She almost turned around three times. Once in the parking lot. Once at the front steps. Once with her hand on the door handle. But she opened it.
The healing club did not look like what she expected. No fluorescent lights. No clipboards. A woman about thirty was sitting on a couch with a cup of coffee. She looked up.
“Hi. I’m Katie.”
“I’m—I don’t know why I’m here.”
“That’s okay. Nobody does at first. Want some coffee?”
Carrie sat down. She did not speak for forty minutes. Katie did not push. When Carrie finally said—“I think I hurt a lot of people”—Katie nodded and said:
“Yeah. I did too. Want to talk about it?”
And Carrie, the girl who had terrorized hallways, put her head in her hands and cried. Katie handed her a tissue and said: “That’s a good start.”
The healing program does not ask whether you were the victim or the one who caused harm. It asks one question: are you willing to change? Carrie’s answer was tears. And tears were enough.