This is a short one and most of you are going to be angry I finished it where I did. It's told from the mind of a crazy person, but she doesn't know she's crazy. Good for a chuckle, hopefully.
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"How old are you again, Susan? If you don't mind me asking."
The doctor seemed confused with me being here. My mother had been the one who booked the appointment and forced me to come, and I suppose he assumed I was a minor. Probably envisioned some rebellious teenager and I was nothing like that. "Thirty-three, Dr. Adler," I said.
"You may call me Phillip. And you live at home, with your folks? Or your mother?"
"Um, no," I chuckled, slightly blushing. I had my own place and my own life, but my mother can sometimes be overbearing. "It's just, Mom is mad at me right now. I agreed to see you only to settle her down, and maybe save our relationship."
"I see," he said. "So what is it you do?"
"Retired, actually. I worked odd jobs while in junior high and high school, and my ex-boyfriend convinced me to buy a bunch of bitcoin back then, rather than spending it at the mall or whatnot. I sold most of it an absurdly high return, a couple years ago."
"Retired already? Before the age of 35?" the doctor gasped. "I'm glad things worked out so well for you."
"I live modestly," I said, shrugging. I try to keep my net worth a secret, but it's around twenty million. That said, I live in a quaint, upper-middle-class neighborhood and drive an SUV like everyone else.
"I, uh, guess I'm confused. I spoke to your mother, but what she described doesn't seem..."
"I know, doc. Mom's got it in her head that I'm an exhibitionist, and it's not true." I was currently in a summer dress, but a conservative one. It was even a bit large for me, and that's saying something, considering I'm a D cup. Point is, I'm fully covered, even though I am going without a bra. I don't really care for bras, unless they're sexy or titillating. "It's just a series of incidents that make her think that."
"I'm not sure I follow," said the doctor.
"Like the whole reason I am here today, is because Mom blames me for ruining my brother's wedding. Tommy, my brother, doesn't even care about what happened. Neither does anyone else." Dr. Phillip was gently shaking his head, indicating he still wasn't following, so I gave him the details. "When Deborah, Tommy's wife, threw the bouquet, it came straight towards me and Pearl Simpson. Closer to me, so I reached up to catch it. Pearl came rushing in and bumped me. Her bracelet caught my dress as she tried to intercept the flowers, and the top half of it ripped right off."
"Oh, my," chucked Dr. Adler.
"So it's shit like that, that brings me to you today."
The doctor coughed and sat up a bit. "Okay, just to get this straight, Susan, you were unintentionally exposed. Because of this, your mother believes you are an exhibitionist?"
"Exactly!" I cried.
"But you mentioned there other incidents? I think you used the plural form."
"Well, yes, but nothing that was my fault."
"What do you mean?"
"A couple weeks ago, when we were shopping for last-minute wedding gifts, we stopped at Atlas Aquarium. My brother's big into fish and aquariums, and Mom asked if I would upgrade his tank for his new home."
"You mean a whole new setup?" asked Phillip, smiling. "I have a 50-gallon aquarium myself."
"I admit, I splurged. It's probably the best gift anyone ever got Tommy. He was thrilled."
"I'm sure."
"Anyway, while we were there - and I guess I should note this is a busy store, full of shoppers and staff - anyway, one of the the employees was reattaching a pump or a hose, or something. He was on a ladder at one of the top displays next to us, broke something, and water came shooting out of this hose at me from above, with intense pressure."
The doctor scratched his beard, nodding. "I'm guessing another accident?"
"I was wearing this cute, one-piece outfit. It's like a skirt and halter top combined, without shoulder straps. I suppose more like a corset, but the material doesn't fit tightly or anything. The water came shooting out, and pushed the top half of my dress straight to my waist. I was utterly soaked, and when I pulled the dress back up, you could see right through it."
The doctor's chuckles turned to muffled laughter. "I'm so sorry. That is a bit humorous for it to happen twice."
"Uh, yeah," I said, darting my eyes to the ceiling, hesitating. "Twice..."
"I get the sense you haven't told me everything."
I drew my eyes back to the doctor and sighed. "I suppose, in my Mom's point of view, that's not all the incidents, but every instance was just as unexpected as the two I just described. I mean, well, except for when we were at the lake."
"The lake?"
"Lake Wabellon. The whole family goes every few years, and because Tommy was getting married, we did it this year. He brought Deborah, and she and I went out to the water one afternoon for a swim." Phillip leaned back in his chair, quietly taking it all in. "Deb convinced me to skinny dip with her. As we were leaving, we saw these two teenagers running away from where we had left our clothes. They took everything except for Deborah's tee shirt, a really long one. I guess they dropped it as they scrambled away. So Deb had her shirt, but I had nothing. We go back to the cabins, careful not to be seen by anyone, and I make a mad rush for the door when we got close. I run in, and to my horror, Mom was inside with two of her friends from the church choir."
The doctor looked like he was struggling to hold back tears, wanting to crack up. "Wait a second. So you're stark naked, because your clothes were stolen?"
"Yes."
"Oh my, Susan, you have the worst luck."
"That's what I've been telling Mom!" I cried, raising my hands. "But she thinks I enjoy exposing myself! She won't listen to me, doc."
The doctor nodded, agreeing. "Every one of these 'incidents' can be rationally explained, Susan. Your mother just seemed gravely concerned, and not at all hysterical, when she brought this up. To be clear, were there any other incidents you haven't mentioned?"
"You mean, like recently?"
"Recently or not. Whatever you might think relevant. Events that give Janice, your mother, pause to believe that you may be an exhibitionist?" I looked up again, thinking hard. I was counting with both hands and ended on eight.