “Uh, no.  Um, I’m just wondering how I can help a friend.  She’s an alcoholic.”

 

Derek shook his head.  “There’s really not anything you can do.  It’s their choice.  They are the only one’s who can help themselves…Mr.?”

 

“Luka,” he sputtered.  “You can call me Luka.”

 

Luka sighed and rubbed the overnight stubble that shadowed his chiseled jaw.  “There must be something?  I heard of something called an …intervention?”

 

Derek nodded.  “In some cases an intervention can work.  Does her family and friends agree with you?  Will they join in on the confrontation?” Derek inquired.

 

Luka didn’t know.  He hadn’t thought that far ahead.  All he knew was that he had to do something.  “Not really.  Her family doesn’t live here and she doesn’t really have close friends.  Does it matter that Abby knows she’s an alcoholic and she’s gone to AA?” Luka asked.

 

Derek sighed.  “Oh.  I don’t know.  It depends on the person.  With Abby it sounds like she’s in denial again.  It’s kind of hard.  Sometimes when they’ve been dry for so long, the alcoholic believes that they can handle it.  And the intervention?  I don’t know, it’s kind of hard to have an intervention with just you and me.”

 

Licking his lips, Luka closed his eyes and sighed.  “Then I don’t know.  Let me ask you, can an alcoholic just take one or two drinks?”

 

The AA sponsor wagged his head knowingly.  “I see,” he grimaced.  “There are people who have a stronger sense of will than others.  Some alcoholics can take one drink and be fine, but somewhere down the road something always happens and that one just becomes another and another.  That’s why AA drives into the alcoholics that come here that it’s a disease.  They know that as much as they’d like to think they’re normal and can handle it, it’s not up to them.  They are eventually controlled by their overwhelming desire for the alcohol.  Obviously, Abby’s forgotten that!”

 

Luka couldn’t believe he’d never thought about alcoholism in that way.  In his own mind, Luka believed Abby was strong enough, when he’d finally found out she was an alcoholic.  IN Croatia, they didn’t have time to label things like this.  They had greater worries.  But he wasn’t in Croatia anymore and Abby did have a problem with alcohol. N “I think I could find two other people to come.  Would you do it then?”

 

Derek stood up.  “I would have done it with just you Luka, I just think it’s better if it’s more than just you,” Derek stated.  “So here’s my card.”

 

Luka accepted the 2 x 3.5” card.  Derek Shannon.

 

“I want to go over a couple of things before this intervention happens,” Derek smiled and shook his hand.

 

~~~

 

The water felt good on her face.  After she slipped into her bathrobe, Abby padded into her kitchen and opened the fridge.  Left over boxes of Chinese food, and a couple of sodas.  ‘Oh,” Abby sighed.

 

John had left his beer at her apartment.  There were two left.  Abby closed the door.  No, I shouldn’t.  She pulled the collar of her bathrobe up around her chin as she debated whether she should or shouldn’t. 

 

Hadn’t Abby proven to herself and the unknowing Luka that she could drink without getting drunk?

 

Abby re-opened the door and twisted the cap off the bottle.  After taking a swig, Abby savored the cool liquid as it trickled down her throat.  She was in control.  Just as she controlled her choices, Abby was in control of her need for beer.  Wasn’t she?

 

Changes had forced Abby to make adjustments in her life.  Looking back on the choices she’d made, Abby felt confident of herself.  She had a great boyfriend, a good job.   She’d made the right changes and choices.

 

But still, her encounter with Joyce and her boyfriend Brian still left her doubting.  How could she have let herself get beaten like that?  Should she have even tried to help that woman?  After that, Abby had needed a drink.  She didn’t drink right after the incident, so as to know that she was in control.  But a few days after the beatings, Abby had taken a drink.

 

When Abby drank those beers, she willfully defied the voice in her head that haunted her.  She would show Brian and herself that she was stronger than she appeared.

 

Abby was in control.

 

~~~

 

John unlocked the door to Gamma’s house.  Jing Mei’s comments had stung.  How could she say those things?  John didn’t understand why Jing Mei seemed so negative about Abby.

 

“John?” Gamma called.

 

John slung his bag and coat onto a near by chair.  “Yeah Gamma!  It’s me!” he answered, searching the downstairs rooms for his grandmother.  “Where are you?"

 

“I’m in the kitchen dear!” Gamma replied.

 

As he peered around the corner, John’s gaze settled upon a delicate woman wearing a floppy garden hat that hid her face.  “Gamma!” John greeted his grandmother with a kiss.  “Doing some gardening?”

 

The older matriarch studied her grandson.  “Where were you last night?  I was beside myself when you didn’t come home,” Gamma chided.

 

“Gamma!” John blushed.  “I’m almost 30!  Do I really need to check in with you when I’m not coming home?”

 

Gamma looked irritably at John.  “When you are living at your own house and pay the bills and taxes that come with it I will stop nagging.  But while you’re living under my roof and have a grandmother who loves you and expects you to come home at night…yes, you will at least have the decency to phone home!”

 

John’s head bobbed, feigning some attention to the lecture.  “Yes Gamma!” he laughed.

 

Suddenly John felt her hand press lightly on his shoulder.  “Don’t patronize me John Truman Carter.  Have the consideration to phone someone.  Stop thinking about yourself and your needs and grow up.  You need to think of others once and a while,” Gamma admonished.  “I’d think as a successful doctor you’d realize that!”

 

~~~

 

After John’s conversation with Gamma, John felt worse for wear.  Abby was fine…wasn’t she?  He’d been with Abby practically 24/7since they’d become an item.  John hadn’t seen her drink, even when he, himself, had the occasional beer.

 

Luka was jealous and that was just it.  John wasn’t being selfish, he knew Abby.  That was all.  And Jing Mei…Deb…well, he didn’t know what her problem was, but that wasn’t his problem.  He and Abby were happy.  They knew each other.  It wasn’t a one-night stand like the others.  This was the woman he was in love with.