© Copyright 2012
All work is property of Leah Crichton, any duplication or reproduction of all or part of the work without explicit permission by the author is illegal.
Alexa stood in the doorway to the social room and looked at its occupants warmly. Jerry sat at the far corner of the room, next to his best friend, Manuel, who was a recurring patient. He didn’t live at Paper Planes full time as Jerry did, but rather was admitted intermittently when he felt his obsessive compulsive disorder was starting to control his life.
Kara, a young girl of about fifteen who, following admission for a suicide attempt was diagnosed with borderline personality disorder, flopped on a couch which her legs thrown over the back and her head hanging from the seat. She was watching TV upside down.
Newman, who just like Sadie suffered from schizophrenia, was at the pool table lining up a shot. Lindy of course, wasn’t there but Alexa had been expecting it after Gabby said she spent all of her time with the new girl.
Newman saw her first. “Alexa!” he proclaimed.
Jerry stood, hurdled his seat and ran to her with arms wide open. “Lex!” His arms wrapped her up in a colossal hug. She’d have loved to hug him back but he had her arms pinned at her sides and her feet dangling a good six inches off the floor.
“Jerry,” she choked out. “Can’t. Breathe.”
He looked bashful as he set her down. “Sorry, Alexa. I missed you!”
“Missed you too, Jerry.”
Kara looked up from the show she was watching. “What's up Alexa?”
She smiled. “The sun, the sky and my spirits.”
Kara rolled her eyes. “No offense. Barf.”
“So, how have you guys been?”
The response was a jumbled mess of good, great, been better, horrible.
Alexa frowned as Gabby walked through the door. “Alexa, can I speak with you for a minute?”
“Sure, Auntie.” She turned to the group. “I'll be right back.”
“Don't be too long,” Jerry said, “I wrote you a poem.”
“I can't wait to hear it,” Alexa replied. “I'll just be a minute.”
She followed Gabby out to the hallway. Gabby turned. At home she was Auntie, but at work, she was all business. “I'm in a hurry, I have an appointment with Doctor Pearson in five minutes but I forgot to mention, we've started a new program and I'm going to need your help.”
“A new program! That sounds exciting.”
“Paper Planes has started accepting more youth volunteers.”
Ah! More people like Alexa. She beamed, thinking maybe this would award her the opportunity to meet others just like her. “Aunt Gabby, that's wonderful news.”
“Only they aren't exactly volunteers, so to speak. More like community service.” Gabby scrutinized her, waiting for a response.
Alexa gaped and blinked. “What?”
“Community service, as in people who've committed minor offenses. Rather than go to jail, they come here and work for our facility.”
Had Auntie lost her mind? She must've. She voiced her opinion. “Have you lost your mind? Seriously?”
At home, talking back like that would earn her a grounding or at the very least she'd be divested of her cell phone for a undetermined amount of time but she couldn't help it! It was wrong. “You can't let petty criminals near them,” she waved her hands to the social room.
