I’m a little shocked by his story. It was so… normal. He actually seemed to have a normal childhood, which I wasn’t used to. Sure, he killed his parents but… at least he got to spend time with them.
I can’t exactly dell if that story hurt him to tell me in any way, so I decide to ask.
‘Wow… are you ok?’
He reads it and nods, smiling a little.
“Yeah, don’t worry I’m fine. I don’t have a problem telling what’s wrong with me. To me, it’s not a big deal. I killed my parents because I was addicted to drugs and couldn’t get my fix.” He shrugs and I just watch him for a second.
He really does seem like he’s perfectly fine with it.
“Now, since I told you what my story is, what’s yours?” He asks, winking and smiling at me.
I blush a little and look down at the notebook in my lap.
‘That’s a story for another time… maybe tomorrow?’ I write and show him.
He nods, “Okay that’s fair enough. I have a feeling it’s going to be a hard story to tell…”
I just look down at my notebook again, sighing.
“Can I ask you a question?” He asks and I nod. “How long have you been here…?”
‘Since I was about… 5 or 6 I think… I’m not too sure…’
I show him what I wrote and his eyes get a little bit wide.
“Wow, that’s a long time…” He trails off into silence and we sit there together for a bit, about 15 minutes. The lunch bell rings and we both get up at the same time and head out into the hallway and down the stairs.
In the cafeteria, I just get a little food, not really hungry. Caden and I sit down and I hardly interact with him. I think he can tell that something’s wrong but he doesn’t seem willing to ask.
The only reason why I wasn’t conversing with him and being social is because my thoughts are wrapped up in thinking back at before I got to the hospital. I can hardly remember what happened to me… I remember blood and a bus… a hospital I think but that’s it.
Most of the story I’ve pieced together so far is most likely just from my imagination, nothing really plausible. And that’s what pisses me off. It’s as if I have some sort of amnesia that is blocking me from remembering exactly what happened.
You would think that being put in a place like this would make you remember whatever bad thing happened that got you here.
---
Caden sleeps in my room again, but this time he sleeps on his old cot. He’s moved himself back in permanently, ignoring the warnings of Griffin.
I don’t know why Griffin doesn’t want us together, maybe he thinks we’re planning some kind of elaborate scheme, which isn’t true. Caden and I actually haven’t really talked about things like that… surprisingly.
I’m glad that Caden has started sleeping in the same room as me, it makes me feel a lot more comfortable for some reason. I guess because he was with me for so long and I’ve gotten used to having another body across the room that being without him is just so awkward.
The next morning, I go to breakfast with him and then to my meeting with Becca. As soon as I’m in her office, she starts babbling about something.
‘ Um… slow down?’ I ask, and she laughs.
“Oh I’m so sorry!! I’m just so excited about this new thing I found. See, it’s a kind of activity to get you used to going outside, like we were talking about. I was searching the internet and I found it. Come over here.”
I get up and go over to stand beside her, behind her desk. She has some website pulled up on the screen, with some kind of video pop out player taking up most of it. There’s a bright blue play button in the middle.
“Here, take my seat.” She gets up and I sit down in her surprisingly super comfy chair. “Now, I want you to do what this says, it’s really easy and I thought it was really amazing when I did it. I’m going to go wait over there and read a book while you do this. Oh, and here’s a worksheet I want you to complete when you get done with this.” She hands it to me and I take it, looking at the questions but not reading them.
She goes over and sits in one of the chairs and opens a book, leaving me to this. I hesitate a second and then press the play button. A white screen appears with the words ‘put on headphones’ in black. I look around her desk and find that she already has some plugged in for me.
I put the headphones in my ears and press the next button under the line of type.
‘Enjoy the outdoors’ pops up next and my eyes get a little wide as the screen fades out.
What used to be just a plain white screen with black type turns into a panoramic view of some landscape, moving before the camera. A little pop up in a blue box says that the camera is fastened to the bottom of a camera and is showing a live feed of the helicopter flying over some location.
The sound works and I can hear birds, water, the sounds of the helicopter and the air rushing past. I sit there for I don’t know how long, just watching all the beautiful scenery pass by, and eventually I realize that I can move the camera and I do, examining everything.
And I must say… it’s the best thing I have experienced so far when it comes to nature.
---
Hope you liked it!
I’m glad I got a lot of positive feedback for Caden’s story.
Thanks for your support.