The Silver Linings Playbook Chapter 28

I Will Have to control a First-Place VictoryQuestion number one, my father introduces. How m each touchdowns go out McNabb throw against the Saints?I fag hardly believe I am actu bothy eating a sit-down meal with my father. mum smiles at me as she winds spaghetti around her fork. She even shoots me a wink. Now dont get me wrong, I am ingenious that Moms plan has worked out, and I am delighted to be eating a meal with my father, having a dialogue even and I am especially happy to see my p arnts playing with love again just I also know my father, and I worry that a single Eagles loss impart circle Dad back into a grump. I worry for Mom, further subside to ride out the moment. cardinal touchdowns, I signalize my father.Dad smiles, pops a small sausage into his mouth, chews enthusiastically, and then tells my baffle, Pat dictates ten touchdowns. by relegate eleven, I add, just to be optimistic.Question number deuce. How human consideratey touchdowns go away undraft ed rookie sensation Hank Baskett dog collar?Now, I fully agnize that Baskett has besides caught one TD in the beginning five games, nevertheless I also know my family is being oerly optimistic towickedness, so I say, Seven.Seven? Dad says, but smiling.Seven.He says seven, Jeanie. Seven To me Dad says, Question number three. In what quarter will quarterback force Brees at last suffer a concussion because he has been sacked so many times by the Eagles superior defense?Um. Thats a tough one. The third quarter?That is incorrect, my father says, shaking his head in mock disappointment. First quarter is the correct answer. Question four. When are you going to bring home that spacious youre always roleplayning with? When are you going to introduce your girlfriend to your father?When Dad finishes asking dubiousness four, he slurps a load of spaghetti into his mouth and then begins chewing. When I fail to respond, he encourages me with his left hand, touch invisible circles with hi s index finger.Did you see that Pat found his wedding pictures and put them back up in the living room? Mom says, and her voice sort of quivers.Jake told me you were over Nikki, Dad says. He said you were into this Tiffany broad. No?May I be excused? I ask my ware, because my little scar is itching, and I heart as though I might explode if I dont start banging my fist against my forehead.When my mother nods, I see sympathy in her eyes, which I valuate.I lift for a few hours, until I no longer olfactory sensation the need to punch myself.In the new reflector vest my mother has recently bought for me, I run through the night.I was going to open Tiffanys earn this evening because I was so excited more or less having dinner with my father, but now I know I am roughly definitely non in a good mood, so opening the letter would be a violation of the rules Tiffany clearly laid out for me deuce nights ago. I nigh opened the letter last night, when I was in an excellent mood, but it hadnt been forty-eight hours.As I run, I screen to think about Nikki and the end of a while time, which always grants me feel better. I pretend that God has do a bet with me and if I run fast-flying luxuriant, He will bring Nikki back, so I begin sprinting the last two miles of my run. Soon Im running so fast, its amazing faster than any homophile being has forever run before. In my mind I hear God tell me I rush to do the last mile in infra four minutes, which I know is almost impossible, but for Nikki I try. I run even faster, and when I am a block away, I hear God counting down from ten in my mind. Five four three two And when my right foot lands on the first concrete square of my parents sidewalk, God says One, which means I ran fast enough that I made it home before God said Zero. I am so happy. I am so impossibly happyMy parents bedroom door is closed when I go upstairs, so I shower and then slip under my comforter. I pull Tiffanys envelope from under the matt ress of my bed. I take a deep breath. I open the letter. As I read the some(prenominal) typed pages, my mind explodes with conflicting emotions and awful needs.Pat,Read this letter start to finish Do not buzz off any decisions until you provoke read the entire letter Do not read this letter unless you are alone Do not show this letter to anyone When you gull finished reading this letter, burn it without delayDo you ever feel like youre living in a powder keg and crowing off sparks?Well, there was nothing I could do to bring my Tommy back, and the inability to accept his death unploughed me ill for two whole years but then you came into my flavour. Why? At first I legal opinion, God is sending me a new man, a replacement for my Tommy, which made me mad, because Tommy is irreplace competent (no offense). But when I listened to the way you communicationed about Nikki, I realized God had sent you to me so I might serve well you find the end of apart time. This was to be my mission. And so I have been working on it.What? I can hear you saying right now. How can my friend Tiffany end apart time?Well, this is the part that might make you mad.Are you ready, Pat? Brace yourself.Ive been talking to your Nikki on the phone regularly. Every night for the past two weeks. I got the phone number from Veronica, who through Ronnies conversations with your mom has been providing Nikki with information about you ever since you were permanently assigned to that neural health facility in Baltimore. It turns out that your family banned Nikki from obtaining information about you, which they could do because Nikki divorced you soon after you were permanently admitted. I know this bit of news has most likely upset you terribly. Sorry, but its best just to state things plainly at this point. Dont you think?Okay, this close part is bad too. Nikki was able to divorce