Part of a Story

“Are you happy?”
“Hmm?” Emma was slouched in her chair biting her fingernails. Her mind was else where in the next story she was going to write. Her light brown hair straightened perfectly rested across her shoulders. She wore jeans and a dark blue t-shirt, nothing special just comfortable. Her once white shoes were worn out, and ready to be thrown away. She didn’t care much about having a new therapist. Dr. Paul Allison was his name. She looked up at him with her dark green eyes expecting him to repeat the question.
“I said, ‘are you happy?’” Dr. Allison said.
“Is that how you start out your sessions? By asking the patient of they are happy?”
The doctor looked down at her file. “It says here that you live by yourself, and don’t bother to contact any relatives. Your career involves writing novels and short stories for *Time Magazine. You don’t like to out much and prefer to stay inside writing to painting.” He closed her file, “You live a very isolated life.”
“Yes, I do. What does that have to do with your question?”
“As people, we need interaction. The majority of our society becomes easily depressed if we don’t socialize with other people. I ask if you are happy because you literally have no interaction with anyone, except occasionally with your editor and publisher.”
“What’s your point?”
“My point is, Ms. Livingston, that you live a very isolated life and are at risk of being depressed. More people have committed suicide that lived alone their whole life than anybody else. As a therapist, I want to make sure you are happy with your life.”
Emma sat up in her chair. “For the moment, yes I am happy with my life. Of course, there are things that I wish were different, but that is temporarily out of my control. If I am to be happy I must accept the way things are.”
“Thank you.” Dr. Allison said.