The Door

“You always do that,” Amie said angrily, crossing her arms and her legs away from Paul.

Dr. Greer interjected, “Amie? What have we said in here about hyperbolic statements such as that?”

“He does always…”

“I don’t fucking do that.”

Amie threw up her arms and looked at the slightly built blonde therapist, raised her eyebrows. “It’s not hyperbole. See?”

“Paul. Would you let…”

“No. What SHE has to say is stupid.”

Amie caught Dr. Greer’s eyes and raised her eyebrows in a ‘so how do you like being interrupted? Not cool, right?’ look with a smirk on her face.

“We’ve been going around in circles for the past month,” Dr. Greer noted. “I’m going…”

“To what? Let us go as patients so you can maintain your good track record of saving marriages?” Paul spat out.

Amie again looked at the therapist and nodded. “See? No one can get out a whole sentence with him around.”

“If you weren’t such a bitch to me, I would let you talk more. Everything has a rebuttal. If I say the sky is blue, you’ll say it’s purple.”

Dr. Greer sighed at the difficult couple in front of her. Amie is too mellow with low-self-esteem and Paul is too wound up all the time. He steamrolls her and she allows it. I never see her take a stand. She tries but then ultimately backs down. “There are things we haven’t tried yet. Sometimes I find if I take myself out of the equation that it works better for the couple. If you’re interested, we can try something different. I have to warn you, Paul, that it’s successful about 85% of the time. The other 15%? Well. It’s the woman who decides to leave after the experience.”

Paul ran a hand through his thinning brown hair and said, “She would be NOTHING without me. She won’t leave.”

“Well,” Dr. Greer began, looking intently at Paul, “it’s not so much they decide to LEAVE, it’s that they decide to stay. Although when it works, it works well. Like I said, it saves 85% of the marriages that have hit a brick wall, much like yours and Amie’s has.”

Having piqued his curiosity, the talkative high-strung man in front of her simply cocked his head at her.

The shy Amie looked at Dr. Greer and asked, “What is it?”

“Well, it’s a parallel world. When you enter it, it will be the exact moment and time you met. At the end, you can see the life that you lived with each other and decide which life you like better.”   

It usually worked, both being able to see that life might be different without one another, but it was hardly ever better; simply different.

“We’ll do it,” Paul said.

Amie looked at him and frowned. “I don’t know, Paul, honey. I mean, we’ve built so much…”

“And that’s what you NEED TO SEE. How YOU couldn’t have survived without me! I GAVE you EVERYTHING!”

Dr. Greer interjected, “And you don’t think you needed Amie?”

Amie laughed. “Shit. He’d just find 10 women to do what I do for him,” she said, looking affectionately at Paul, “he’d be just fine without me. I mean, there is validity in that we wouldn’t have the life we do without his contributions to the whole thing.” 

Paul looked at Dr. Greer, nodded, and smiled cockily.

“So, what I hear, Amie, is that you appreciate what Paul has done?”

“I do. I just want more say in what happens in our lives.”

“You can always come back, Amie. It’ll be your choice to stay in a Paul-free world or come back. It sounds as if you appreciate your current life.” Dr. Greer gave Amie a girlfriend smile. “We lose some to the other reality.”

“How many men stay?” Paul asked.

“None,” Dr. Greer said. “So far at least. You could be the first.”

“But he could if wanted to?” Amie asked shyly.

“That is a chance that you would be taking.”

Amie shook her head no. “I don’t want to take that chance.”

“It’s not your choice, Amie. We need to do something. We’re always fighting now, and you’ve become impossible to deal with since menopause.”

Amie put her head down thoughtfully.

“Amie? What are you thinking?” Dr. Greer asked.

“I like our life together,” Amie started, “I have changed since menopause and I wish that he would adjust rather than trying to get me to be someone I’m not any longer.”

“WHAT ON EARTH DO YOU LIKE ABOUT IT?” Paul roared. “We’re constantly at each other or you’re sitting with your head in the computer or on your phone trying to pretend I don’t exist.”

“That’s all you, honey. I need downtime and you don’t respect that. You never have.”

“And it wasn’t a problem until you changed.”

Dr. Greer addressed Paul. “Paul, once we women go through the change, we do become less pliable. Is that what bothers you about Amie?”

Paul laughed. “She’s always been stubborn. That doesn’t bother me. What does is that she…” he said, trailing off. “She used to be better about taking my needs into consideration.”

“Is that true, Amie?”

“What he means is I used to be Edith Bunker trying to keep Archie happy, wringing my hands, keeping the house exactly as he wants it and keeping the kids problems off of him like he wasn’t their other parent,” Amie said, glaring at Paul.

Dr. Greer looked at Paul sympathetically and sighed. “She’s changed and you can’t handle the changes in her.”

“I can’t. I want the old Amie back. The one who was always patient with me. She said she wouldn’t change, and she did.”

