Truth.
I couldn’t stop my heart from beating so fast. It was pounding so hard to the point where I could hear it in my chest. I was in complete shock that Dominic just asked that question. Of all things, why did he have to ask me what happened to my voice? Why couldn’t he ignore it and move on? Then again, what kind of best friend would he be if he didn’t ask what was wrong with me? I guess not a good one. Even though it was unintentional, Dominic had struck the biggest nerve he could possibly hit right now. I held my hand over my mouth and shook my head; not wanting him to know about my nonexistent voice. Dominic however didn’t like that. He stared at me with those big brown eyes, mentally bugging me to tell him.
I stood up from my chair and rubbed my head with my left hand. What was I going to tell him? How was I going to tell him? What was I going to do about this? Taking a deep breath through my nose, I walked back over to him and bit my lip. He was still staring at me intently, which was driving me crazy. I realized I would have to tell him the truth now, or he’d bug me about this forever. I took both of my hands and pointed to myself, shook my head from side to side, and then moved my mouth as if I was talking. This was telling him that I can’t talk.
“You can’t talk...?” Dominic said, his voice cracking. I could see his eyes tearing up slightly. I hated to see Dominic cry, it made him look so vulnerable, almost as if he wasn’t himself anymore. Slowly, I nodded biting the inside of my cheek, trying to keep myself from crying as well. “I promised I wouldn’t let anything happen to you...” He said sadly, making me frown. I didn’t want to make him feel bad, I didn’t want to make him cry. It couldn’t be his fault that I lost my voice; I probably did this all on my own. Not wanting to make Dominic any sadder by asking questions, I touched his arm and shook my head. I wanted to comfort him, and try to make him feel better about this whole thing. Dominic was my best friend, I wouldn’t let him be sad. He looked up at me with his now light brown eyes. Smiling at him slightly, I pointed to both of us and gave a thumbs up, which was saying, we’re okay.
. . .
Dominic had taken me down to the cafeteria when he was allowed to leave his room. He bought me two burgers, a large container of fries and a chocolate milkshake, then sat me down at a table. I smiled at him and gestured a thank you then began sloppily eating my food. At this point, Dominic knew that I lost my memory from the accident (I had told him not too long ago) and he began telling me several things about me. Example, my favorite food in the world is burgers with an unusual amount of ketchup and mustard.
“You always loved to eat Burger King,” Dominic told me as I bit hungrily into my burger. “You would eat it as if it was your last meal and it always made me laugh,” He said chuckling, then reaching over to a napkin and wiping my face free of condiments. “I always have to do this too.” He added laughing.
I playfully glared at him and then broke out smiling. I found myself very amusing without even trying. The whole eating burgers like a maniac and getting food all over myself just greatly amused me. I didn’t even know why. Taking another bite from my burger, I began to notice that Dominic hadn’t bought anything for himself. He only bought things for me. Looking at him for a minute, I handed him my burger and gestured for him to take a bite.
“Oh no Natalie, I’m fine. I don’t eat that much.” He told me, which of course I didn’t accept. I kept gesturing for him to take a bite until he finally caved in. Dominic took the burger from me and took a bite of it, getting ketchup and mustard all over his cheeks. I laughed at him (silently of course) and pointed to all the condiments on his face. He wasn’t the only one that ate like a pig. “Oh hush.” He said playfully, now wiping his face.
. . .
So after having a fun, light hearted day Dominic and I parted to our bedrooms and went to sleep.
There were screams behind me. The smell of smoke was in my nostrils making it hard to breathe. The riot was getting worse, and I was at the heart of it; the capitol. I don’t exactly remember how it started, nor do I remember why, all I knew was that someone had stated the wrong thing and it caused trouble.
The people in Blackwell have the shortest patience. They don’t like being told what to do, nor do they enjoy being challenged. Any person who tries to challenge somebody from Blackwell can expect something extremely horrible to happen to the person and their family. Considering, there was a riot right now; I’m guessing someone made another person mad to make a riot this bad. There were never fires when the riots started. The people were never angry enough to start them. But this person pushed them over the edge. They were crossing all the lines.
I ran into my house as fast as I could, noticing it was semi untouched. There were tables and chairs flipped over. Mud was tracked all over the white tiles. (I called it semi untouched because everything inside the house was in tact and noting was missing.) Someone had been in here. Of course this was normal, whenever there were riots people would usually hide in houses, even if they weren’t their own. “Mom! Dad!” I shouted running up the stairs in search of them. I hoped they weren’t out in the capitol trapped in the mob of angry people. That was a ticket to getting trampled.
