Oh, the Guilt

Sometimes you just have to let it go

Lloyd lay on the couch, his hands folded over his stomach.

“I’ve gotta tell ya, Doc. I’ve got this massive amount of guilt.”

“Tell me about it,” Dr. Livengood said.

“You know the breakout of forest fires in Oregon?”

“Yeah.”

“My fault. The ones in Washington and California?”

“You mean the ones taking out entire towns and destroying all those mansions?”

“Yep, don’t rub it in, Doc. My fault. Might as well have lit the match myself.”

“Why is it your fault, Lloyd? You’re in Arkansas, halfway across the country.”

“Goes back to my childhood, Doc.”

“I’m listening.”

Lloyd started humming and Dr. Livengood recognized the tune but let him continue.

“You know what I’m humming, don’t you, Doc?”

“Sure do. Brings a smile to my face. ‘Howlin’ and a growling and a sniff in the air.’”

“Right. That’s why.”

“I don’t understand,” said the psychologist

“I’ve been falling down on the job, Doc. What did Smokey always tell us?”

Livengood thought back to the commercials that flooded the airwaves in the 70s.

“You remember, don’t you, Doc? Remember, he said, ‘Only YOU can prevent forest fires,’ Doc. For once I’d just like to get an hour off from preventing those fires, just once.”

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