THE SUPPORT GROUP

Dr. Swanson looked at Rudy and thanked him for coming early to help him get set up for the night’s meeting.

Rudy looked at Dr. Swanson and said,

“Doc, you know in a time of crisis, you can always count on me. Besides, I don’t have much else going on at the moment.”

Dr. Swanson smiled at Rudy, empathizing with this pain.

A minute or so later, they were joined by a large man, who looked a bit sleepy. Rudy went up to the third man and shook his hand saying,

“Fred old friend, its good to see you again.”

The big man shook Rudy’s hand and then gave him a bear hug, which nearly crushed the smaller man. Fred then went up to Dr. Swanson and shook his hand as well. After that, Fred went to work helping with the chairs. Eventually, Fred asked Dr. Swanson,

“Why do we need so many extra chairs tonight?”

Dr. Swanson said sadly,

“Our group has taken on a few new members.”

Fred and Rudy gave each other looks of wonder and confusion.  Moments later, a large group of  mostly very large men entered the room. They looked uncomfortable in their blue suits, white shirts and red neckties.

Once everyone was seated, Dr. Swanson stood in front of the room and said,

“Gentlemen, welcome to the regular Tuesday’s night meeting of the former front runners support group.”

Dr. Swanson looked at a tall, handsome, dark haired man in the front row and asked,

“Tom, would you like to say something?”

The man shook his head. Dr. Swanson wondered what he could do to get Tom to open up, since without his leadership the group would be in trouble.

Finally, after several minutes of silence, Tom stood up and said,

“I’m never going back to Arizona again. Arizona is an awful place.”

That comment opened the floodgates, because everyone there had something bad to say about Arizona or someone from there.

At the end of the session several hours later, Dr. Swanson announced that they would probably have a few new members joining them next week. Fred nudged Rudy at the comment as the group ambled out the door.