To Make You Smile

To Take You To Places

Chapter 5

To Take You To Places

My school will hold a party where everyone gets to bring whoever they want. Since Alisa is educated right inside her room, I decided to bring her to a real school. A big plus to my idea is when she asked me how parties feel like. I turned down every date invitation offered to me by the girls and went straight to the hospital. I came across my father on the way to the halls. "Are you planning to go to Alisa?" he asked, pulling at his gloves.

"Yeah, why?"

"She's... uh... currently under heavy treatment. Her cancer cells are winning her over, so we decided to keep her inside the room for one week before she can go out again."

I sighed. "But can she recieve me tomorrow as a visitor?"

My father contemplated on this suggestion. "I think I know a way. Why not be the one to administer her food and monitor her, hmm? That way you'll be allowed inside anytime you want. Her food is already fixed with the exact nutrients she needs, so there's no problem with you mixing the names of food up. Sound enough to you?"

I nodded. "Thanks, Dad."

I decided I wouldn't go to the party at all and just stay with Alisa whenever I have free time. The next day, I went inside her room with the salad Dad wanted her to eat. "Hey, Alisa?"

"Yes?" I saw that her cheeks were a little thin. She lost that healthy glow on her skin, too. "Oh, so you're my doctor now?" she asked innocently, and then smiled. I admired how she can still smile even though she just underwent a near-fatal event last night. If it wasn't for the technology today, they would've already lost her. "And, is that food? I'm starving!"

I handed her the salad, which she finished in just a few minutes. "When's your birthday?" I asked, trying to start a conversation.

"May fourteen, why?"

"I just wanted to know... so I can give you a present or something."

"Really?" She smiled again. Pulling out her sketchpad, she hastily flipped through the pages that I feared she would get a paper cut. She pulled out a canvas the size of an oslo paper sheet and showed me a painting that absorbed me inside its colors. It was a painting of a diver reaching out to the light that penetrated the water, but the diver is still stuck in the dark depths of the sea. The light formed a curtain around the diver, though, which gave the impression that he was trying his best to go towards the light. "I tried painting out last night after telling your father that you gave me some materials. He cut off some canvas from the rolls he was carrying and gave me this. The moment they were finished on giving me treatment, I set to work late in the night. It was pretty hard and I made a mess with the paint at first, but I finally got used to it. If you only saw the sheets that covered me last night!" She began laughing. "It had blue and yellow stains splattered all over!"

She does find good things in the bad, no matter how small they can be. "This one's really cool. You should frame it."

"Hmm... I guess." She slid it back into her sketchpad and sat up. "You know, I actually painted that so I could take you to places."

"Huh?"

"I told you, people can travel just through imagination. I made that because I thought of you. You're the diver in there, reaching out to hope, but is still pulled to the dark depths of despair. However, since you have strong will, you still side onto hope." She sighed. "Although in reality, it's just simply made so I could take you under the sea."

I admit, she had the perfect logic. "You pitched me into the waters perfectly, in actuality. The moment I looked into that painting, I couldn't breathe and I thought I was underwater."

She beamed me a smile. "Really? That's great!" She put it back under her pillow. "I can't believe I'll be stuck here for a week."

"Aren't you used to that? You've been stuck here for ten years."

"I mean, it just saddens me when I hear them tell me I'll be confined and not allowed to do something exhausting like drawing for a week."

"Aww..." I felt the grief in her voice. "But there's still the iPod and the headphones with you."

"Can it take me to places like my drawings do?"

I thought for a while before answering her. "Yes. Listen to the singer's words. You'll be pulled into the world where the singer keeps singing about. Is that enough?"

She pulled out yet another smile from her sleeve. "Yeah. It's really fun listening to other people's stories. Come to think of it, I haven't heard your story yet."

"If you heard it, you'll be taken to a world of hopelessness. It might ruin your optimism."

"It's still a story, and it will still take me to places. Life's too short to keep secrets. Plus, I'm here putting my optimism on the line so I could hear your tale."

I sighed. "Argument valid. I'm gonna tell you, be privileged."

She sat back comfortably and waited. "Okay. When I was younger, my mom left me and my dad for another man she told us about. A few years later, we discovered she left that man too for yet another. Then my father became a drunkard and roamed the streets like a punk. He changed when he realized he still had me and suddenly transformed into an optimistic man and applied at a hospital as a nurse. He got promoted and promoted until we got to this situation. End of story."

Alisa tilted her head to one side innocently. "So that's your tale? Man, I feel like drawing a dark street from a broken bottle's perspective. Unfortunately, I'm not allowed to." She sighed and crossed her arms. "But, look, I'm still optimistic. It was quite the dark past." She stretched and slid back down. "But I'm glad I managed to ignite that little candle of hope inside you."

We chatted for a while before she fell asleep again. I exited the room quietly and returned home. Yeah, she did manage to lift my pessimism a little. But if she really does take it off me, then the first thing she will see would be a smile that can take her to places.