Page 7 of The Sandbar saga

"Do you miss your mom?"

She looked at him. He was asking a lot of questions.

"Why is my mom making you talk to me?" she asked.

"I hope we can have an honest doctor-patient relationship. To show you that I'm willing, I'll tell you the truth about why your mom wants me to see you." He stood and walked over to the door, shutting her in the room. "Your teachers in the last few years have mentioned you've regressed socially in your relationships with your peers at school and withdrawn from participating in your education. It's been suggested to your mother that counseling will make you more comfortable around others and relieve some of the worries that might be bothering you."

He returned to his chair. Her stomach cramped in an angry ball. She never got in trouble at school. She got good grades, studied for tests, and last year, she even received an award for having excellent attendance during a school assembly for never missing a day in the sixth grade.

"What's regressed mean?" she asked.

"To go backward." His mouth softened. "They're concerned because in the last four years you've become withdrawn. You don't play with the other kids, don't volunteer answers in class discussions, and seem unhappy. The normal things that make a child your age happy don't seem to bring any joy to you."

Whoever said that about her was stupid. Couldn't they leave her alone? It was probably that dumb boy Reggie who always tried to cut in line in front of her and always complained to the teacher about everything.

"You're angry." Dr. Conner crossed his legs and studied her. "Can you tell me why that upsets you?"

"I'm not."

"Are you excited to go into the seventh grade?" he asked.

He probably wanted to hear how she couldn't wait for a new school year to start. She shrugged. It meant nothing to her. Nothing would change.

"Do you ride a bike?" he asked.

She glanced at him. Everything she said was being reported back to her mom and the school.

Taking back how she thought he was a nice man when he convinced her mom to let her stay by herself over the summer, she crossed her arms. The bulky material of the bra on the front of her chest slipped over her boobs and bunched at the top of her shirt.

She pinched the middle of the bra and pulled it down, leaving her hands in her lap. "I want to go to my room."

"Our appointment lasts an hour." Dr. Conner tilted his head. "If you don't want to talk about school or your mom, why don't you tell me what you like to do?"

She rolled her eyes. Dr. Conner reminded her of the school counselor, asking her a hundred questions when she came back to school after her father had died. Not talking got her out of going to the school office once a day and put her back in the classroom. She never had to return to the counselor.

Good behavior gets rewards.There was a sign in the counselor's office with that saying.

Dr. Conner would see that there was nothing wrong with her.

"I asked you about riding a bike, because of how Sherwood Community has a bike path through the many streets on the hillside and makes a big circle. I see many people riding, walking, and jogging every day. Your house is right next to it, too." He picked up a flat, leather book and put it on his lap. "About two hundred feet from your house, there's a small stream. This morning while I was jogging, there was a mother deer and two of her fawns. Have you ever seen deer in your backyard?"

She pressed her lips together to keep from asking about the babies. Almost every morning, a deer munched off the plum tree in the backyard. She wanted to know if that was the mother deer but refused to ask.

She'd never walked out of sight of her house before and had no idea how long it would take to walk two-hundred feet.

"Maybe while you have time this summer, you can check out the path. It's a good one to ride your bike...if you have one," said Dr. Conner.

Noticing her shoe had come untied, she bent over and tied the lace. Her bike was too small. It was the one that had training wheels that her father removed when she learned to ride a two-wheeler. A long time ago, before everything had changed, the nannies used to take her on the path. But, they'd made her ride back and forth along the back of the property.

She would ask Ms. Gray how far it was to the stream when she came to spend the night at the house.

"I'm going to give you homework." Dr. Conner opened the flat book on his lap. Inside was a yellow notepad like her father used to use when he was a lawyer. "When I come back on Friday, I want you to think of one thing you enjoyed doing when you were younger. If you can tell me, I'll have a reward for you."

But what if she refused to do the homework? She stared at her hands. Maybe he'd stop coming. Maybe he'd punish her. Maybe he'd tell her mom, and she'd rehire Ms. Gray to watch her all day long.