The Right Answer

chapter 3

'Tyler!' His mum said loudly, and sighed as she realsied he had been in a daydream that whole time. 'Yes?' He asks, his head cocked to one side. Kelly pressed her lips together and started over. 'We are taking you to see a nice lady who is going to help you, okay?' Kelly asked slowly. Tyler was confused. Why did he have to see a lady? He didn't really want to. 'Why?' He asked, frowning. 'Because she is going to help you with communication and to stop your head shaking and getting over what happened.' Kelly had turned red. 'Getting over what?' He asked.
'Over what happened to Jay.' She said quietly. He thought for a minute, frowning and trying to retrieve the  memory, and found it. His stomach flipped and heart dropped in sadness. How could that have been when he was only 10 years old? He didn't think about it as much but when he did he had to shake his head a lot to get rid of it. The pain never died away and was almost as fresh as the day it happened.

His brain was full of the memories of the day, and he could still remember Jay's body thrown against the wall, killing him. That picture, even after five years, was still crystal clear. He still remembered the way Jay looked at him hopefully, the way the kids eyes lit up when they saw them, the way Jay screamed when He realised his breaks had stopped working, the way the smack sounded when he was smashed against the wall.
'Okay,' he muttured, almost forgetting what his mom had told him. The memories were clogging up his focusing and listening skills. Kelly breathed a sign of relief. 'Great,' She said, and got up to leave the table and scrape away the leftover food.

Tyler sat trying to remember what she had said as he wasn't listening. All he heard was 'see a nice lady' he decided not to worry and got his things ready for a day of lessons with his mom.

-

At 3pm they finished lessons and him mom drove Tyler to see this woman. Tyler would have protested, but luckily his mom knew all the tricks and allowed him to bring his Nintendo DS, so he stayed silent in the back seat,  engrossed in playing Super Mario brothers.

His mum gently led him in as Tyler was worried now, looking around anxiously and confused and grumpy. Mainly because he wanted to complete world 8 on Mario and his mom had made him leave his DS in the car.

The lady sat in front of Tyler and leant forward to look at him. 'Nice to meet you Tyler.' She said quietly. Tyler was confused. Most people didn't think it was nice to meet him and found him irritating. 'Is it?' He asked, still frowning over Mario. He saw his mom glare at him fiercely from the other seat. Tyler tried to remember what that meant. Ahh yes, that was it. It meant was he said wasn't the right answer.

He cleared his throat and was going to attempt the right answer, but saw a keyboard in the corner of the room. All other voices were now muffled, and all Tyler focused on was the keyboard. Nothing else mattered; everything else was blurry anyway,  only the keyboard was in sharp focus.

He went and sat at the stool on front of it, his fingers itching to play it. He glided his fingers over the smooth keys, wandering which to play first. Everyone else had now gone quiet, it was only silence and anticipation.

He pressed middle C, his whole body relaxing when He heard it. He played more, and then played one of his songs, singing quietly to himself. He played another, and another until his fingers ached after playing 7 songs.

Tyler didn't notice his parents had left, so when he had finished he frowned in confusion. 'it's okay, they're coming now,' said the woman in a scarily soft voice.
Tyler felt it sounded like an iron fist in a satin glove.

His parents entered, looking worried. They muttered to her quietly, while Tyler took to lining up all the cars in a perfect shade order on the road rug.

Just when they were leaving, someone caught Tylers eye. A person sat on a chair in the waiting room, hunched over, with muscly arms and legs, but a soft girls face, and short boy hair, the color of rubies, stuffed under a grey cap.

Tyler was confused.  Was that a girl? They certainly had the face of one, and he could make out a curved figure underneath the ripped jeans and baggy shirt. But surely they were a boy? They had muscly arms and boyish clothes and hair, and a fiercely colourful tattoo covering all of their arm. They also had a boyish jawline,  and he was sure he could see shadowy stubble but, as they passed, he realised this was paint.

All the way home Tyler didn't play on Super Mario Brothers, but thought of the confusing person in the waiting room. In a way he didn't like it because everything had to be planned out for him, but liked it at the same time, though he couldn't think why.