you because you committed a plague, which you do not remember. (I am not going to tell you what that cr ime was, because you have probably blocked it from your memory intentionally most likely, you are not yet mentally ready to deal with this very frightening reality. My therapist Dr. Lily and I opine that you will remember committing this crime when you are mentally and emotionally ready.) Nikki was granted a divorce and all your assets, and in exchange, someone else dropped all charges against you. Of course, the deal also sent you to the bad place indefinitely for rehabilitation. You concord to all of the above at the time and were deemed to be of sound mind by your therapist Dr. Timbers, but soon after being put away for good, you lost your memory and your marbles as well.I am not telling you all of this to be mean quite the contrary. Remember, God put me in charge of helping you end apart time. It turns out Nikki has requiremented to communicate with you very much. She misses you. This is not to say she emergencys to marry you all over again. I fatality to be clear about th is. She still remembers what you did the crime you committed. And she is a little afraid of you as well, as she fears you might be mad at her and take to retaliate. But she was married to you for years and she wants to see you well, and maybe even become friends again. I have describe your desire to reconcile with Nikki. To be honest, your desire is much stronger than hers. But you never know what might materialise if you begin to communicate again.Two problems One. After you committed that crime, Nikki took out a restraining order against you, so technically it is illegal for you to contact her. Two. Your parents on your behalf, and probably in retaliation took out a restraining order against Nikki, claiming any contact she made could jeopardize your mental health. So it is also illegal for her to contact you. Even still, Nikki would like to communicate with you, if only to smooth over what happened. Her guilt is glaring. She walked away with all your assets, and you had to sp end years in a mental institution, right?So. Coming to the point. I am offering myself as a liaison. The two of you can communicate through me, and there will be no trouble. You will be able to write Nikki letters one every two weeks. I will read these letters to Nikki over the phone. She will be able to dictate her responses to me, again over the phone, which I will type up on my laptop, print out, and present to you.Pat, we are friends, and I value our friendship very much. That having been said, you must appreciate that what I am offering puts me in a very precarious position. If you decide to take me up on my offer, I would be putting myself at risk legally, and also I would be jeopardizing our friendship. I need to inform you that I will not be your liaison for free, but am offering you a trade.What do I want?Remember when I said I was scouting you?Well, I want to win this years Dance Away Depression competition, and I need a strong man to do it. What is Dance Away Depression ? I hear you asking. Well it is an annual competition create by the Philadelphia Psychiatric Association that allows women diagnosed with clinical depression to transform their despair into movement. The sole focus is supposed to be diminishing depression through use of the body, but judges award a florilegium of flowers to the second-best dance go and a deluxe trophy to the first-place dance routine. Dancing solo, I have won that fucking wreath two years straight, and this year I want to win the golden trophy. This is where you figure in, Pat. God sent me the strongest man I have ever met in my entire life tell me this isnt divine intervention. Only a man with your muscles could perform the type of lifts I have in mind award-winning lifts, Pat. The competition will be held at the Plaza Hotel in center city, on a Saturday night November 11th. Which admits us just under a month to practice. I know the routine already, but youll be starting from scratch, and we both will have to practice the lifts. This will take a lot of time.I told Nikki about my conditions, and she wants to encourage you to be my dance partner. She says you need to broaden your interests, and that she had always treasured to take dance lessons with you. So it is more than okay with her she encourages you to do this.Also, Im afraid I will have to require a first-place victory in exchange for being your liaison. Lucky for you, the routine I have choreographed is first-rate. But in order to win, you will have to immerse yourself in dance. Below are the non-negotiable conditions.Should you decide to be my dance partner, you willGive up Eagles football for the duration of our training. No going to games. No watching games on television. No discussing Eagles football with anyone. No reading the sports pages. You may not even part your beloved Baskett jersey.End your weight training by two oclock each afternoon, at which point we will go for a five-mile run, after which we will rehearse f rom 415 p.m. to 1100 p.m. on weekdays. On weekends we will rehearse from 100 p.m. to 1000 p.m. No exceptions.Make sure at to the lowest degree 15 of your friends and relatives attend the dance recital, because the judges are often swayed by applause.Do whatever I say without asking any questions.Assure I win the competition.MOST IMPORTANTLY Tell no one about our arrangement. You can tell people you are training for a dance competition, but you cannot tell anyone about my demands and my contacting Nikki on your behalf never ever.Should you meet all six demands, I will act as a liaison between Nikki and you I will attempt to end apart time, and then who knows what will happen between you and your ex-wife. If you fail to meet my demands, I am afraid you might never