He poured me some water out of a thermos flask. It was so cold it hurt. I lay back and rested, like I’d climbed a cliff. I said, ‘I can’t take anything like that again.’
‘You want to call it quits for today?’
‘What about you?’
‘I’ll go on as long as you want me to.’
I thought about it.’ I’d like to go on, but I don’t want no thumping around. Not for a while yet.”
‘If you want another of those inaccurate analogies,’ Stern said, ‘psychiatry is like a road map. There are always a lot of different ways to get from one place to another place.’
I’ll go around by the long way,’ I told him. ‘The eight-lane highway. Not that track over the hill. My clutch is slipping. Where do I turn off?’
He chuckled. I liked the sound of it. ‘Just past that gravel driveway.’
‘I been there. There’s a bridge washed out.’
‘You’ve been on this whole road before,’ he told me. ‘Start at the other side of the bridge.’