“Are you worried?” the woman asked.
“Worried? No. Fuck that. Why should I be worried? I’m not worried. I never worry. I’m young,” the young man said.
“It’s okay to worry, you know.”
“I’m not worried, okay? I’m young. Saul’s young. I’m not worried.”
The room was still and decorated for ten years prior.
“Are you scared?” the woman asked.
“Terrified,” the young man said.
“Do you want to talk about it?”
“No I’m not fucking terrified. I wake up tomorrow and it’s different, it’s different. And that’s just the way it is. I wake up tomorrow and it’s the same, it’s the same. What have I got to be scared about? It’s not my conscious that will have trouble sleeping tonight.”
“You don’t need to be in control of the situation,” the woman said. “It’s okay to let go.”
“I’m sitting on a lime green chair. Do I look like I’m in control?”
The woman kept her hands steady on her lap, turning only her head toward the young man, “You look like your trying to be.”
The young man sat in the lime green chair and tried to look like he was not trying to be in control. There was a beeping in the hallway and if the young man concentrated hard enough, he could hear the buzz of the overhead lights.
“I’m not using the bathtub for a while, that’s for sure,” the young man said.
“Why not?” the woman asked.
“What do you mean why not?”
“I mean why not? What are your reasons for not wanting to use the bathtub?”
“Fuck it… No. No, don’t fuck it. Remember the lot across from Gram’s house where we used to play wiffle ball after school? I got the ball stuck up on the roof once. I was, like, I dunno, seven at the time. And Saul shimmies up the drainpipe, climbs onto the roof and tosses the ball down. I saw him up there, the sun behind him, I could barely see him but I saw him, the outline of some figure up on the roof. That’s why I can’t use the bathtub for a while.”
They both sat, the young man slumped further in his chair. The woman crossed the other leg on top and watched the people walk by quickly.
“I still don’t know why you don’t want to use the bathtub.”
“Fuck it.”
“No tell me.”
“Could you just stop?”
They waited.