I checked all the rooms upstairs and noticed my parents weren’t home. They were probably out with all the others, causing trouble. This was so unlike them. My parents were peaceful people, unlike everyone else in this town. They never liked to get involved in violent things, nor did they like to be near anything violent. Why they moved to Blackwell, the center of all types of violence is beyond me.
Giving up on searching for them, I went in my room and picked up my piggy bank. My parents always said I can break this during emergencies, or if I’m in any type of danger. This was one of those circumstances, I had to break my piggy bank. Taking two hands, I picked up the glass pig and threw it as hard as I could on the floor. The glass shattered and I picked up the few dollars that I could and ran out of the house.
I was on my own now.
. . .
I shot up from my slumber and rubbed my head. What was that just now? Was it a memory? A dream? A nightmare? I wanted to know what it was, and why my mind decided to show me something like this. Was it a sign that I was going to get my memory back soon; seeing that I’ve already learned so much about myself?
Getting out of bed, I noticed that it was still dark outside, saying that I woke up in the middle of the night. I wanted to see Dominic, and tell him about my dream. It could possibly have something to do with my past. Out of anybody in the world to confirm that, it would be Dominic.
Slipping on a pair of socks the doctors gave me, I walked out of my hospital room and down the hallway towards Dominic’s room. On my way down, several nurses and doctors gave me odd looks, wondering what I was doing up so early. I decided to ignore them, focusing on seeing my best friend. When I finally arrived at Dominic’s room, I knocked on his door lightly, hoping he was awake. On the other side of the door, I heard a grumble which faintly said, ‘Come in’ and I did so.
I pushed Dominic’s door open and then shut it. I then walked over to his bed and sad down on the edge of it looking at Dominic’s tired face. “Natalie? What’s wrong...” He said groggily, turning on his side to face me. I pointed to myself and then placed my hands together and rested my head on them. This was to signify sleep and dreaming. I then made a scary face and then acted as if I woke up.
Dominic gave me the most confused look ever. I couldn’t tell if he was taking me seriously since I probably looked stupid with all these gestures. “What...?” He asked rubbing his eyes. I repeated my actions over and over, which caused Dominic to realize what I was saying. “You had a bad dream?” He asked and I nodded. “About what ?” He propped himself up on one elbow and watched me act out my dream.
. . .
Dominic’s nurses ended up kicking me out of the room after I was done telling Dominic about my dream. They said that it was too early for me to be up and we both should get some sleep. I didn’t want to leave him. What if I fell back asleep and had another dream like that? Without him I don’t know what I would do. He should be the one to tell me what this dream is; if it was a memory or my mind playing tricks on me. Call it dependent, but I needed it.
. . .
Sun peaked into my window, waking me up from my peaceful slumber. I groaned in my head internally from the contact of sun on my skin and shifted to my side, trying to block the sun from my face. Closing my eyes again, I felt myself slowly falling back=k asleep, but then my door opened.
“Natalie, breakfast.” Said a female voice, and I shook my head. I wasn’t hungry, I was tired; food wasn’t going to help me. I opened my eyes and stared at my wall. Then picking up my whiteboard that my doctor left me, I wrote down ‘I’m not hungry. I’m tired’ and showed it to her. “Okay...I hope you eat it before lunch.” She told me and I nodded. Soon, the woman left the room, shutting the door quietly. I found myself unable to fall back asleep so I decided to get up and eat.
Walking over to my little table, I looked at everything that was on my tray. There was a container of Trix yogurt, a carton of milk, oranges and cereal. Taking the spoon they gave me, I opened the yogurt and began eating it sloppily, not caring what gets on my face. When I was finished I began eating other things off my tray. A knock on my door stopped me from eating my cereal. Putting down my spoon, I walked over to my door and opened it seeing Dominic standing there.
“Hey --- you have...yogurt on your face...” Dominic said excitedly at first, then his excitement died down. “Why is there yogurt on your face...?” He asked me taking his finger and scooping it off my face and then eating it. He smirked at me and then I laughed silently. Playfully scowled at him, I licked the yogurt off my face mockingly. “Oh you’re so funny.” Dominic joked, messing with my hair.
I smirked at Dominic and walked over to my bed, grabbing my whiteboard and marker. Opening the marker, I then wrote down ‘hey I was going to eat that you know’ and showed it too him. Dominic laughed, holding his sides. “Oh Natalie, you haven’t changed at all.”