The Hospital

4.

Blanche walked quickly through the corridors of the hospital, her head down, hoping to leave the building unnoticed. She wanted to go home and think about what had happened. She did not think her mother was in good hands, especially after overhearing the conversation she had had with the nurse. There had to be something she could do!Maybe she should call the police? Or would they just try to calm her and say that her mother was in good hands, in a renowned hospital, and that she had nothing to fear?

She decided that any police involvement was probably going to go against her, since it would be the word of an eighteen year old girl against the word of a public institution. Furthermore, she did not know if her mother would pick her side, were she to pick one. She had seemed so lethargic, being totally controlled by the nurse and by her visions. Maybe it was some sort of brainwashing, or mind control, and if the head doctor, Doctor Geer, who had seemed so friendly and warm, was involved as well, there was literally no one she had by her side. She had to do something about it herself. She had to take matters into her own hands and prove that there were strange things going on with her mother in that hospital. A hospital is not meant to convert people to any religion. It is meant to save lives, heal wounds, mental as well as physical ones.

As her thoughts swirled through her head and she passed a corner, she collided heavily with a dark silhouette coming from the right. She fell to the ground, her first thought being that someone had seen her leave her mother's room and had tracked her down and tackled her. She looked up and saw not a person wearing a white hospital blouse, but a young man, not much older than she was, wearing a black hoodie and reaching out to her to help her get up.

"I am terribly sorry", the man said. "I was not looking where I was going and did not see you coming."

"No, it was my fault", Blanche responded, gratefully taking his hand, getting up and dusting herself off. "I was in a hurry and I was looking down."

"So we are all good then?", the young man said, smiling.

"Yes, we definitely are."

Blanche looked at his face and he suddenly seemed familiar. Dark brown hair, big, green-brown eyes, and a charming smile. She had seen that before. The look in his eyes told her that he was thinking the same thing. Blanche was the first to break the awkward silence growing between them.

"Do we know each other?", she asked.

"I think we do. You were at Green Hill High School, right?", he answered.

"Yes, I was. You were there too?"

"I was indeed. How old are you? We were definitely not in the same year, or I would have remembered you instantly. I am twenty years old."

"I am eighteen, I must have been two grades below you, but now I think I remember. Were you not on the school's football team?", Blanche asked, suddenly scared of the turn the conversation was taking.

"Yes, I did play there for a couple of years. Now I think I know where I saw you, I know why your face seems familiar", the man said, looking down at the ground, almost ashamed at the memory that popped back into his head.

Blanche knew exactly what he was thinking of. At Green Hill High, she had been bullied, just like she had been at the schools before and after Green Hill. But there had been an incident at that school that had been more humiliating than all the other things she had ever dealt with before.

It was her sixteenth birthday but she thought no one knew about it since she had no friends and did not talk to anyone. On that particular day, there was a big football game against a rival team. At the school, everyone had to watch the games, it was part of the culture, so Blanche went to the game too. She actually enjoyed watching football, because she was a girl and she liked watching athletic, good looking boys compete against each other.