Noisy Colours

Chapter 9: Naima

"Naima!"

I smashed into the door of our apartment, which is the place where I was completely sure Naima would be out of all the places. Up from the moment I dashed out of the building where the medical conference was, to this present time, all I did was run. But now that I had finally arrived at the destination, the rush was as big as ever.

"Lana...?" My mother asked out of surprise, with her head coming out of the corner of the corridor, staring at me now with her usual confused look full of dignity.

"Where is she?!"

She came out of the corner, showing her full body now, but keeping the same confused and unsure face expression, and lastly moved her hand towards the direction of the living room. I turned my head around and I saw her. She was sitting on the sofa, as always, with her back against the wall, but still bent a little round so that it would be more comfortable to her. The golden sunlight rays of the afternoon were hitting the back of her head, showing clearly all of the thin hair that was out of the shape of the rest of the hair, which underlined the contour of her face. The dark little space between her vampire red lips made it clear that her mouth was open out of the surprise that her face clearly portrayed, just like her wide-open eyes that have slightly taken the shape of ovals now. She was breathing heavily, just like she has been doing in the past months, but once I looked down at the object that she was holding tight in her palms, I noticed that it was scissors. She was cutting her hair again.

But in any case, she was still here, and now I know how to let her stay with us for longer.

I turned right over to her and walked up to the couch, trying to find the right words to tell her.

"Listen, when I was on the plane, I met this person that had the same condition as you! But he looked completely fine, so when I asked him, I found out that there is a way to keep you just as fine as he was! So I went to this important conference, and I found out that all you need to do is believe that you are fine and keep your muscles moving! Can you believe that?"

"...what...?" As I continued pronouncing word-after-word, Naima's facial expression did not even change in the slightest. The only thing that still gave a sign of her listening to me were her eyes going back and forth from my right eye to the left one.

"You can stay alive if you do that, Naima!"

"No, Lana, how many times do I have to explain myself? I am dy-"

"Don't! You can stop saying it now! We just need to pick ourselves up and do a little bit of work. That's it!"

"Lana, did you hit your head while going on the plane?"

"Mama! I am fine! She isn't! After so many years we finally have something that can give us hope to save Naima! And you just say that I'm crazy?!"

"Lana-" My mother said one more time, raising her hand to put her palm on my head, which I hit with my palm as soon as I noticed that movement.

"Naima, tell me, what are you afraid of now?!"

Pause, silence in the room.

Sight. "You said that it's about believing that everything will turn out OK. But I can't do that. I...I have been trying to believe that everything is fine, but every time the disease proved me wrong."

"What you have been doing before, was ignoring the fact that you have a serious disease caught by your body. And then, you just accepted it without thinking of it further. But the thing is that it's not the body, it's the brain, it's your mind! If you really convince yourself that you are going to get better, you will."