Page 1 of Walker

CHAPTER 1

SUMMER

Sitting at my desk, I watch as another one of my clients breaks down in their car after a long and horrible session.

Being a psychologist is one of the hardest jobs; I’m wrecked daily with the stories I’m told but driven to help them.

I mostly deal with PTSD cases, so I usually hear the worst of the worst. I turn my head away from the window, my eyes misting over as I let myself feel.

I close my computer and gather my files before I head over to the prison.

It’s a dangerous job. My dads have fits about it but someone has to do it. If the prisoners have gotten the care they deserved from the beginning, a lot of this could have been avoided.

Locking the door behind me, I make my way over to my client’s car and knock on the window gently to not startle her.

She glances over at me, her eyes red. She opens the door for me, and I bend down so I can speak with her.

“Are you okay, Frances?”

She nods at first then immediately shakes her head no. “Do you need me to do anything for you? Call someone?”

She dries her eyes; she’s just an eighteen-year-old girl who has been handed a very traumatic hand. A boyfriend she snuck out to see didn’t come to pick her up and someone decided to take her off the streets when she was sixteen.

“My brother.” She scrolls through her phone until she reaches a contact and hands the phone off to me.

I take the phone and shut her door not wanting her to hear my conversation.

“Hey, sis,” he answers.

“This is Frances’s therapist. She’s really upset right now, and I was wondering if you can give her a ride home because I don’t think it’s safe for her to drive.”

I hear him let out a deep breath over the line. “I will be there in a few minutes. Can you stay with her until I get there?”

“Of course.”

He hangs up the phone and I open the door handing her phone back, but she doesn’t let go of my hand as she takes the phone. She’s holding onto my hand like it’s her lifeline.

She is staring out of the window toward my building. “I have never properly cried; I’ve been numb for so long and this is the first time I’ve let it all out.” I stand here and let her talk about everything that crosses her mind, sometimes words aren’t needed but you need someone just to listen.

A little while later a car pulls up next to us and her brother gets out of the car. She lets my hand go and practically sprints to him, hugging him so tightly.

I walk to my car knowing she is in safe hands now; he puts her in his car. I wave bye to both of them and drive the ten miles to the prison.

I mentally prepare myself to bring out my inner boss bitch to face these guys.

I pull up to the gate and scan my badge, my heart beating faster the second the gate opens.

Here we go.

I’m led to a room with a metal table and chairs bolted to the ground. I’m personally searched for weapons and my bag has been searched thoroughly.

I pull out the files for the guys I’m supposed to be seeing today to go over which medications I should start them on.

I have security guards stationed at every corner of the room; the men don’t have privacy for their sessions like in the real world.

The door is pushed open and a man wearing chains cuffed around his ankles and then shackled to his wrists is led in. They push him down onto the seat, he bares his teeth at them like an animal. He tries to shrug them off.

I hold my breath until they have him chained to the table. I pretend that I’m not fazed by his actions and open his file reading over everything.

---