Session two. The lavender scent was familiar now, a signal to switch into a different, vulnerable gear. This time, Alisha had a large sketchpad and a box of colored pencils on the low table between us.
"Last week we talked about feelings as weather," she began. "This week, I want to map the landscape. The permanent geography underneath the storms." She handed us each a sheet of paper and a few pencils. "I want you to draw it. Your experience of the marriage, of yourself within it. It's not art. It's archaeology. Use symbols, stick figures, shapes, words. You have ten minutes."
My heart seized. Draw it? I hadn't drawn anything personal in years. Leo, the architect, picked up a pencil with a familiar, professional ease that felt like a betrayal. He could draw his pain. I could only feel it
