Mateo

16

Those weird people finally let me out of the building later on that day. I've been walking around with a girl with curly purple-ish, black hair all day. She was pointing out the names of buildings for me that I would instantly forget right after.

I got out my phone. How do you search for things again?

"Hey, you."

The girl stopped talking and looked at me. "Hm?"

"How do you search things up on the. . . the," I waved my phone in the air, "thingy?"

"The Internet?" She spoke slowly as if that would help me remember.

"I guess." I shrugged, letting her take my phone from me. She knew how to work the thingy better than I did.

"What was it you wanted to Google?"

"Google?" I repeated.

"Yes. That's what we use on the Internet."

"Internet?"

"Never mind." She put my phone into the bag she was carrying. "Let's just focus on getting you back home."

Home?

•

Once we got into the place I'm assuming we called home, the purple-haired girl opened a cabinet. She turned and began walking towards me with a small see-through orange container.

She dumped a small, white oval-shaped thing into her palm. "Take this."

"W-Why must I. . . must I take. . ."

"A pill," she finished for me. "Because the doctor said so. It'll help ease the pain in your head—or at least some bits and pieces of it."

"How do I. . . how do I take a pill?"

She got a water bottle from the refrigerator and put it into my hands. "You pop it into your mouth and then swallow the water." She put the pill into my other hand. "You got this."

I looked at the thing. It was so big. Could I even swallow it? What if I choked?

"I wonder if there's a liquid version." The girl grabbed her phone.

I popped the pill in my mouth like she said and gulped the water. To my surprise, it went down smoothly. It went down so smoothly that I wanted to get another and another and another.

I reached for the container when the girl smacked my hand. "If you get another one, you will overdose."

"Overdose?" I cocked my head to the side.

"Die." The girl got up off of the couch. "Or get close to it." She put the things back where she got them. "What do you want to eat?"

"Whatever you cook." I picked up a black, plastic thing that had multiple buttons on them along with a red button that had the words 'off/on' on it.

"That's a remote." The girl said from where she was in the kitchen. "Click the button while aiming it at the TV."

I held up the thingy in the air while clicking the button and nothing happened.

"You have to aim it at the big black screen," The girl explained in terms that I could finally comprehend.

"Ohhhh." I aimed the plastic thing towards the screen thing and. . . boom! The screen was on!

I clicked through some random apps including Netflix, Xfinity, Disney +, etc. I wasn't sure what app did what, so I decided to close my eyes and whichever one I picked would be the one I watched. I'm assuming I chose Netflix 'cause when I opened my eyes, I saw 'Netflix' in red letters over a black background.

"What should I watch?"

The girl brought me a plate full of yummy food. "Lemme set it up for ya." She grabbed the plastic thing and began scrolling through different shows. "Here, I put on All American; it's one of my favorite shows."

"Okay. Thank you."

She smiled. "Anytime."

After finishing my food, I drifted off into a nap. I found it kinda funny because I didn't even think I was that sleepy.

"I love you, Mayo." I kissed his forehead.

"I wove you too, Momma." He motioned for me to lower my head to his level, then I felt his small lips on my forehead. When I opened my eyes, he smiled with nothing but joy filling those sparkling grey gems.

I opened my eyes quickly, breathing heavily just like the other times I would dream about this boy. "Hey!" I hoped that would get the girl to come back in here. I'd forgotten her name and I was sure as hell I wasn't gonna recall it any time soon.

The next thing I knew, she was rushing into the living room. "What's wrong? Are you okay? I think it's time for you to take your pill." She walked swiftly towards that same cabinet she got it out of before. "Here, take this." She picked up a bottle. "And your water too."

"Thanks." I took the white oval-shaped thing like a pro. "Hey, uh do you know who Mateo is?"

The girl stopped in her tracks before she hesitantly answered, "Yes, why?"

"Was he my son? Did I have a child?"

"No." She gulped. "Mateo was just some kid that you ran into at the store. He was nice to you and said 'hey' from time to time, but y'all never had any type of relationship for real, for real."

"But then why did he say in my dream, 'I wove you too, Momma'?"

The girl chuckled nervously. "His mom would leave him sometimes in the store so he would refer to you as his mom."

"T-Then why'd I kiss him? O-On his forehead?"

The girl rolled her eyes, clearly annoyed with me right now. "It was just a dream." She picked up my finished plate and walked it into the kitchen.

"I-It felt so real."

"That's how all dreams feel until you wake up."

"But-"

"Enough with your stupid questions!" She slammed the dish into the sink. "Mateo is not your child and will never be your child. It was just a dream, for fuck's sake! Stop pestering me about that boy because I don't know any more than you do, alright?"

I slowly nodded my head. What was her problem?

Throughout the day, no matter how much I wanted to forget about Mateo, he was constantly on my mind. He was the one thing I couldn't forget even if I tried. I would soak up any information that involved that Mateo figure without forgetting a single detail. I know that girl said he was just some little boy that I met in the grocery store, but I knew we had something deeper than that.

Since that girl wasn't going to tell me the truth about him, I was going to have to find out myself.

—