Terror Talk

It's Halloween again and this year a certain talkative doctor isn't going to be home, but is faced with a unique challenge even he may be unable to talk his way out of, until of course an unexpected phone call provides the perfect solution in the form of his neighbor's too cute daughter.

When Roger from next door calls, the doctor is not exactly sure what his longtime neighbor could want, especially since as far as he knows Roger and his wife left town for a while. As it turns out, they did leave town, and their daughter Laura is home alone for the first time in a few years.

As they talk, he learns that Laura would have started college but everything the past several years has really stressed and frightened her, so the pretty girl decided to take the semester off, prepare herself for college, for taking a big frightening step into a new chapter of life.

But the conversation also reveals that Laura is generally near petrified about anything and everything, her fears getting the best of her, and that is why Roger called. Since it's Halloween night, he hoped the good doc might not mind her stopping by, having a chat with her, encouraging her or doing whatever psychologists and psychiatrists tend to do so well.

With his own frustrations about Halloween in mind, the doctor agrees to have a talk with Laura, for Roger to call her back and send her on over under the guise that he needs help with something since Laura wouldn't want to come if she knew they'd be discussing her fears.

Shortly after, the quite pretty but definitely timid Laura shows up, and our favorite conversational doc gets right to the issue of discussing her fears. As it turns out a lot is based on pandemic fears, constantly washing hands, afraid of turning up positive, worried about the world, too many fears an already frightened girl can handle.

Running through an exercise with Laura, the doctor has her stand up, elbows at her side, arms out, palms of her hands up. He places empty Halloween pumpkin buckets on each arm and tells her that the exercise is all about balancing her fears before those fears get the best of her.

By talking through the most common fears a girl like Laura could have, the doctor adds handfuls of candy to each bowl, pointing out how when too much fear or candy is in one, it tips her, causing everything to be out of balance.

But is this really an exercise for her benefit or is the talkative doctor just talking terror to see just how literally petrified poor Laura can become, forever frozen holding his candy buckets... providing the perfect front porch decoration to keep boys from down the street from vandalizing his property while he is away for a number of hours?

Will Laura overcome her fears, or be overcome by them, leading to a literal overcumming situation? Will the boys from down the street take the bait and only vandalize one pretty though very real decoration he has out this year? And just what will the good doctor find waiting for him when he finally returns home?

It's Halloween with the Kreme, and that means it is time to talk fears, time for Terror Talk, but in the end actions speak louder than words.