“I never said…”

“You did,” Paul interrupted angrily, “point-blank you said, ‘I won’t change’.”

“I would never say that. People change all the time,” Amie said quietly. “What I said was that I wouldn’t leave you after menopause like so many of our older friends were doing at the time.”  

“Memory is a tricky thing,” Dr. Greer said, “and even if Amie DID say that, she’s right. I seriously doubt that either of you is exactly the 26-year-old the other met and fell in love with.”

“She doesn’t appreciate me anymore,” Paul said with his arms crossed.

“I do appreciate you,” Amie said quietly, “I just want more say in our life. I’m tired of being steamrolled by you.”

“You make bad decisions.”

“I’m not the one who took our house and re-mortgaged it to the hilt,” Amie countered with.

“Oh for fuck’s sake: Let it go, Ames.”

“I’m just saying your decision making isn’t all you think it is.”

“Do you think you could do better than me?” Paul asked angrily, his face turning red.

Amie shook her head no, brown eyes wide.

“I want to do it NOW,” Paul said, getting up from the small chair he was seated at and grabbing Amie’s hand.

The marriage therapist looked at Paul. “As I said, about 15% of the women decide to stay. You’re taking the bigger chance. I think maybe you should take a week and think about what Amie does for you and whether YOU want to take the chance of her…”

“She JUST TOLD YOU that I could get by just fine. I’ll take the odds. She’ll be nothing without me. She’ll see that and be grateful like she used to be before menopause kicked in.”

Amie looked at her husband and pulled away. “I don’t want to do this.”

“Why? You think I’ll find someone better? WE ARE doing this.”

“This is what I’m tired of. I miss the days where we could talk, and it not be some dumbass power struggle. You used to take my opinion seriously.”

“That’s before I realized that you’re stupid. If you don’t go in with me, I’ll leave and I’ll leave you with nothing.”

“California law doesn’t work that way,” Dr. Greer interjected.

Paul laughed. “They’d have to catch me first.”

Amie rolled her eyes. “He’s been threatening to do that since perimenopause. Look, if you want to do this stupid thing, go for it. I’M going home.” And with that, Amie walked out the door of the office.

“Well, Mr. Watson. Would you like to do it?”

Paul sighed. “I’ll talk some sense into her. SHE’S the one who needs to see that she needs to step back in line.”  

***

“So you’re ready?” Dr. Greer asked, seeing the reluctance on Amie’s face. It was obvious that Amie was just going along with what Paul wanted.

Amie nodded tentatively and issued a quiet, “Sure.”

They walked through the door together and both were transported back to the small stores they worked at when they met, Paul at his dad’s jewelry store and Amie next door at the salon. It was the day that they had first talked to one another.

Amie went outside to have a cigarette, and Paul joined her.

“I’m Paul,” he said, gallantly lighting Amie’s cigarette with his Bic lighter.

“Amie,” she said, accepting the light.

“Is the blonde guy who comes in your boyfriend?” he probed.

“No, it’s Linda’s boyfriend,” Amie said shyly.

Paul laughed. “That’s funny. She hasn’t mentioned a boyfriend.”

“Mm. That’s because she’s interested in getting you to, uh, ask her out,” Amie replied, one part amused and another part shy. All the women she worked with were interested in Paul. She had her money on Linda, the most sexually overt of the women. She looked at him with a sense of déjà vu and furrowed her brows.

“AMIE! COME IN! THE PHONE IS FOR YOU!”

“Nice to meet you Paul,” she said, stubbing her cigarette out and saving the half-smoked cigarette, stashing it on the windowsill of the salon.

Amie listened to her stepmother, again with that uneasy sense of déjà vu, as Carol explained that her dad had a massive heart attack and responded, “I’ll head up there. I’ll be there in a day.”

“I don’t want you to come. The doctor said if you all start surrounding him that he’ll get the idea that things are terminal, and it won’t help his recovery.”

She had a sense that not going was the wrong decision and said, “I’ll stay out of the way. I am coming up, though. I’ll see you soon,” and hung the phone up and told her boss, Julia, about her situation.

Her bleached blonde boss nodded sympathetically and gave Amie a hug. “You go. Take care of your dad. We’ll be fine here. We’ll have Dianna take care of your clients while you’re gone.”

Amie smiled in appreciation.

When Linda came into the small jewelry store the next day, Paul asked, “Where’s Amie today?”

“She went to Oregon. Her dad had a heart attack,” the redhead issued coldly, thinking what does that bitch have that I don’t? while she smiled seductively at the blonde, fit man in front of her with the intense hazel eyes. “I have two tickets to a comedy club tonight. Would you like to come?” She placed the emphasis on ‘come’ for him to get the message that sex was on the table.

Jack nodded a bit disappointed that Amie was gone. He had told his dad that he was going to marry the brunette next door and his dad had laughed at him. He agreed to go out with Linda. Hey, any time sex was on the table, and it obviously was with the sexy little redhead, he wasn’t stupid enough to take a pass. “Amie says you have a boyfriend?” he probed.

