Total pages in book: 135
Estimated words: 129027 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 645(@200wpm)___ 516(@250wpm)___ 430(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 129027 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 645(@200wpm)___ 516(@250wpm)___ 430(@300wpm)
“Have you done this before?” I don’t know why the thought astonishes me more than anything else she’s said so far. She’s just so… school librarian.
She blushes a little, then shrugs. “A group of us in my program came up here a couple years ago. I have a friend who wants to work with veterans, so he sat with us while we drank the tea.”
“How was it?”
Her eyes get a little wider as her gaze drifts toward the window. “Eye-opening. I finally saw my mother for who she was, and she lost some power over me. I experienced some ego-death and really became clear on some of my whys.”
“What?”
She shakes her head, and her eyes come back to me. “Nevermind. Today is all about you. If you want it to be. Of course, I’m not going to force anything on you. It has to be your choice. I can give you some time if you want to look up the research yourself.”
I look at the bag in her hand.
“How did you even get that?” I’m stalling but also curious.
“Delivery.” She bounces over to where I’m sitting on the bed and hops down beside me. “They voted to decriminalize it here in Colorado, so you can order it like weed now. I got it when I grabbed the DoorDash last night.”
“In my day, we had to get weed from the local dealer behind the mini-mart.”
She rolls her eyes. “Well, everything’s much more evolved now, old man. Welcome to civilization.” She hands me the bag of mushrooms, and I hold them up to look closer. They weigh practically nothing and look innocuous enough.
My decision, huh?
Well, fuck. I think back to one of the very first conversations Kira and I ever had about whether or not change was good. I certainly don’t want to never be able to sleep in the same bed as my woman. Maybe it’s alright if some things change…
“So how do we do this?”
Kira claps her hands together and snatches the bag out of my hand.
“I’ll get the tea warming in the kettle!”
FORTY-SEVEN
KIRA
“Okay,” I say, so excited I can barely keep still after I have the tea prepared. I pour it into one of the hotel cups and bring it over to Isaak.
He takes the cup and looks at the brew speculatively. He leans in to take a sniff.
“Oh, don’t—” I start, but he’s already making a gagging face.
“Fuck, that smells putrid.”
“Yeah. It tastes fucking awful, too. Sorry. I should’ve warned you again. I suggest holding your nose every time you sip. And we should set our intentions while we wait for the tea to cool down.”
“I want to stop having fucking nightmares,” Isaak says.
Then he pinches his nose in between his fingers, brings the cup to his lips, tips it and his head backward, and chugs it all in one go.
“Isaak!”
His face contorts at the disgusting taste, but he sets it back down, empty except for the dregs of soggy mushrooms.
“Great,” he says, face still twisted from the bad taste. “What now?”
“Let me get you some fresh water. I was going to get that ready while the tea cooled. But you’re so goddamn impatient.”
“I’m not impatient. You’re impatient.”
“Me! I’m not the one who just downed a whole cup of burning, disgusting tea.”
“Well, you just brewed the disgusting stuff. I always suspected you were a witch.”
“Did you just call me a witch?”
“Absolutely. Red hair, disgusting medicinal brews, explosive orgasms. What else could you be?”
I roll my eyes, bringing him a water bottle. “Drink this.”
“Is the therapy for me to just piss out my trauma?”
“Shut up and drink it.”
“I like it when you order me around, Red. Tell me I’ve been a bad, bad boy.”
“Oh my god. I order you to be serious now and tell me your real intentions for our session.”
He cracks the water bottle and tips his head back just like he did with the tea, his Adam’s apple bobbing as he sucks it down.
“You don’t have to drink all of it!”
He stops after finishing about half the bottle. “Had to get that foul taste out of my mouth.” He caps the bottle and looks around. “I don’t feel anything.”
“Well, it doesn’t work right away.”
“How long does it take, then?”
“Anywhere from twenty minutes to two hours.”
His shoulders slump. “You fucking serious? Can we eat some breakfast then? I’m starved.”
“No breakfast. It’s best if you take the tea on an empty stomach.”
“Witch. Leaving a fella hungry with nothing but that disgusting shit in his stomach.”
I wave a hand. “You won’t mind in a little while.”
“Because I’ll be talking to the bunnies and the fairies?”
“Don’t be so small-minded. We’re using this as a healing session.”
“But it’s psychedelics. I’ll still see shit, right?”
“Maybe, maybe not. Not everyone does. But visuals do often accompany this strain.”
“Look at you, Professor.”
“You’re such a goofball.” It’s clear he’s not going to take this seriously or sit around to do some meditation like I did with my group the last time. But I can think of some other things to take his mind off the waiting and help keep him in a good mood.