Chapter 7 - Imaginary Friends Want to Play Too! WITHOUT Peter.
When school ended Thursday afternoon, I ran down Carmel Street to Rita's office. I'd realized that Rita'd said she had to tell me something, but never did. When she was all upset about my 'mother' I was a little concerned because she seemed to be losing her mind. Many times, I've tried sitting on my floor, focusing on my past. I couldn't remember anything other than one memory.
My mother and I were sitting in the grass, sometime in the summer would be my guess. She was stroking my head gently, as I licked a butterscotch ice cream cone. I was probably four or five years old, at most. My mother - whose face was determinedly erased from my memory - was singing softly, her voice calm, light and alluring. Everything about her screamed 'World's Best Mom', but where all that ended was probably sometime after this incident happened.
'Mommy! Did you meet my imaginary friend Taylor? She's kind of mean, becasue she never talks to me. She's trying to shake your hand mommy! Say hi!' The eagerness in my little voice was unmistakable. My mother lauged and stuck her hand out to the air, faux-shaking 'Taylor's' hand.
'Nice to meet you Taylor. You be nice to my baby now, she's a good girl.' Four-year-old me giggled at this. I grabbed her hand and held onto it.
'Mommy! Tay isn't real! Oh, that's her nickname, I call her Tay, even though she isn't real. I just wanted a friend.' But what I didn't know then was how Tay was real and would definitely come back to be my 'friend'. My mother got up and told me she was going to make dinner.
I remember her telling me: 'The human brain is a powerful thing, my little Stacie. You can do so much with that brain you have. It's only the size of your fist, you know.'
The memory gets choppy from there, because one moment I see myself picking flowers, and the next moment I'm in the kitchen.
Next to my mother.
Hovering over her blood.
No matter how many times I told Rita about this, she never could figure it out...and neither could I. It was just another mystery about one of them.
**
"You haven't taken your medicine today have you?" Rita looked at me disapprovingly.
"Lookie here Reets. Those pills don't work well with me. They make me feel like crap and I don't think I need them anyway!"
"Stacie you do need them! You've been angry lately and I don't want you to do something you will regret. The last thing you need to do is turn out like your mother." Her voice held a hint of remorse, which made me feel bad of course.
"Fine! Shoot Rita, why do you always have to guilt me into stuff?!" I expected a laugh, or even a smirk, but I don't even think she'd heard me. "So sensei, what shall we discover about my sick twisted life this fine afternoon?"
"Well actually, I want to talk to you about Gina and Peter." When she said Peter a chill went down my spine, causing me to errupt in shivers. Goosebumps crawled up my arms and legs in a heated rush, and my head began to pound like a set of bass speakers. "Stacie...what's wrong? Did something happen?" My body shook involuntarily. A tickle of an eyelid later, and I was out for the count.
Tay's POV:
"Sup Shrink?" I looked at the end of my hair while Rita pulled out her silly little notepad again. "Can you tell me why punk-face Stacie made me come out from my nap? I need my beauty rest you know." She looked all confused and dumb as she flipped through her "notes".
"Tay, please tell me what is going on with Peter?" I tensed and narrowed my eyes.
"Who says there's anything to know about Peter, Rita? Did stupid Stacie blabber like the idiot she is again? Y'know, that's what got her in trouble the last t-" I shut my mouth mid-sentence.
"TAY! What is going on?! I need to know right now!" Shrink lady seemed pretty upset so I crossed my arms and leaned in close to her.
"What do you want to know?" I asked her in the rudest voice I could muster.
"I told her we were going to talk about Gina and Peter, and she just left. She let you take the body for some reason." She looked at me like I was unworthy of her presence.
"Look, here you wanna-be poser "Queen". News flash: You're a therapist. Stop acting like you own the frickin world. You want answers?" She nodded slowly. "Then you need to stop talking to me like I'm your puppy and shut up! Let me tell you what you need to know so you can LEAVE ME ALONE." Like I asked her, she kept her big mouth shut and let me speak.
"So Peter is crazy. When I say he's crazy, I mean he makes us look as sane as you are." She scoffed and I shot her a glare. She didn't make anymore noise after that. "At first, he started off like any adopted parent. Loving and caring and crap. But nope, he's not like that at all. He started taunting the poor little wimp and...." I looked off, out onto the street through the large bay-like windows.
"This is where the story makes me angrier than a tortured bull. After a while, he started touching her. Her legs, her face. He touched her butt a few times and one night she'd locked the door to take a shower, and when she came out, he was in the bathroom with the key in his hand. Sick freak. I don't know anything other than that because she's been blocking us from her thoughts lately."
Rita looked like she was about to bawl. Thankfully she didn't, because I'm not very good at comforting people. "Tay, how come she hasn't told anyone about this?!" I shrugged.
"I guess she figured everyone already saw her as the insane girl with four personalities so she probably thought they wouldn't pity her...or um...feel bad for her, you know? I'm not sure. I offered to rip his face off once, but she said 'Tay, what are the ramifications of doing something as reckless as that?', so she didn't let me do it." I rolled my eyes at the thought.
"Oh my...well, thank you Tay. You don't realize how much help you were today." I grunted in response. "Can you get Stacie to speak to me please?" I shook my head.
"She's blocked out. Sorry." She shook her head.
"No it's fine, you can go home now, but I need you to do me a favor. Whenever she lets you access her thoughts, tell her we need to speak immediately. I have some very important news for her."
"Yeah. Whatever, Shrink."
"Oh and Tay? Stay out of trouble."
**
Rita's POV Via Notepad:
'I sat down in my plush chair and massaged my temples, careful to be delicate over the small, sensitive scar on the side of my head. I should've expected something like this to come of Peter. Ever since I became Stacie's therapist, I'd never trusted the man. With his sly smile, and charming ways, he could talk anyone into anything.
My eyes began to water again, for my mind could not grasp the idea of my little Stacie being scared and defenseless as a man who should have been protecting her was the reason for her very fear. I sat there and asked myself what I was going to do.
I realized, scared or not - for myself and her possibly - I had to protect this girl. I failed once, but I could not fail again. I had to make sure she was safe, that no one could hurt her in any way. I owed it to her with every fiber of my being.
After all...
That is what mothers are supposed to do for their children...right?'
***
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YOU ARE READING
Me Myself and Them
Short Story'I am Stacie Evans, and I have a condition'. Stacie has always been alone in life. Her foster parents are abusive, and she's grown up without friends. Why? Because she's different. Stacie is a freak, and everybody knows it. When she meets the new ki...
