Don't Make Promises You Cant Keep

Three

The elevator that we were in looked big enough for twenty people. As we went up my stomach started to twist more and more to the point that I thought I would puke. The elevator opened up to a bright green hallway. About fifteen feet to my left was a heavy looking wooden door and to the right stretched a long passage. We went to the right and then took a few other corridors before coming to a heavy wooden door with a large clip art airplane taped to it and a card swipe access next to it. The airplane made the place seem so innocent and pure as if I were going in for a doctors check up and not a week long stay to determine my mental status.

The lady who walked us down the hallways now slid her key card through the access port next to the door and I heard a big lock slide out of place. I pulled open the door and we all walked through.

There was a big set of double doors to my left and to my right there was a small hallway that led to a big open room. As I walked toward the room I noticed other doors on my left, they all had two names next to the room number. I figured these must be bedrooms. There was a big rounded doctors office counter that seemed to wind around the corner of the wall and attach elsewhere.
"This is Eliza", said the lady who had been walking with me once we approached the desk.

"Ah, ok.", the lady at the counter quickly typed on her keyboard and looked at me over her glasses for a moment before asking my parents about the current situation. Her name tag read Reese.

I took a moment to take in my surroundings. There was a girl with short bleached hair standing at the counter asking for chapstick. She was about my height and was very skinny; she seemed nervous. I looked at the rest of the room too, a big painting was screwed into the wall with thick plastic covering it, there were four large windows that made the room so bright that the lights weren't even on. I figured the windows were facing west because it was nearly 4:30 and I could see the sun starting to sink closer to the horizon. There were some cabinets, a sink, and a fridge with a padlock on it. There were 5 big heavy and bulky tables that sat in the room and kids sat around playing cards or napping. One of then walked up to me,

"What's your name," the African American girl with a short afro asked.

"Eliza." I replied shakily

"I'm Denise," she replied confidently, "hey guys, we got a new kid!"

     Some kids looked up, slightly interested but mostly bored with the new change. Denise showed me around to everyone and helped me learn everyone's name. The first person we met was a girl named Kathryn. She had a huge bandage across her head which covered part of her blonde hair and thick gauze taped to her skinny arms.

"Sup dude, I'm Kathryn," she said as she vigorously shook my hand."but you can call me Kate"

"Ok" I stuttered quietly.

     The next person was a girl with platinum blonde hair and braces. She name was Sarah. She didn't seem to happy that I was here but said hello anyway. The rest of the kids were napping or busy, Denise seemed in no rush to disturb them.

"Those four playing uno by the fridge are Michael, John, Clarissa, and Mousetrap."

"...Mousetrap?" I questioned quietly

"Yeah, his real name is Bailey, but he asked everyone to call him Mousetrap" Denise said as she shrugged.

"But why? Like, why do you guys actually do it?"

"Why not"

"What happens if you don't do it?" This boy seemed to be the ringleader of everyone. Although I was in no mood to topple his hierarchy, it seemed ok to question it.

"Nothing, he used to be a drug dealer before they threw him here but now he's all bark and no bite."

Denise didn't seem to care much about who held most power and when I thought about it for a minute I realized I didn't either. My parents were still talking to the lady at the desk, Reese. She motioned me over when she saw me staring. My parents hugged me and said goodbye, my mom shed a tear but my dad remained stone faced. They walked back down the hallway with my stepmom and the lady who had walked us up here.

Reese explained some of the things that would be happening while I was in the mental hospital. She showed me the color coded schedule that was hung on the wall near some pay phones that were hanging on the wall. The schedule was the same for every day of the week except it had small changes here and there. She told me I would be meeting with a social worker in the morning to talk. After we finished talking I looked towards the group of kids I had just met. The uno game had disbanded, mousetrap and Clarissa were the only ones still sitting at the table. Michael and John had moved to sit on the chairs near the windows. I walked over and sat in a chair facing towards the window as I looked out I thought of my sisters. I missed them a lot right now. I felt the tears start slipping down my face again but wiped them off before anyone could see.

After sitting there for a couple minutes a big stocky black man wearing a nurse uniform came up to me,
"Eliza?" He asked. I nodded slowly

"I'm going to show you where your room is"

"Ok". I said as I got up to follow him.

"Hey Sharon! I didn't know you were working tonight" said Mousetrap loudly

"Better watch out Bailey, I'm on morning duty until Thursday." Sharon said disapprovingly. Mousetrap didn't respond.

We went down the hallway that I had come from earlier and the third door now had a little name tag next to it that read Eliza. Sharon explained that right now was "room time" before dinner but most kids just hung out in the big room. I thanked him and entered my room.

There were two beds. Sharon said I didn't have a roommate yet but I would probably get one soon. I looked around, there was a window, a desk that was nailed to the ground, a chair, some shelves, a big whiteboard with fill in the blanks that said nurse, mood, activity, and names but they were all blank. There was also a small bathroom separated by a heavy swinging door and two immovable nightstands that sat next to either bed. I pulled the chair away from the desk and put it near the window. It was at a perfect height. I sat there and watched the cars go by as I unbraided my hair and slowly slipped the mood ring into my pocket just in case anyone was watching me. I put my hair ties on my wrist and waited there until it was time for dinner.