Dr. Matilda Honey has dedicated her whole life to helping children, especially those with The Shining, children with special abilities as she was. For many years, she has actively contributed in Eleven Foundation, an organization dedicated to suppor...
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Shining among Darkness
By WingzemonX
Chapter 03. A different nature
On Wednesday of her first week in Oregon, Matilda had her third session with Samara and was the first in which she managed to get them to talk outside of that interrogation room where the two previous ones had gotten. Matilda had suggested the cafeteria, but Dr. Scott's goodwill didn't go that far. Instead, he allowed them to use a special room to interview children, smaller than Samara. It was a room structurally similar to the other: same dimensions, entirely white, a single door, and a double mirror at one end. However, it had several things inside, so they made seeing and feeling the space more pleasant: small chairs, a couple of couches, toys, balls, coloring books, and, of course, colors. There was also a tapestry of flowers and grass covering the lower part of the wall, and paper figures hanging from the ceiling.
That room should make more comfortable a child of five or six, for sure. But, Matilda wasn't sure if it could work with a twelve-year-old girl like Samara. Likewise, she hoped that anything could be better than that white room.
In the first instance, Samara did not seem to show emotion or repudiation of the new scenario; the coldness and indifference of her face had remained constant since their talk last Monday. She led her to one of the coloring tables, and they sat on the chairs (which were apparently quite small for both of them, but at least the young girl with long black hair could accommodate herself better).
After a few casual minutes that mainly consisted of asking about how she felt, if had eaten well, and if wanted to talk about something in particular (which she responded by merely shaking her head), Matilda quickly moved on to something else. From his briefcase, which she always brought with her, she took out a rectangle that was a little thick, just a little taller and longer than a legal size sheet. Samara looked at it curiously. At first glance, it seemed like a pack of white paper sheets, but it was evident that they were thicker than regular sheets. They were like little cardboard to paint. Matilda took out one of them and placed it on the table, right in front of her.
"I'd like you to draw something for me if you feel ok doing it," she said softly, widening his smile.
Samara looked at her askance for a while, in silence.
"What thing?"
"Whatever you want." Matilda shrugged and sat upright in her little chair. "What comes to your mind?"
Samara kept looking at her for a few more moments as if hesitating between doing it or not. In the end, she seemed to accept, because she extended her right hand to the pencil jar near her on the table. However, Matilda stopped her.
"If you want to do it with a pencil, pen or watercolor, it's perfect." The psychiatrist said. "But, if it's not an inconvenience for you, I'd like you to do it the other way." There was a small pause. "You know, the one only you can do."
