Monday, November 09, 2009
There was something outside her window.
It was silent,but definitely there.
The looming fear cascaded her petite mass, her heart a giant.
"..." She made a concerted effort yet she could barely utter.
It would be fairly erratic talking into space,but what if her intuition was right?
The thought consumed her fully.
Fingers trembling, she inched towards the window.
Counting to ten(Holding on a little longer of course), she pushed open the panes a fraction.
The cool breeze that greeted her chilled her to the bone, causing her to thaw; teasing her to break free.
Although nothing really occurred,she felt pretty unsettling.
She could sense it, it was still fixated on her every move.
But that creature(Or so) was way too prolific in its act...
"What's wrong, May?"
The trepidated voice fluttered through the hallway.
"No Mom. It's the usual..just a nightmare..."
Her Dad felt for her temperature.
"It's still okay dear. She's fine."
Mom was unconvinced.
"The usual,the usual! Everytime you pull a long face, every instance you keel over in pain, every other moment you wake up with unease, it spells another worry of mine! Can you look after yourself for once, May?!"
"Dear-"
"I'm sorry, Mom."
"That's the limit Dear! What's with you today?"
Mom collapsed in a heap on the velvet carpet, her face contorted with anguish sporadically; any glimpse of hope extinguished.
"Look at her dear! Look what she had done to herself again!"
Then,she left the room without a word.
The silence that filled the room took away breaths, and Dad and I were unnervingly wracking our brains to break the ice.
Dad, the man of the household, our breadwinner; spoke first.
"You really look -awful for an early riser huh."
He tried his best to school upon his features a smile that sadly took a turn for the worse and turned lopsided.
"Dad?" I started.
"Dad,there was something outside my window last night.." My raspy voice trapped in the tiny throat.
The silent persisted, Dad had on that look again.
The look that spelled: She's at it once more.
Hmm, May.." There was a long pause.
"You know what,why not let's look at it this way..maybe it's just a -bird?"
I nodded obediently.
"Yeah Daaaaaad," I cooed, "I think you're right."
He checked his watch perpetually.
"I'm late for work, sweetheart."
"Yeah," I shrugged, "I guess."
I was totally unconvinced.
When Dad left, I checked on Mom. She was still weeping.
What's with women? Menopause?
I threw my uniform over my head, brewed coffee for her and left a note suggesting all my deepest apologies.
I soon caught up with the only two friends I had in school, Jack and Jill. Yeah, those two were siblings.
And when I told them about my encounter, Jack choked on his coke.
Oops, diet coke. (He took Jill's by accident.)
"Am I short on hearing, Jill? What in the heavens did that imp say??"
She threw me a quizzical glance, complete with disdain.
"Bro, a creature..outside her window.."
"And may I enquire which floor do you stay on, Miss!" Jack smirked.
"It's alright." And I walked out, seething with fury.
"By the way.." I slowed down my paces."It's the twelveth."
I never looked back, but the laughters were louder than ever.
My heart -it sank deeper.
In the powder room, I locked myself in the cubicle as the moroseness threatened to engulf me by the mere second.
Why wouldn't anyone trust me?
Yes maybe I had over-reacted. Afterall, it could jolly well be a -bird?
I sighed for the umpteeth time.
But it was really just logical and plausible for them to listen,just listen!
It was my intuition, my OWN intuition! Don't I deserve the basic rights to voice out?
But look-
Mom's crying,
Dad's frustrated,
and Jack and Jill were all wrapped up in the affairs of the big idea: A JOKE.
At this juncture where my anxieties impeded the arrival of my imminent breakdown,
footsteps reverberated across the room. An evil forebode.
"You know what-" The girl's voice was one too familiar.
"May's all engaged in her new attention-seeking ploy- Gally, Ghastly, Ghostly encounters!"
It's Jill! But why?
"Oh, I'd bet you shouldn't get too close to such a -freak?"
There was laughter, peals of laughter.
"Freak! I've to stand by you on that one! Jack thinks that she'll end up as a lunatic anytime. Best to leave her alone. You know what parents are really engrossed about -Bad influences!"
The girl elbowed Jill's ribs playfully and they left the room with smarmy grins plastered upon their plastic features.
Cackles followed them wistfully.
The tears that erupted from within me descended without fail. They each stood for revolting individualists. Disappointment, anguish, betrayal...
I took my absence from school for a week.
There was simply no way that I would be going back.
"It's just not a place for a freak!"
I chastised myself over and over again.
When Mom and Dad questioned howsoever, I said,"I'm having a pretty bad case of migraine. BUT there'll be no need for a visit to Doctor Elene, I'll be just fine."
Topped with an extra large grin.
How was I supposed to know that they didn't buy that?
First Day: Loafing around.
Second Day: Loafing around.
Third Day: Still loafing around.
And that applied to Thursday, Friday and Saturday.
Seventh Day: Doctor Elene! ;(
It appeared that Mom was finally fed-up with my facade.
Afterall, I was careless enough to play Wii,computer games, be a couch potato and write a 100-page novel when I'm-
"Having a migraine huh?" Doctor Elene's voice brought me back to reality.
"Uh huh," I pursed my lips,"you can say so."
Doctor Elene smiled at me. I recognised that if you made me stare at one. The same identical smile I smacked onto my face for Mom and Dad.
Hypocritic.
"Well dear,why don't you take a short nap while I speak with your Mom?"
Her eyes were already zeroing on the door, what more can I suggest?
