I was afraid of being told that things would work out fine if only I’d put my faith in God once and for all. Marie thinks I’m complicating my life by not believing in God. For her, having faith is easy, so why deprive yourself of it, why take unnecessary chances? But Marie didn’t mention God. As she’d never heard of agoraphobia, she began by listening to me, occasionally requesting clarifications and bursting into laughter when she realized how ridiculous and untenable agoraphobia could be. Her eyes filled with tears when I explained that I was unable to drive alone along the road between Fox Creek and La Hêtrière that leads into the Memramcook valley. I should mention that Marie weighs more than 250 pounds and that her tears were prompted mainly by the idea of being deprived of the excellent pies served at LeBlanc’s restaurant across from the Saint-Joseph baseball field in the valley. She found it less of a problem that I couldn’t bring myself to drive to Shediac for fear of having an attack on the highway.
