Chapter Seven - YOU!
The Misery of Mrs. Geesky. Serial Number 7. The Red Reticule.
BEFORE CHAPTER SEVEN
Let us not forget that the main subject in the Heart Sutra is a being of light named Avalokiteshvara known as Guanyin in Chinese. Guanyin is an enlightened being who wants to help others awaken. The Heart Sutra describes Guanyin as one who practices the perfection of wisdom.
EMPTINESS IS ONE DOOR TO LIBERATION
The structure of the Heart Sutra and The Perfection of Wisdom is in the form of a dialogue as is this fictional tale of Mrs. Geesky. Isn’t it true that we, too, use this method of dialogue to listen, to understand and then to practice.
THE HEART SUTRA
This text is a not about monastic disciplines, but about how to find Truth.
It begins with compassion which is the first awareness, followed by wisdom which is the second, and completes with the third, which is liberation.
We will see Mrs. Geesky find fault with the person from whom she seeks help.
Are you subject to the same misery?
Do you claim to love, to respect, to honor another person only to find fault with them?
What is going on with you when you find fault?
Fault-finding comes from you and not the other.
Which Way are you going?
CHAPTER SEVEN -YOU!
“YOU!” Mrs. Geesky growls. Then she gawks at Susan.
Susan remains still and silent as she watches.
When Mrs. Geesky gets to the edge of her seat, she makes two fists and pounds her thighs.
“YOU!” she snarls as she rubbernecks her head at Susan. Then silence.
Susan hears the breathing of Mrs. Geesky. It is loud and rapid. With each inhalation she gets stronger and uses her exhalation to condemn and lay into Susan.
Susan continues to watch until she realizes she has become a target.
“YOU!” Mrs. Geesky screams again. “YOU!” Caught in her own rage she stares at Susan and makes an effort to speak slowly but it is ineffective. She pummels her question back at Susan as if she is in a fist fight. “What is your name?” Mrs. Geesky glares at the old woman but does not let her answer. “YES! YOU!” With triumph she repeats herself. “YES! YOU!” Before Susan could answer she bursts again, “YOU invited me here. Or have YOU forgotten?”
Susan looks at the woman trying to remember if she knows her. “I did?” she asks as she tucks her chin in as though to avoid another blow.
“YES!” (Mrs. Geesky further extends her neck towards Susan).
Susan’s eyes flutter trying to recall when she might have done so. This news is a shock, a confusing retort flung at her. She hesitates, “I…I…am sorry…” she wiggles her head just a little, “I don’t recall the invitation.” She swallows, but before she can go on the woman screams.
“Your window!” The woman, Mrs. Geesky snorts as she points one finger toward the front room. She glares at Susan and speaks as she had done before.
“On the window, your window it says, ‘Welcome, Everyone.’ That includes me. I didn’t walk in. I made an appointment after I saw the invitation. I need to talk to you. And you? YOU need to listen to me and write me a good note for my job. YOU do not get to ask questions! Do YOU hear me? NO QUESTIONS. Director-man told me I had to talk to a doctor. And it had to be right away. I am here to talk to YOU.”
Susan interrupts the storm when she sees Loretta standing on guard in the doorway. “OK. It’s OK girl.” Susan cautions the dog to come and lie down by her side by patting the side of her chair. In a strange, crouched lope across the room Loretta gets down with haunches up in the middle of the rose patterned rug, between the stretched forward Mrs. Geesky on the loveseat and Susan leaning forward in her chair. Susan notes her behavior then turns back to Mrs. Geesky without missing a word.
“You heard about me by reading the invitation on the front window.”
“STOP saying what I just told. I am here to talk. I need you to listen and write me a good note. Someone, I don’t know who, but I suspect the granddaughter of Martha Walshe complained. She’s like everyone else. Shows up at the last minute for the Great Matter. Wants something for nothing. Her type. But she’s got to complain about something. I suspect it was her. I am going to say it was her. You agree. I could bring charges against her. If she’s not careful, I will. But YOU! I need you to listen and write a good note.”
