Mary Kane

Elizabeth sat on her sofa, legs crossed, holding a pen and a notebook she had placed upon her lap. She was having a counseling session with a client and constantly scribbled down important points from the answers the client was giving her.

From time to time, she would look up at the woman and interrupt her with additional questions.

"Wait, so are you saying that this is something you can't change?" she asked, observing the woman with attention.

"Believe me, if I haven't tried everything, I wouldn't be sitting here." Her name was Penny Rodriguez, 35, a good look woman with a face battered by so much beating. And she had a swollen jaw.Elizabeth wasn't impressed by the sight of the woman. Feeling so much pity for the bruised woman, she wanted to do something to help.

But she couldn't suggest that the woman leave her husband before she eventually ended up dead through so much beating. She knew from experience that most of the women when asked if they were willing to end the relationship, always got up and left her studio.

"Everything?" Penny looked thoughtfully at Elizabeth before she opened her mouth and mumbled a few words.

" I guess I have. I mean, I told him to seek counseling."

"And you think that would help?"

"It's a good starting point don't you think?" Elizabeth nodded.

"So tell me, Dr. Farrell, why must I as young and as good looking as I am, go through all of this? I mean, it wasn't like this in the beginning."

"Something has changed, right?" Elizabeth asked.

"I suppose everything." Penny struggled to hold back the tears that had started rolling down her eyes. Elizabeth tries to console her by giving her the silence she thought she needed to pour out her emotions through the tears she was wiping with the back of her hands

"Here take this. " Elizabeth offered Penny a box of tissue paper. But as she got up and stretches out her hands to give Penny the tissue paper, Penny made a delicate sniffing sound but gestured Elizabeth to stop.

"I'm alright Miss Farrell." Elizabeth withdrew and sat back on her chair again.

"How do you feel now, Penny?" Elizabeth offered a smile that she hoped would be comforting enough for them to continue the session.

Penny didn't answer the question. Instead she focused her mind on the very moment she and her husband of ten years started their relationship.

"I feel like I'm a failure." She replied, with head bent and her hair clearly covering her face.

"You have given up is that what you are saying?"

"I think so."

"Because of the violence?" Penny looked up at Elizabeth and slowly nodded.

"Penny, can you remember if the violence started when he went out and came back home, say, one night? Can you remember if it was caused by something you may have said?"

Elizabeth put her hands to her chin and stared at Penny. She noticed Penny was concentrated on rubbing her hands while thinking.

"Penny?"

"No, I don't have any idea what provoked it. I only know he shouted at me one afternoon."

"Fine, and how did you feel then?"

"I mean, of course it was the first time. I was shocked, but we later talked about it and he apologized."

"An apology is good, isn't it?"

"It was, but then he became uncontrollable." Penny bent her head giving Elizabeth the impression there was more to her story than what she was telling her.

"Penny? If there's more to the story why not get it off your chest?" Penny sighed and got up.

"I'm not sure I can say anything right now." She said, getting up and walking up to the door. Elizabeth stood up and went to the door just when Penny was about to open it.

"We have two more sessions. I'd be delighted to help you."

"Yes I know that. As long as you're making money off of me." She replied rudely.

"Well I have to put food on the table, don't you think?" Elizabeth asked. Penny gave her an intense momentary stare before leaving.

"See you, Penny." Elizabeth waved at Penny who only ignored her and walked away. Elizabeth sighed as she closed the door. She then went back to sitting down again. Taking the note she had jotted down, she went back to reading it again.

But halfway through reading the notes, she was interrupted by an almost faint knock on the door. She looked up at the door. It was slightly open prompting her to get up and see who it was.

On reaching the door she opened it wide only to see a woman of slender appearance in her fifties and dressed elegantly smiling at her in a manner she had never seen before.

"Elizabeth Farrell?" Elizabeth observed the woman standing before her.

"Do I know you?"

"Mildred Walker. I had trouble finding this place." Mildred stretched out her right hand to shake Elizabeth. Seeing her do that with a warm and encouraging smile, made Elizabeth feel relaxed. She held out her hand to shake Mildred.

"Does it have an address?" she asked. Elizabeth looked at the woman and nodded as they shook hands.

"It's the same question everyone who comes here asks." Elizabeth replied, allowing the woman to come inside. She closed the door the minute the woman entered.

The woman stood and looked around the small studio Elizabeth used for her counseling sessions. It didn't impress her as a studio. She sighed as she looked around.

"Is this place meant to be a studio?" Elizabeth nodded and then coughed when Mildred asked her that question.

"Not much of a space, I guess." Mildred kept looking around while Elizabeth took the time to look at her properly.

"And it looks stuffy." Mildred glared at Elizabeth as her face lighted up a smile that was meant to show friendliness.

"People can still find inspiration here, don't you think?" Elizabeth finally asked, seeing the comments she was making.

"You should think better than this, Miss. Farrell. But maybe you are not the ambitious type."

"Having a place you call your own, isn't that considered ambitious enough?"

"Oh yes, with all those mortgage payments that slice into your paycheck leaving you with barely enough to eat. How much of a life is that, Elizabeth?"

Elizabeth stared thoughtfully at the woman standing opposite her. Nothing impressed her about the woman, and she was beginning to feel that the woman was quite arrogant.

