The Silver Linings Playbook Chapter 16

The Best Therapist in the Entire dwellledge baseThe Monday morning quantify subsequently the Eagles beat the Texans, a funny liaison happens. Im doing almost initial stretching in the basement, when my arrest comes down for the first time since I take a leak been home.Pat? he says.I stop stretching, contain up, and face him. Hes on the last step, stopped as if he is unnerved to set a foot down on my territory. soda water?You for sure got a lot of equipment down here.I dont say anything, because I get laid he is probably mad at my m otherwise for buying me a gym.Theres pretty good Eagles c eachplaceage in the papers today, he says, and consequently(prenominal) extends the sports sections of the Courier-Post and The Philadelphia Inquirer to me. I got up early and immerseed directing both so that you could keep up with the team. By your comments yesterday during the game, I could regularize you dont have intercourse only of the players, and I thought maybe youd l ike to catch along this season now that youre home and well, Ill just put across them on the top step from now on.Im too shocked to speak or move, because my father has taken the sports pages with him to work ever since Jake and I were bitty kids. Jake employ to fight with Dad all the time somewhat this, asking him to at least bring home the sports sections after work so we could read the articles after we finished our homework. But Dad always left with the papers originally we were place of bed, and he never brought the sports sections home for us ever, reflection he forgot or lost them at work. Jake finally subscribed himself when he got his first job stocking shelves at the local Big Foods, and this was when we started reading the cursory sports pages together every morning before school. He was twelve I was thirteen.I do three hundred sit-ups on the Stomach overcome 6000 before I allow myself to pick up the paper from the seam step. As my stomach muscles crunch and b urn, I worry that my father is tho playing a mean trick on me and that the papers result be the entertainment or food sections, but when I finish the sit-ups and make my way to the steps, I see that Dad really did leave me the sports sections of both papers.When it is time for me to take my a.m. pills, I find my mom in the kitchen cooking eggs. My plate is set at the breakfast bar, and my five morning pills ar laid out in a line on a napkin.Look, I say, and hold up what my father gave me.Sports pages, eh? mum says over the sound of frying eggs.Yeah. I sit down and pop all five pills into my mouth, trying to decide how many I will unsay today. But why?Mom scrapes the eggs from the pan and onto my plate with her spatula. She smiles and says, Your father is trying, Pat. But I wouldnt ask too many questions if I were you. recognise what he gives you and be happy thats what we do, right?She smiles at me hopefully, and right then I decide to swallow all five pills, so I take a sip of water and do just that. every(prenominal) day that week, I hear the basement door open and close, and when I check the top step, I find the sports sections, which I read from get through to cover while I eat breakfast with Mom.The big countersign is the upcoming Giants game, which everyone thinks will be the key to winning the NFC East, especially since the Giants confuse already lost to the Indianapolis Colts in game one. A handout will put them at 0 2 and the Eagles at 2 0. The game is being hyped as a big one, and I have a ticket, thanks to Jake, which makes me really sick. Each night, I wait for my soda water to come home from work, hoping he might want to chatter some the upcoming game with me so I can use the occurrent players names and prove to him that I am a real rooter again but he always takes his dinner into his study and locks the door. A few times I actually go to his study and launch a fist to knock, but I chicken out every night. Mom says, Give him time.Sitting in the brown recliner, I talk about my dad with Dr. Cliff during my Friday ap show upment. I tell him how Dad is difference me the sports sections now, and how I know this is a huge deal for Dad, but I wish he would talk to me more. Cliff listens, but says little about my father. Instead he keeps bringing up Tiffany, which is sort of annoying because she has only been following me when I run, and thats about it.Your mother says you are going to the edge with Tiffany tomorrow, Cliff says, and then smiles like men sometimes do when they are talking about women and sex.Im going with Ronnie and Veronica and baby Emily too. The alone point is to take Emily to the beach because she did not get to go much this spend and it will be cold soon. Little kids love the beach, Cliff.Are you excited about going?Sure. I guess. I mean, Ill have to get up super early to get a good workout in and finish when we come home, but What about seeing Tiffany in a bathing suit?I blink several times before I grasp what he has said to me.You said before that she has a nice body, Cliff adds. Are you looking forward to seeing it? peradventure she will wear a bikini. What do you think?I impression mad for a second because my therapist is sort of being flip but then I realize Cliff is testing my ethics again, making sure I am fit to be out of the mental institution, so I smile, nod, and say, Cliff, Im married, remember?He nods back wisely and winks, making me feel like I passed the test.We talk a little more about how I made it through a whole week without having an episode, which is evidence that the drugs are working, according to Cliff because he doesnt know I spit at least half of the pills into the toilet and when it is time for me to go, Cliff says, I just have one more thing to say to you.What?He shocks me by jumping to his feet, throwing both hand in the air, and yelling AhhhhhhhhhhhhhhSo I jump to my feet, throw both hands in the air, and yell Ahhhhhhhhhhh t oo.E-A-G-L-E-S EAGLES we chant in unison, spelling the garner with our arms and legs, and suddenly I am so happy.Cliff predicts a 21 14 Eagles victory as he liberty chits me out of his office, and after I agree with his prognosis, we enter the waiting room and my mother says, Were you devil just doing the Eagles chant?Cliff raises his eyebrows and shrugs his shoulders at my mother, but when he turns to walk back into his office, he begins whistling Fly, Eagles, Fly, at which point I know that I am seeing the best therapist in the complete world.On the drive home, my mother asks me if Cliff and I talked about anything other than Eagles football during the therapy session, and instead of answering her question, I say, Do you think that Dad will start talking to me at night if the Eagles beat the Giants?Mom frowns, grips the steering wheel a little harder. The sad reality is he might, Pat. He really might, she says, and I start to get my hopes up.