It Was 2020

Kay had been packing her bags for two weeks prior to graduation. She needed the necessities, but she also wanted a few items that would remind her of home. She had a decent enough truck, with relatively low mileage, to make the trip. It was a midnight blue 2015 Dodge Durango R/T. She expected it would average about 17 miles per gallon on the highway. Even though gas prices were hovering at $3.15/gallon, she would need close to $200 to make the trip. It was extremely fortuitous that the practice she was going to work for had set everything up in advance, including a gas/hotel/food stipend. They truly were desperate for educated mental health professionals.

Since the new apartment was going to be fully furnished, Kay left her bedroom set and favorite rocking chair at home. She planned on visiting at some point, though it would likely be a few years before she saw her room in Louisiana again. All of her clothes fit in two suitcases and she had a backpack filled with bathroom items. Her mother insisted she pack some snacks and a few drinks, stipend be damned. Kay grabbed her digital camera, some family photo albums, a few of her favorite dvd’s, her cd/stereo system, as well as all of her important paperwork, and loaded up the Durango.

As she backed down the gravel driveway, her mother started crying. Her father put his arm around her mother’s shoulder and waved at Kay as she backed away from the only home she’d ever known, and drove forward into the sunrise of her new life.

A lone tear slid down Kay’s face. She had never been a big crier, but seeing her mother cry had put her over the edge. “No need for waterworks. I’ll see them again. It’ll just be a little while is all.”

Upon arrival, Kay realized that late January in Wisconsin was going to be a lot different than any winter she’d ever experienced living in Louisiana. It almost made her wish she'd chosen a warmer climate but she knew she stood a better chance of making more money in Wisconsin; cold weather be damned. Acclimating would take some time but Kay had already signed the lease for her furnished studio apartment on 2nd Street and she was guaranteed a starting salary of $270,000 her first year. When that much money was on the line you simply dealt with the weather.

Her apartment was close to Burr Jones Park and the Olbrich Botanical Garden, was within jogging distance to the lakes, only 2 miles from the Capitol building, and one street away from the location of her new office. She really had gotten extremely lucky. Not only was she close to work, but she would check out the fourth floor of the Capitol building as soon as she got the chance!

Kay settled into her apartment fairly quickly and started seeing new clients immediately. Her mother was going to send some more personal items from home, and Kay was doing her best to get the lay of the land. She tried to keep up with world news, but had only been able to watch WMTV as of late. She had heard there was a virus somewhere overseas, but she couldn’t remember where it came from or if it had made an impression anywhere else. She was more concerned with some of her new patients.

So far she had a 9 year old with insomnia and chronic bed-wetting. The six-pack of sodas before bed were at the root of the problem, but the parents were from River Hills Village, and wouldn’t listen to her logic, so she was more than happy to take the $200 per hour.

She also had a 30 year old with dissociative identity disorder from experiencing the trauma of watching his mother burn to death at the hands of his father, who had also stabbed his little brother. If anyone experienced this they would surely have PTSD (at minimum), but for a 14 year old to witness these atrocities…well, we see what happened.

Then there were the twins with schizophrenia. While they understood each other's disjointed and disorganized speech, sometimes Kay had trouble keeping up. They were also obsessed with opening and closing her office door, cabinets, and drawers.

These were just a few of the more interesting, and sometimes challenging, patients.

Since Kay was seeing the patients of an already established, yet now retired, doctor’s practice, she hadn’t had to concern herself with starting a new client base. The company had not only provided a gas/food/hotel stipend, but had also paid her 3 months salary up front to compensate for the length of her move. Money wasn’t a problem, but she did have to spend a bit of time gaining her clients' trust and getting them to open up to her. This meant she hadn’t been anywhere other than her home, work, and Jennifer Street Market.

Kay saw most of her clients at least three times a week. Some of them were daily visitors, or called between appointments. They were a trusting lot and it only took about a month or so for Kay to feel comfortable enough to start thinking about the rest of Madison, Wisconsin. Kay spoke to each of her clients at length about her upcoming mini vacation. None of them seemed overly concerned, plus she was only missing Friday and Monday. The rest of her vacation would be spent on the weekend. Minimal work missed, no trust lost. All was well.

Now that the patients knew Kay wasn’t going to leave them and she could be trusted, she could safely reschedule her Friday and Monday appointments. While she saw at least 6 different patients a day, and her apartment was nice, she was more than ready to visit some of the tourist destinations and haunted locations in Madison.

The decision was made to tour Madison all weekend and enjoy the Fire and Ice Luminary Walk Sunday evening. This seemed like a great way to end her first month and a half in Madison and, since Kay made it a point to expedite any planning that needed to be done, she decided to start her excursions further away and work her way back towards home base by Sunday afternoon.