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Cassie smirked. Dr. Greene was good at asking questions to flip Cassie’s perspective on a situation. “No, of course not.”
“Regret is a good indicator that a situation may not feel resolved to you, even if you’ve done everything in your power to fix it. Sometimes these things are out of our control. It’s what you do with that feeling of regret that matters most.” She paused here for a moment and rested her chin in her hand. “When did you first have this dream?”
Cassie looked up at the ceiling while she thought. “Maybe a couple weeks ago.”
“About the time you decided to see your sister again?”
Cassie’s gaze snapped back to her therapist’s face. “Yeah, about that time.”
“Is it possible that these dreams relate to your anxieties about seeing your sister? It has been a few years, after all.”
“It’s more than possible.” Cassie blew out a long breath. “Seeing her again has been weighing on me.”
Dr. Greene leaned forward slightly. “How come? What are you worried about?”
Cassie decided to let it all out. “Oh, everything.” She laughed. “We were close as kids, but it’s been so long and so much has changed. Will we still get along? Will she still feel like my little sister? Will she treat me like I’m made of glass, like most people do once they find out what happened to me?”
“Have you asked her any of these questions? Raised any of these concerns?”
Cassie looked away. “No.”
“Hmm. I’d bet Laura is nervous, too. You’re her big sister, after all. She looked up to you when you were kids. What do you think she’s afraid of?”
Cassie bit the inside of her lip as she tried to put herself in her sister’s shoes. “Probably the same things? Whether we’ll get along. Whether it’ll be awkward. Whether we’ll still feel like family.”
Dr. Greene leaned back. “So, you seem to share the same fears. That means you have a middle ground, a common issue. And, as always, the best way to solve a situation like this is with—”
“—communication.”
“Exactly.” Dr. Greene’s eyes sparkled again. “I knew you’d been paying attention.”
Cassie tried smiling, but it came out more like a grimace.
Her therapist didn’t miss a beat. “What else are you worried about?”
“I’m not the same person I used to be. She isn’t either. My life is so different now. There‘s so much I want to tell her. So much I want her to know.” Cassie’s eyes once again drifted to the ghost boy. “But she’ll need time and energy and a willingness to listen.”
“Is there anything that has told you Laura isn’t willing to listen?”
“No, but that doesn’t mean she will be.”
“True.” Dr. Greene shrugged her shoulder. “But as much as we’d love to, we can’t control other people’s reactions. Or their emotions. Or their actions.”
“That’s stupid.” Cassie elicited a laugh from her therapist.
“I don’t disagree with you there. Life would be much easier if we could predict how people will interact with us.” Dr. Greene checked her watch. “We’re almost out of time for today. Did you ask Laura if she’ll be joining us next time?”
Cassie dropped her head. “No, not yet.”
“Okay, well, no pressure. It’s there if you want it. If not, I’m sure we’ll have plenty to talk about.”
“Don’t we always?” Cassie shook her head. Even after a decade of therapy, there was always something to talk about. But her weekly routine with Dr. Greene was reassuring. She might not tell her therapist everything—like the fact that she could see ghosts and sometimes got psychic visions—but it was nice to talk to someone who wouldn’t judge her, no matter how anxious her thoughts were. She owed her therapist a great deal of gratitude.
Dr. Greene stood and walked to the door. “When will you be picking up your sister?”
Cassie checked the time on her phone. “Four hours and counting.”
She tried not to the let the dread that had built up in the pit of her stomach show on her face.
