Second Chances: An Unexpected Angel

Chapter 15

For the next few weeks, I tried to lose myself in my music to distract myself from the pain, but I was having very little luck escaping. I tried to cheer myself up with funny videos from my favorite YouTubers, but that only worked for a little while. No matter what I did, I couldn't escape my heartache.

Then, one Saturday morning, Hayley suggested a full day of movies and junk food, since that seemed to help me the first time. She and I both decided on the Lord of the Rings trilogy. We curled up on the sofa with pizza, chips, soda, and lots of other junk foods while we lost ourselves in the epic movies.

Since it was so hard for me to see what was going on at times, Hayley happily explained everything to me, simplifying it, so my Autistic brain could comprehend it all.

I quickly became very fascinated with the character Sméagol/Gollum, and paid close attention to his story and role in the movies. His voice immediately grabbed my attention. Well, actually, Gollum and Sméagol's voices are a bit different from one another, even though the two personalities live in the same body. Gollum's voice is more gravelly and fruity, while Sméagol's is much softer. Okay, if you're a Lord of the Rings fan, you already know their story, so I won't repeat it too much here.

Sméagol not only fascinated me, but hearing his voice brought me great comfort. There was something special about his voice that made me feel so warm and fuzzy inside. However, when it came to the Forbidden Pool scene, my heart shattered when Faramir's rangers took Sméagol back to the cave, and beat the snot out of him. The sound of him screaming in pain was heartbreaking, and when he curled up in a ball crying, I found myself crying with him. Hearing Gollum talk softly to him, and watching him trying to comfort Sméagol made me cry even harder. While he was wrong about Frodo betraying him and Sméagol, I understood why they both felt that way.

Seeing how much Sméagol and Gollum struggled with their addiction to the One Ring, I couldn't help but feel bad for both of them. I knew that none of their actions involving the ring were their fault. The ring had way too much power over them.

At the end, when they lost their fight against the One Ring, and fell off the edge of Mount Doom, I broke down sobbing even harder than I did when Logan dumped me. I wanted to reach through the screen, pull them away from the edge, and throw that stupid ring into the lava myself. I also wanted to strangle Sauron to death, but throwing the ring into the fire would hurt him even more than hands around the throat ever could. Man, what a piece of shit.

Just as the movie was finishing up, the doorbell rang. Hayley quietly got up from the sofa to answer it while I concentrated on the movie. When it ended, I looked up to see Abby standing next to the sofa. "Hi," I said awkwardly.

"Hey," she greeted happily. "Were you just watching Lord of the Rings?"

"Yep."

"Well? What'd you think?"

"It was amazing," I sniffled.

"Awww, it made me cry, too."