The Empty Chair

Involuntarily she sat back, as if he knew she was there even though he couldn’t possibly see her.
    “Go on,” the doctor encouraged.
    The boy turned back to Dr. Penny. “Okay. I guess I’d say I’m glad she’s safe.”
    The doctor beamed. “Good, Garrett. Let’s start there. Tell her that you saved her. Tell her why.” Nodding to the chair.
    Garrett looked uneasily at the empty chair. He began, “She was in Blackwater Landing and—”
    “No, remember you’re talking to Mary Beth. Pretend she’s sitting there in the chair.”
    He cleared his throat. “You were in Blackwater Landing. It was, like, really, really dangerous. People get hurt in Blackwater Landing, people get killed there. I was worried about you. I didn’t want the man in the overalls to hurt you too.”
    “The man in the overalls?” the doctor asked.
    “The one who killed Billy.”
    The doctor looked past Garrett to the lawyer, who was shaking his head.
    Dr. Penny asked, “Garrett, you know, even if you did save Mary Beth she might think she did something to make you mad.”
    “Mad? She didn’t do anything to make me mad.”
    “Well, you took her away from her family.”
    “I took her away to make sure she’s safe.” He remembered the rules of the game and looked back to the chair. “I took you away to make sure you were safe.”
    “I can’t help but think,” the doctor continued softly, “that there’s something else you want to say. I sensed that earlier—that there’s something pretty important to say but you don’t want to.”
    Sachs too had seen this in the boy’s face. His eyes were troubled but he was intrigued with the doctor’s game. What was going through his mind? There was something he wanted to say. What was it?
    Garrett looked down at his long, grimy fingernails. “Well, maybe there is something.”
    “Go on.”
    “This is . . . it’s kinda hard.”
    Cal Fredericks was sitting forward, pen held over a pad of paper.
    Dr. Penny said softly, “Let’s set the scene. . . . Mary Beth’s right there. She’s waiting. She wants you to say it.”
    Garrett asked, “She does? You think so?”
    “I do,” the doctor reassured him. “Do you want to tell her something about where she is now? Where you took her? What it’s like? Maybe why you took her to that particular place?”
    “No,” Garrett said. “I don’t want to say anything about that.”
    “Then what do you want to say?”
    “I . . .” His voice faded. His nails clicked.
    “I know it’s difficult.”
    Sachs too was sitting forward in her chair. Come on, she found herself thinking, come on, Garrett. We want to help you. Meet us halfway.
    Dr. Penny continued, his voice hypnotic. “Go ahead, Garrett. There’s Mary Beth right there in the chair. She’s waiting. She’s wondering what you’re going to say. Talk to her.” The doctor pushed the soft drink closer to Garrett and he took several long drinks, the cuffs ringing against the can as he lifted it with both hands. After this momentary break the doctor continued. “What is there that you really want to say to her? That one important thing? I can see that you want to say it. I can see that you need to say it. And I think that she needs to hear it.”
    The doctor pushed the empty chair closer. “There she is, Garrett, sitting there right in front of you, looking at you. What’s that one thing you’d say to her that you haven’t been able to? Now’s your chance. Go ahead.”
    Another swallow of Coke. Sachs noticed that the boy’s hands were shaking. What was coming? she wondered. What was he about to say?
    Suddenly, startling both the men in the room, Garrettleaned forward and blurted to the chair, “I really, really like you, Mary Beth. And . . . and I think I love you.” He took several deep breaths, clicked his fingernails a few times then gripped the arms of the chair nervously and lowered his head, his face red as sunset.
    “That’s what you wanted to say?” the doctor asked.
    Garrett nodded.
    “Anything else?”
    “Uhm, no.”
    This time it was the doctor who glanced at the lawyer and shook his head.
    “Mister,” Garrett began. “Doctor . . . I’ve, like, got this question?”
    “Go ahead, Garrett.”
    “Okay . . . there’s this book of mine I’d really like to have from my house. It’s called The Miniature World. Would that be okay?”
    “We’ll see if that can be arranged,” the doctor said. He looked past Garrett to Fredericks, who