With the tips of her fingers Susan brushes along the side of her old, creased face to push her white, wavy hair away from her now flushed cheek. As she lifts one side of her mouth to speak her eyelid closes above it as though she has some foreign matter in it.
“I am not a doctor.”
“YES. YOU. ARE!” The woman counters.
Loretta is up on all fours. Susan shuffles forward in her chair. “Come here, girl.”
“The dog won’t hurt me. Don’t try to get away with it. You are a doctor.”
“Uh…no, no I’m not.” Susan stammers as she moves closer towards Loretta.
“You can’t lie to me and get away with it. I’ll bring charges against you. Your window says you are a doctor. I took a photo of it.” The woman fumbles through her purse. “I have it right here.”
Susan’s mouth hangs open as she moves her head in submissive agreement. Before she speaks, she bites the inside of her wet cheek. “Yes. You are right. It…it does say I am a doctor on the front window.” For just a fleeting moment Susan thinks of Jane and reminds herself to cancel the answering service. Before she can get very far Mrs. Geesky affirms, she knows she is right.
“I know it does! I have a picture to prove it.”
Susan lifts her head and traces her jaw down her neck with both hands. “Yes. We…you and me…we agree.” Susan wants to put her palm up as a gesture for Mrs. Geesky to stop but instead she remains still in the sea of waves. ‘One step at a time. Just listen.’
“Don’t lie to me again! I can still take you to court.”
Susan slides her lower jaw to one side then nods her head before she speaks. “Yes. Yes, you could. I think that option is open to everyone for anything. But…”
“But what?” Mrs. Geesky interrupts.” Don’t try to get out of it!”
Susan sits back as she drops both arms down by her side offering only a trace of a smile. “No. No. You’re right. I…I won’t try to get out of it.”
“You understand!”
Susan takes a mouth full of air sending her words aloft. “Yes. I understand. But…”
“There is no BUT. YOU understand! YOU are a doctor. I need to talk to you. I need you to listen. I want a good note.”
Susan presses her back against the thin worn black leather feeling the tatty headrest and rocks her head from side to side. Composed by the motion she lifts her head and looks at Loretta who is down with haunches raised then across at Mrs. Geesky in her black jersey skirt and blue floral top, her pale hair fallen along one side of her flat face and confides, “I need to tell you something.”
“What?”
“I am not the kind of doctor who can write you a good note.” Susan lowers her head as if to duck. With her lowered gaze she waits for the woman to speak.
“I told you. I can bring charges against you. You are a doctor! You invited me here. I am here to talk to YOU.” Just at the end of the word you, the woman stands up, puts on her large dark sunglasses, and walks over to Susan. Susan remains with her head down.
Loretta groans and is poised to jump.
“I have proof YOU are a doctor.” She confirms. Mrs. Geesky ignores Loretta as she pulls her purse around to the front of her chest as she hunts for her cell phone.
With a bowed head Susan admits, “Yes. I am a doctor. You have proof. I am not the kind of doctor that can write a good note for you. I can listen to you.”
“What kind of doctor are you? You know you are in big trouble. I have proof you say you are a doctor. It says it on your front window.”
“Let me answer your question.”
“I am not stopping YOU. YOU told me. You just admitted it. And it’s on your window!”
Susan stands up eye to eye with this woman as she gets up, she touches the top of Loretta’s head to reassure the dog everything is under control.
“I am a doctor of knowledge, of words.” Susan explains in a plain, clear voice.
The two women stand still and silent; Mrs. Geesky tightens her jaws, Susan softens her face and waits.
“You will write a good note.” Mrs. Geesky says in an officious, superior tone.
Hearing the imperative Susan says, “As long as you understand I am a doctor of words. Ideas.”
Mrs. Geesky inches closer. “I understand. I understand ideas. A doctor of words. You will write a good note of words.”
The woman tilts her chin back, tosses the long end of her yellowed scarf around her neck and wedges the frame of her sunglasses over her ears.
“I’ll be back!” She warns as she rushes out.
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