"Just go ahead,the door's wide open."
She swallowed uncomfortably and I was agile enough to refrain from smiling unabashedly at the embarrassment I had dealt her.
Once Doctor Elene went out of my room, I sneaked behind the door to eavesdrop.
"How's my girl,Elene? Don't tell me it's really migraine.."
"Sorry Sally,but it really isn't. But based on her faking an illness to skip school for one whole week,I suggest you have a talk with her."
"Elene-" Mom panicked,"I don't know if it's appropriate to mention this but May said something about a sinister being outside her window.."
The doctor didn't answer for awhile, choosing the right words to use.
"Sally,why not refer her to a friend of mine,she's proficient in that area."
I opened the door a fraction. Mom's eyes bulged and her face was momentarily listless. Her licorice hair was a flyaway mess upon her elegant composure,a mistake on its own,an error to the fault.
Just like me ain't it -a stain in her life.
"A..psychiatrist?" The hand holding onto the namecard shook feebly.
I closed the door and buried myself under the blanket. Now the whole world thinks that I'm a loony!
4am in the night, I was startled back to solid world by Mom.
"Mom!" I shrieked. Her face staring back at mine.
"Did I scare you, my darling? I'm sorry."
I inhaled big gulps of air.
"That incident five years back- you don't have to feel sorry about that."
My heart froze for a second.
"Mom-" My voice was soft. "You said you won't rake up the past.."
"Five years back, you told me Danny saw God..you whined to me about Danny seeing angels, you told me you had to do what was required of you..." Her tears sprung to life.
"And why didn't Daddy probe into the matter?" I cried.
"When I came home from work, you confessed that you pushed Danny off the window ledge to his death...Do you know how cruel that was for him and for me?!"
She lunged at me, her hands fast on my neck. I fought for breath.
"Mo-om?" I whimpered.
As though possessed, she soon loosened her grip.
"I'm sorry, Darling..I really am!"
"Danny said he saw God, Danny said it!
"Or -was it you?"
"Mom?" I was breaking apart at the seams.
"I didn't want to lose another child! You have exactly no idea how I felt as I staged the whole incident for you,making it seem as though Danny fell off himself!Sometimes! Sometimes his smell still linger around the house,it's all my fault, it's all my fault!"
"Danny wanted God,Danny wanted God.." I could only mumble incessantly, my thoughts way off the track.
"Your Daddy thought he fell off by himself! For five years, five years May! Imagine the agony having to share the same bed as your beloved one for five years without telling the truth! I can only keep to myself,and you've to act all cranky again! You had to torture me.."
There was a shadow in the corridor.
I forced the inhibited thought out of my mind.
It couldn't be.
"Sally?" Dad's voice was hoarse.
Mom spun around, her face all white.
Yet she could do nothing to piece the puzzle back as one.
Not when all was already lost.
"David? David I-"
"Sally? May? What did the two of you do to my Danny?!"
That was the last I heard from him. Daddy dashed out of the house and never did he return.
The darkness from the night cast wary shadows on our indiscernible figures, an illustration of what had already been broken.
And what wasn't were two hearts that couldn't beat in a synchronised tune again.
Monday morning came and didn't go for a long while.
I slipped out of bed silently. Everything wasn't a dream.
Daddy had left. Mom had cried herself to sleep.
I stole from her handbag the same namecard that Doctor Elene had given her and skittered off in the opposite direction, the place where I should belong long ago.
"Doctor Philips?"
The doctor lifted his head slightly and shifted his attention from signing his pile of documents onto me.
"Yes, may I help you young lady?"
My heart skipped a beat,the moment of truth was near.
"Doctor Philips," I started,"five years ago,I pushed my brother off the window ledge. Last week, there was something outside my window that tried to interact with me."
Now
I find myself in a room enclosed with barred windows and a transparent peephole. My body is tied up with multiple strips of white linen. I can't even move.
"Let me out, let me out!"
The lady in the corner of my room gloats over my misery.
It is evident that she's tied up too, she's trapped; like me.
"The creature outside your window..."
My jaws dropped.
"How did you know that! Did you hear it from the doctors?"
"Of course not,silly girl! They shun in the presence of us,don't you even notice?"
Seeing that I'm quiet(Deep in thoughts,actually),the woman continues.
"It's your brother, he's coming back."
My pupils dilate with disbelief and my palms are clammy with perspiration. The room seems to be spinning before my very eyes and shortly,darkness cave in.
And when I awake,the woman's gone.
The TV is switched on, who did that? After all,we are both tied up.
What shook me though is the news that flashed across the screen. It steals away all my breath.
10PM News Headlines!
A 48 year old woman named Mrs Sally fell to her death at Zimbabwe Road yesterday afternoon. Her death was treated as a natural one with no foul play ruled out for the time being. Bystanders had reportedly said that her last words were "I saw God". More updates on the news would be given after the autopsy is done. For now, let's move on to our second piece of news: Zebras running amok in Amazon Forest...
I smile.
Danny had found Mom.
And I know what follows too.
Danny will find Daddy,
he'll find Jack and Jill,
and of course Doctor Elene and Doctor Philips.
He will punish those who haven't trusted me one bit.
And like Mom,he will bring them along with him.
But for me, I will stay in this ward.
Because there is something under my bed,
and I will tell them.
I will tell them all.
♥our lips must always be sealed
1:57 AM
Ben & Jerry's Ice-Cream