"I don't understand, Miss? Walker, right?"

"Mrs. Walker."

"Thank you for correcting me." The radiant smile on the face of the woman surprised Elizabeth who only hoped she had come because she needed counseling.

"Please Mrs. Walker come over and have a seat. The last client just left." She pointed to the chair where Penny had sat down on.

"Oh finally, you remembered the fine art of hospitality?"

"I beg your pardon?" Elizabeth asked, as they both sat down.

"A first time visitor should have a warm reception which in my case took quite a long time for you to consider."

"Fine Mrs. Walker, since you think that way, might I suggest you go to a more favorable place much more in line with your taste?" Mildred cast an unfriendly look at Elizabeth. She felt insulted by the words Elizabeth had openly told her and decide to challenge it.

"Miss Farrell I do see ineptitude in the attention your clients receive from you. And I take it, it has to do with the very lack of experience you portray. It's much like what you find out there every...,"

"Every single day? I mean is that what you were going to say?" Elizabeth cut in. She shook her head to show her disapproval of the manner in which Mildred addressed her.

"Mrs. Walker as much as you believe in you having more experience than I have, I do have a right to be respected for what I am trying to do to change the lives of others."

Mildred moved in her chair while giving off a laugh that filled the room.

"Miss Farrell how much are you doing to help the people who come here?"

"I've done quite a lot should you choose to believe it or not."

"And you think they go home satisfied and can finally sleep well at night?" Elizabeth was getting a little upset with Mildred. She rolled her eyes as she was beginning to get nervous. Mildred notices it and tells her.

"No need to get all nervous. I know my words offend you. But, sorry you just have to absorb it."

"Yes, they do make me nervous. And should you continue, I shall have to kindly ask you to leave." She got up and with arms folded looked defiantly at Mildred. Noticing the menace in Elizabeth's stare, made Mildred only smile.

"I've had to endure more madness at the hands of the people closest to me. And you, Elizabeth are having trouble supporting such simple provocation as mine." Elizabeth breathed hard and laughed.

She then sat down again and with legs crossed stares directly into Mildred's eye.

"Mrs. Walker, I'm neither a close relative nor anyone who has put you through the hardship you've had to endure. Get even with those people not me."

"Yes, I knew you would say that and you are perfectly right. But when the same people are not around you anymore, what do you do?"

"That's your problem, Mrs. Walker not mine, is it?"

"No offense, Miss Farrell, but we are women. In the hands of some men, especially the ones we love we seem powerless to do anything. We can only hope they change."

Instantly the words of Penny gripped Elizabeth hard as she realized that Penny was struggling to change something which had got out of control.

One look at Mildred and she knew the woman had come with a bag of problems the size and probably more conspicuous than that of most of her other clients.

"You of all women being so powerless?" Mildred could only smile to cover up the fact that she wasn't as strong as she appeared to be. Elizabeth realized this and smiled back.

"Mrs. Walker? You can't keep pretending forever, if that's what you've been doing."

"Does that bother you?" Elizabeth nodded.

"It goes to show you are not ambitious enough." Mildred laughed while Elizabeth looked at her. Then when she stopped laughing she gave Elizabeth a menacing stare.

It was a long and frightening stare that made Elizabeth stand up and get some water to drink. When she came back to sit down again, Mildred still wore the menace on her face.

"Elizabeth, I want to believe that as women we can do something to change a situation that seems to have defied solutions."

"I don't understand."

"We have to right the wrongs that we've suffered at the hands of the men that we loved over the years. The same men who took our love for granted."

"Mrs. Walker you are talking vendetta-seeking justice your own way."

"Call it whatever you may. I should at least have the satisfaction of seeing a man suffer at the hands of a woman."

"And what do you have in mind?" Elizabeth asked, wondering what Mildred was up to. Mildred opened her handbag and brought out an envelop. She handed the envelope over to Elizabeth.

" Here, Miss. Farrell." She said, as she handed over the envelope.

"What's this?" Elizabeth saw the thickness of the yellow envelope Mildred was asking her to take.

"Well take a look." Mildred told her as she still held the envelop in her hand. Elizabeth took the envelope and opens it. Her eyes widen when she saw the amount of money that was inside.

"Wow, it's a lot of money, Mrs. Walker."

"Yes it is and very useful."

"For what purpose, if I may ask?" Mildred took a deep breath and looked Elizabeth in the eyes. She was sure what she was about to tell Elizabeth would shock Elizabeth. But she had to say it.

"I want to right a few wrongs, Miss. Farrell."

"Vendetta?" Mildred smiled.

"I just want to have some satisfaction, that's all."

"And you want to spend money to have that satisfaction?" Mildred nodded.

"Money can buy a lot of things, right?" Elizabeth held out her hand to give back the money to Mildred. But Mildred refuses to take it back.

"No, Miss. Farrell...,"

"Mrs. Walker, this is a lot of money to throw away like that. I can't accept it." Elizabeth cut in. Mildred got up and carries her handbag and headed for the front door. Elizabeth watched as she opened the door.

"Elizabeth, help me find someone who can do a little justice. Precisely speaking, a woman. You'll find a list inside the envelope. That's a list of new clients I've recommended. All of them are women." She smiled at Elizabeth and walked out leaving Elizabeth worried.