“Mr. Hanoo- , Haanu-, Hennew-…”
“Just call me H,” Hanuman interrupted.
Clearing her throat and without taking a breath she said, “The doctor will see you now. After your session, you will return to this desk and I will help set up your next appointment. His office is two doors to your right at the end of that hall, room 418.”
Looking puzzled, Hanuman decided not to trouble the receptionist any longer to repeat the directions and proceeded on his way to the room. After roaming around for a while, he finally found the room. He noticed that the door was slightly open, but to the point where he could easily slip in. Hesitating, he decided to politely knock on the glass window of the door instead.
The doctor replied, “Come, come!”
Hanuman entered the room and immediately noticed the decorations that surrounded him. Nothing but monkeys. Differently dressed monkeys here and there. The thing that gave him a chuckle were the bookends. The ends were monkeys who looked like they were pushing against the books with all their might.
The therapist quickly noticed his chuckle. “Find something funny?”
Hanuman had not realized his chuckle was out loud rather than to himself. He responded hastily, “No, nothing at all.”
“Please have a seat. Anything to drink?” asked the therapist.
“No thank you,” he replied. As Hanuman slowly sat down, his mind began to wander.
“Have something in mind?” inquired the therapist.
Hanuman was still in a daze. The therapist repeated himself. Coming back to reality, Hanuman apologized and the therapist nodded and asked again.
“I don’t know really. This is why I decided to meet with you. I need to see if you could help me understand why I drift off so much,” said Hanuman worriedly.
“Why don’t we start with the beginning? Tell me how you’ve been feeling the past few days, months, or even year if you can stretch that far?” the therapist asked.
Hanuman froze and watched as the rain started to pour down and hit the window ever so lightly that it started to sound like a melody. He realized that the therapist was still waiting for an answer. He quickly replied, “Gloomy...”. He noticed that the therapist did not have any utensils to write anything down, so he paused.
“Continue.”
“…and lost, I guess? I can’t really put my finger on it but whenever I see something that may be related to why I feel this way, I zone off into my own world. At least, that is what I use as an excuse,” he finished.
“So let’s start with talking about the feeling of gloomy. Was there a certain association with that term? Does something or someone remind you of that feeling?” questioned the therapist.
“The rain. I remember long ago there was this city that always had monsoon seasons continuously throughout the year. I remember having some kind of tension whilst being there and so maybe that’s why the rain tenses me up badly,” he asserted.
“Hmm. Interesting. Okay, can you reach back and pull any more memories during that time?” asked the therapist.
“That’s what I’ve been trying to work on. So far I only remember three terms. Loyalty, suffering and love. I also want to mention that between these three terms, one of them relates to a certain rage I hold whenever deeply thinking about them. So I want to request that we don’t dig further into them,” he pleaded.
“I understand your concern but in order to help with your current situation, we need to acknowledge the possible factors that may have a relationship to it. We can slowly sidle into them if it helps...” he reassured Hanuman. “Let’s start with love? Is there someone out there who you love? Mother, sister, and or significant other?” suggested the therapist.
“Anjana,” he vaguely stated. “I love her with all my heart. After all, she is the woman who raised me.” Thunder clapping catching his attention, he looked back out at the rain again. “But there was this one girl…” Having lost his focus, he watched as a drop of rain steadily made its way down the window. He intensely looked at the line it created. He jumped up with concern. “LOOK! She’s right there! Can you see her?” he asked in a panicked tone.
The therapist requested that he take his seat. Instead, Hanuman ran over to the window. Unknowingly, he knocked down a few porcelain monkeys and traced the line of the rain with his finger. The therapist raised his tone at this point, to get his attention. Again, he repeatedly requested Hanuman to take his seat. Hanuman frantically covered his ears and started yelling back at the therapist to get rid of the monkeys. The therapist quickly realized the situation and in a cooler tone recommended that Hanuman better take his seat or he could walk out the door.
To be continued...
Author's note:
Yes, I apologize for cutting it off so soon but I wanted to build up intensity for Hanuman's side of the story. In this version, I am more focused on the future Hanuman by showcasing his immortality. As a normal guy walking around with the common folks, without the appearance of a monkey or ape-like characteristics. He seeks therapeutic help in order to understand more of the traumatic past he had but cannot remember. Therapy is a way to let the characters explain how they feel instead of the reader interpreting their actions and basing their feelings through that. I also combined different stories to make Hanuman to be "the one who got away" type of guy. Hanuman is remembered as a loyal devotee of Rama as we all know, but I wanted to create a mysterious side of him that still needs to be revealed. I added plenty of detail because I saw how in the recent stories of Ramayana, detail is key. Everyone and anyone would be able to imagine the story better if there were more detailed. In the future I plan on continuing this passage so I don't leave anyone hanging. More of the story is continued in the Storytelling for Week 4.
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