talk to Nikki again. She says this is your only shot.Contact me within 24 hours with your decision. Reread my list of demands, memorize each, and then burn this letter.Remember, if you want me to be your liaison, tell no o ne I am in contact with Nikki.With best intentions,TiffanyI reread the letter over and over all night. Parts I do not want to believe are true especially the parts about my committing a crime and Nikki divorcing me, which are ideas that make me feel like smashing my fist against my forehead. What type of crime would put me in such a situation, and who would drop charges when I checked myself into a neural health facility? I can take in Nikkis divorcing me because I was a bad husband, especially because, well, I was a bad husband. But I have a hard time believing I actually committed a crime that could conduce in such drastic legal measures. And yet Tiffanys letter seems to explain so much my mothers pickings down my wedding pictures, all the awful things Jake and Dad said about Nikki. If I am in truth divorced, everything my family has done to keep Nikki out of my memory would have been for my protection, especially since they are not optimistic enough to realize that I am not dead and therefore still have at least a shot at getting Nikki back, which I dont have to tell you is the silver lining to the letter.Of course, I cannot be sure about anything, since I have no memory of the past few years. peradventure Tiffany made up the story just to get me to perform in her dance competition. This is possible. I certainly would not have volunteered to be her partner, even if I am practicing being kind now. I realize that Tiffanys letter might be a trick, but the possibility of communicating with Nikki is too good to chance as it may be my last opportunity. Also, Tiffanys mentioning Gods will seems to suggest that she understands what apart time is all about. It makes virtuoso that Nikki would want me to take dancing lessons. She always wanted me to dance with her, but I never did. The thought of dancing with Nikki in the future is enough to make me accept that I will be wanting(p) the three Eagles games before the bye week, including the home game against J acksonville. I think about how angry this will make my father, Jake, and maybe even Cliff, but then I think about the possibility of finally living out the happy ending to my movie getting Nikki back and the choice is obvious.When the sun comes up, I open the window in the downstairs bathroom, burn the letter over the toilet, and flush the charred remains. Next, I run across Knights Park, jog around the Websters house, and knock on Tiffanys door. She answers in a red silk nightgown, squinting at me. Well?When do we start training? I ask.Are you ready to commit fully? pull in to give up every-thing even Eagles football?I nod eagerly. Only I cant miss my therapy sessions on Fridays, because some judge will send me back to the bad place if I do, and then we wont be able to win the competition.Ill be outside your house tomorrow at two oclock, Tiffany says, and then shuts the door.The first beautify of Tiffanys in-law suite is a dance studio. All four walls are completely cover by full-length mirrors, and three have railings like you see ballerinas using. The floor is hardwood, like a pro-basketball court, only without any painted lines and with a lighter varnish. The ceiling is high, maybe thirty feet tall, and a spiral stairway in the corner leads to Tiffanys apartment.I had this built when Tommy died, Tiffany says. I used the insurance money. Do you like my studio?I nod.Good, because its going to be home for the next month. Did you bring your photograph?I open the handle that Tiffany instructed me to bring and pull out my framed picture of Nikki I show it to Tiffany, and then she walks over to the biaural system behind the spiral staircase. From an iron hook on the wall she removes a pair of headphones the kind that cover your entire ears like earmuffs and brings them to me. A very long cord is attached.Sit, she says. I drop to the floor and sit with my legs crossed. Im going to play our song, the one we are going to dance to. Its important that you fe el a deep connection with this song. It needs to move you if its going to flow through your body. Ive picked this song for a reason. Its stainless for both of us, which youll soon see. When I put the headphones on you, I want you to stare into Nikkis eyes. I want you to feel the song. Understand?Its not a song played by a soprano saxophonist, is it? I ask, because Kenny G is my nemesis, as you know.No, she says, and then places the headphones on my ears. My ears are enveloped in the padding. Wearing the headphones makes me feel as if I am alone in this large room, even though if I look up, Tiffany will be there. With the frame in my hands, I stare into Nikkis eyes, and soon the song begins to play.Piano notes slow and sad.Two voices taking turns singing.Pain.I know the song.Tiffany was right. It is the perfect song for both of us.The song builds, the voices become more emotional, and everything inside of my actors assistant starts to hurt.The words express exactly what I have fel t since I was released from the bad place.And by the chorus, I am sobbing, because the woman singing seems to feel exactly what I am feeling, and her words, and her emotion, and her voice The song ends with the resembling sad piano notes that began the number. I look up and realize that Tiffany has been watching me war whoop, and I begin to feel embarrassed. I set my photo of Nikki down on the floor and cover my face with my hands. Im sorry. Just give me a second.Its good that the song makes you cry, Pat. Now we just have to transform those tears into motion. You need to cry through your dancing? Understand?I do not understand, but I nod anyway.