The Asylum (Editing in Progress)

XI

Nineteen days later, and we're all sitting in the main rec room. Charlie is reading in her oversized chair, Patrick is sketching something is his sketchpad, Skai and John are sitting in front of the little television watching anime.
It was visitors day. As you can tell, everyone is enthralled. People don't visit us. But Esther, every Thursday, hangs out by the visitors door, waiting for someone familiar to walk through and say hello. Every Thursday, she walks back to me and sits in my lap, defeated.
She was walking toward me now, looking as glum as she did every Thurday. I was sitting in the floor, staring out a small window, which exposed the tops of the budding trees.
She came over to me and sat in my lap without saying a word. I stroked her beautiful blonde hair, putting her face against my shoulder.
"What do you want to do today?" I ask her, attempting to lift her spirits. She lifts her head from my shoulder and looks at me. She pans her eyes around the room, in search of some sort of activity.
"Wanna do a puzzle?" She offers, cheerily. I nod and she gets up. "I want to pick it out." I chuckle, "Okay."
She sits down with a box at a small round table and looks up at me. "Let's go, Mouse. Giddy-yup." I stand up and walk over to the small table she occupied and sat down.
"Puppies!" She exclaimed, informing me of the subject of the puzzle. And of course, there were puppies. Pupppies wrapped in blankets, with stuff on their nose, with other puppies. Dalmation puppies, Labrador puppies, Chihuahua puppies. A collage of puppies on three hundred puzzle pieces scattered across the table.
We sat and did the puzzle, not saying anything for a moment.
"Thirty-eight days." She said solemnly. "What am I going to do without you here, Mouse? I don't get out for another year." I sighed. I had thought about this since the night we shared secrets in my room. I thought that I had better not get attatched, but I couldn't help it. John was going to leave a couple weeks before me, and I was sad about that. We told each other we'd meet on the outside, and we'd be best friends out there, but I wasn't so sure about that. I knew that I'd miss everyone here. They were my family. Of course you'd miss family. I promised to visit. I promise to bring souvineers, to tell them stories. The more I think about it, the more I don't want to leave. I wouldn't mind staying here the rest of my life, but it wouldn't be fair. I have the chance to go out and live as Esther did. Why wouldn't I take advantage of that?
"Can you promise me something?" She says, focused on the puzzle. I look at her, searching for a piece to match the one in her hand.
"Yeah, what is it, Ivy?" I ask, worried about the naive tone of her voice. She looked up at me, forcing and holding eye contact.
"When you get out of here, get as far away as possible. I know you'll miss everyone, but you need to live. You need to see the world as everyone should. You need to walk on the beach and see your footprints washed away by the tide, you need to see the stars at three in the morning, you need to stay up late talking to a girl, you need to have your first kiss and lose your virginity. You need to go out and experience life to the fullest. You need to enjoy everything. Join a group of people. Have friends. Get your heart broken. You need to experience these things in order to fully enjoy your life. You need to live, dammit. Live!"
There was a dismal fire in her eyes, showing she was passionate about all she said. I don't know if she was saying this to herself more than to me, but I heeded her words anyways. I knew what she said to be true. I had thought about it since the day I was shoved in here. I knew I wanted to go out and explore, to enjoy everything. I knew I needed to experience life at its fullest. I knew that being cooped up in a whitewashed hellhouse was enough to drive anyone to think they needed to grab life by the throat and pin it up against the wall, stare into its gnarled face, and laugh.
"What about you?" I say shakily. I didn't want to cry; I hate crying in front of people, especially girls.
"I'll be out in about a year. I'll survive, but I'll miss you." She said, matter-of-factly.
"I'll miss you too." I say a bit shakily. She looked up at me with her beautiful Gulf eyes, a bit sad.
"We're just going to have to make the most of our time then, huh?" She says, more characteristically.
I fit a puzzle piece into its neighbor.
"Yes we will."