The Blue Journal by L.T. Graham Read Free Book Online Page A

brunette named Fran Colello, was holding court on her favorite subject. “We have their children and make their homes. We cook for them, clean for them and lay on our backs for them. All for what? We’re treated like indentured servants, and in the end we get dumped on the garbage heap of life. We can’t even be recycled.”
    A couple of the women managed sympathetic laughs, but Fran responded with a dismissive wave of her hand. She was on her usual roll and didn’t see any humor in it.
    â€œI’m forty-five years old and my husband treats me like a piece of furniture. I might as well be in one of those cabinets that hold the junk we’ve collected over the years, souvenirs that no one even looks at anymore. It might not be so bad if someone took the trouble to dust me off and play with me once in a while, but no one does. My kids are old enough where they don’t need a thing from me. I haven’t had a job for more than twenty years, unless you count live-in slave as a profession. I’m about as useless as a fondue set.” She was staring at Dr. Conway now, as if, somehow, some part of this was her fault.
    Randi leaned forward in her seat. “You said ‘useless,’ Fran. Is that what you meant?”
    â€œWhat?”
    â€œYou described yourself as useless. Is that accurate?”
    Fran pushed back her straight brunette hair, revealing a plain face that would be far more appealing if she could lose the fifteen or so pounds she had picked up during those years she now regretted. Her eyes were dark and troubled, her mouth framed in lines etched by anger. “I suppose ‘useless’ is the right word,” she answered defiantly. “I said it, right?”
    They were seated in the windowless room Randi used for her groups, chrome and cane armchairs forming a circle, cool fluorescent lighting, and bare, eggshell colored walls creating an antiseptic space designed to generate the fewest possible distractions.
    â€œDo any of you have a response for Fran?” Randi asked.
    None of the women answered the challenge until Elizabeth Knoebel spoke up.
    As was her custom, Elizabeth came to the session intending to show off her sultry beauty to its maximum and most irritating effect. Her dark green dress featured a low, revealing neckline and the slinky fabric clung to her trim waist. Her makeup was applied with care, her auburn hair brushed perfectly in place. When she turned to Fran a thin smile crossed her lips, but her voice was as cold as the overhead lighting. “If you feel useless then you are useless.”
    Fran sat up a little straighter in her seat and said, “That’s just great, coming from you.”
    â€œWhat is that supposed to mean?”
    â€œIt means you haven’t spent a single day of your life as a real wife or mother. You don’t raise your own daughter, you send her off to school so you won’t have to be bothered with her. And you probably couldn’t find the kitchen in your own house with a map. Who the hell are you to be making judgments about my life?”
    â€œI didn’t. You made the judgment, Fran. I simply agreed.” Elizabeth’s tone was positively frigid now. “And I must say, I’m sick and tired of you taking out your pitiful frustrations on me. The fact that you got fat and out of shape is a choice you made. The fact that you don’t have a job is a choice you made. The way you’ve lived your life for the past twenty years is a choice you made. If you don’t want to hear my thoughts, don’t ask.”
    â€œI didn’t,” Fran said angrily. “She did.”
    All five women looked to Randi Conway as if she were a referee in a wrestling match.
    When Randi offered no response, Fran turned back to her antagonist. “You’re a bitch, Elizabeth, a conceited, self-centered, bitch. You come here dressed like a hooker with your red lipstick and your big tits hanging