Learning How to Hop…Again in Book Stores September 2011
Excerpt from book:
Staring out the window, this damp, cold January morning drew ripples of goose bumps all the way up Mary’s spine. She pulled the sash tighter on her robe and slipped on her comfy old threadbare house shoes. The morning paper was scattered across the front yard and as she opened the front door, another page was lifted and turned in the blustery wind.
Bending over to pluck a page from the rain water collected on the driveway, she glimpsed a reflection of someone she does not recognize.
An annual visit to her young thirty-something gynecologist and a simple blood test the day before had confirmed it. Just as Mary was about to turn fifty she was in the beginning stages of menopause.
“Well hallelujah, isn’t that just peachy? Just when you think you’ve finished with all this female crap, there’s more,” Mary had said to her doctor after receiving the results.
At least it’s an answer to this intense heat that spreads from the middle of my back through to my chest and rises up through the top of my head; bursting out in a torrent of sweat. Why my heart begins to race as though it will explode and why I feel like I am going to self-combust – right here – right now! All I want to do is rip this damn hot little tissue paper gown off and stick my head under the faucet.
As she walked over to the sink, Mary caught a glimpse of herself in the mirror, and the doctor standing against the wall clutching a clipboard to her chest. Mary’s face was beat red and as she snapped out of her crazed hormonal moment, she realized that she’d been saying all of this out loud because the look on her doctor’s face was one of sheer terror as she slowly backed out of the room.
Embarrassed, sweaty and about to cry, Mary got dressed and tried to pull herself together. Her hair was drenched, mascara smeared, and her clothes were sticking to her body like a cellophane candy wrapper sticks to a piece of wet candy. As she opened the door, the doctor and her nursing staff were quietly standing there, avoiding any and all eye contact, and as Mary turned to walk down the hall, the doctor gently placed a business card in her hand. She told Mary that she would call with the results of her pap smear. Somehow she managed a smile, through her tears, shoved the business card in her pocket, and anxiously pushed the elevator button ten times.
Mary rushed through the door when it opened, bumping into a man coming out, who took one look and immediately saw that it wasn’t the time for a confrontation. Once inside, she pulled the card from her pocket and saw that it was for a women’s anger management help group. Tiny bits of wet paper fell to the floor as the elevator door opened; the flood gates poured and Mary sloshed to her car.
© 2010-2011 Kalön Women™ All rights reserved
The contents of this page cannot be reproduced without the written permission of Kalon Women