“He’s boring.” Erik was a nice guy. Too nice. It made him a boring partner. Unlike the bad boy in front of her. “I get off at the same time as you. Dinner first?”

“Sure.”

When Amie returned two weeks later, Jack lit up as he watched her park her Mustang and came out of the small store to greet her.

“How’s your dad?”

“He’s healing up still. I’m moving up there to help out.”

“What?”

“There’s a lot to do and my stepmother could use the help. I’m the only girl in the family so…” she said trailing off, her hand absently going through her shoulder length brown hair. Paul loved her hair—brown with natural streaks of red and blonde, not all dyed to some unnatural blonde or red like the rest. She had resisted the urge to follow the big-hair trend of all the other women of the 1980s and looked low-maintenance, San Diego casual.

“When will you be back?”

Amie shook her head. “I won’t. I’m transferring from Palomar College up to SWOCC. I’m only here to get my stuff.”

***

Thirty years later, they met again in front of two doors and looked at each other with recognition. Amie smiled at him. “I heard that you and Linda got married and then divorced. I was sorry to hear that.”

“I haven’t heard anything about you. You grew into a beautiful woman.”

Amie put her head down shyly.

His life after Linda consisted of several live-in girlfriends who, after 6 months or so had left, much like Linda had with their two sons, exasperated by his behavior and unwillingness to change. “How did your life turn out? I would imagine some lucky man is at your side now.”

“No, I never married,” Amie said, “I was too busy with other things.”

“Which are?”

“I’m a professor of micro-biology at Oregon State and I work on the weekends with a non-profit that is working on the homeless issue in Eugene. We provide food and support to those who need it.”

“No kids?”

“I never wanted kids. You and Linda had two sons, right? They must be adults now.”

“They’re 24 and 28. Do you have any idea what happened? I was in my house watching TV and landed here suddenly.”

“I was out hiking with friends. I have no idea.”

He was about to ask Amie out when two helmets appeared with the instructions to place them on their heads, which they both did. Both saw their entire other life, one that apparently happened in a parallel time. Amie was giggling as she saw their lives together as a couple. When the show was finished, she laughed loudly. “Wow. We were a big mistake. Aren’t you glad you dodged THAT bullet?”

Paul examined her. “I don’t know. It looked pretty good to me. Our sons obviously adore you.”

She scrunched her face up and looked amused at Paul.

Two doors appeared in front of them. One said TOGETHER; the other APART. “Let’s go back home, Amie. We had a good thing.”

Amie shook her head no. “You’re obviously a good man. There’s someone out there for you, but it isn’t me. I might have been back in the day. I mean, we did have good times, apparently, but…” she said trailing off. “I’m very content with my life. It might not have been apparent to you, but it was crystal clear to me. I can’t live that kind of life. I need an equal, not someone who sees themselves as above me and you obviously did. Every man I’ve been with has thought themselves to be above me. Take care, Paul. I hope you find what you’re looking for.”

Dr. Greer watched as Paul reentered her office alone and looked at Paul sadly. “I did try to warn you.”

“What about our kids?” Paul asked. “What will I go home to?”

“The life you lived in the other time period.”

“Oh,” Paul said sadly. “And Amie?”

“Will live whatever life she’s been living.”

“I don’t understand.”

“Maybe Amie didn’t need you as much as she thought she did. May I ask how your life has been without her?”

“I married a woman who drained my bank account and then filed for divorce and left me on the hook for both child support and alimony. I’m living in a two bedroom condo. It’s hell, actually. When I looked at the life I had with Amie, it made me even angrier to know that…that…” Paul said and then put his head in his hands and started crying.

***

“Where were you Ames? We looked everywhere for you. We were about to call for help; we were sure you were injured and needed help.”

“It was weird. I don’t know. Something about a parallel time warp. I’ll have to ask Dr. Keeler about it,” Amie started, still confused. “Apparently in this parallel time warp I was married with two kids. I mean, the dude was nice and all…” she answered with a shrug, still confused about what she had seen.

Ailyah and Bethany started laughing. “You? Married?”

“I know, right,” Amie agreed with a small smile. “Who has time for that?”

“Or the patience,” Ailyah added.

“The weird thing is that we ended up in counseling and it was his idea to…” Amie said.

“To what?” Bethany asked.

Amie shrugged. “It’s too weird. It’s just he had a choice to enter the parallel and I didn’t want to. He picked it and I’m glad he did. He did me a big favor.”

“I’ll say he did. If he was anything like John…” Bethany said, trailing off and shaking her head.

“It was John. On steroids. ‘Do this; don’t do that; it’s MY MONEY’. And I wanted that!” Amie said, amused.

“Bullet dodged," Ailyah said with a laugh.

“Mm. I’m starving. Let’s go eat.”