Immortal Love by Melinda Clayton

Immortal Love

by Melinda Clayton

He saw her, for the first time in two-hundred years, on a miserable, rainy, late November morning in Portland, Oregon. Of course, he didn’t realize at the time that he’d known her before, in another time, in another place, but that would come soon enough.

He was late for an appointment, which was typical, and had just maneuvered his candy apple red 2005 Mustang GT into the only remaining parking space in the overcrowded lot of a downtown office building. Dr. Dan Lane was always late for appointments; his patients had come to expect this. Still, he was particularly worried about the session he had scheduled for this morning, a new patient, and he cursed softly under his breath at the sluggish morning traffic that, in his mind, was responsible for his current predicament.

Setting the emergency brake, he grabbed his briefcase and umbrella from the back seat, opened the door into the pouring rain, and promptly encountered what he would, decades later, describe as “The love of my life. All of my lives, actually.” In his final years, this comment would cause his grandchildren to roll their eyes and cast knowing glances amongst themselves, amused at their grandfather’s eccentricities. For his part, he saw the secret smiles and conspiratorial winks and even understood the reasons behind them. Nevertheless, he remained unperturbed, because he knew what they refused to believe; she had been his ladylove not only for the fifty years of their marriage, but since the beginning of time.

On that rainy Portland morning in 2010, however, he had not yet known these things, scattered and disorganized as he was. No, his goal that morning was to gather his belongings as quickly as possible and try to make a dash for the shelter of the two story office building before becoming completely soaked by the incessant rain. With any luck, his new patient would understand, though he recognized the unlikelihood of that. Over the years his patients had been many things, but “understanding” wasn’t usually at the top of the list. He couldn’t blame them, though. After all, by the time they came to him they had typically spent months, even years, dealing with emotional trauma resulting from any number of circumstances, and what they wanted was relief. What they did not want was a psychotherapist whose personal issues seemed, if anything, larger than their own. Dr. Lane was painfully aware that his life was empty; he disliked it, however, when his patients deduced the same.

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Melinda Clayton is a licensed psychotherapist and freelance writer based in Deltona, Florida. Her vast experience in all aspects of the field of mental health gives her a unique perspective on human behaviors, and she likes to explore this dynamic in her writing.

Melinda has published over twenty mental health articles in various print and online magazines, and has been a frequent contributor to Successful Living magazine, a national publication through WeisnerMedia, LLC, in their “Ask the Experts” section. Other publications include Tango Media Corporation, Stressfree Living Magazine and America Online. Melinda’s articles on serving children with special needs have appeared in the newsletters of both Children’s Hospital and Research Center in Oakland, and Methodist Children’s Hospital of South Texas.

Some of Melinda’s work can be found at: http://www.yourtango.com/200948350/broken-hearted-holidays

Melinda is currently in the dissertation phase of an Ed.D. in special education administration through Northcentral University.