Last night felt so long because Jemma refused to talk to me in our room. Usually, we talk about our whole day and her feelings. I skipped breakfast and decided to get my plan into action. I found the young nurse that seemed to understand me so well. "Whats up, nurse lady?" I asked, jumping onto the counter of the from desk.
"It's Sylvia." She smiled. "And I don't think they want you to sit up there."
"Could you do me a favor?" I gave her the best puppy eyes I could.
"Go on." She laughed.
"Can you PLEASE have them serve white rice for dinner?" I begged. "It would mean the world to me."
"What? You don't love the food here enough?" She grinned.
"Well, Septembers always carrying around that damn bottle of soy sauce and you guys never give him a chance to use it."
"I don't know if I could pull this off on such short notice." She tried to explain.
I over-dramatically fell to the floor. "Please!" I pleaded. "Think of it this way, it's for his mental health!" She nodded her head yes. And that was it, my plan was in motion. I made her promise not to put it up on the menu too. My surprise for him. "Thanks, Sylvia nurse lady! You made my day!"
It was time for morning group. Before it started I made my way to the therapist and thanked her for showing me how to meditate.
"Good morning!" The therapist stated, in her regular happy tone. "This morning we are gonna paint!" She passed out paintbrushes and paper. "Everybody, please paint your emotions."
First off, I'm not good at painting, and second, I have no clue how to paint my feelings. I sat still for a moment watching everybody watching everybody be involved in their work. Soon I found myself growing out reality and painting. After about thirty minutes, it was time to share. "I'll go first!" I said. I pointed at the paper holding it up. "This is my mountain, as you can see, there are dark and light rays of color coming out of the mountain and going into the sky. That's my happiness and sadness because right now I am completely content. I know the painting itself kinda sucks, but I love it." I smiled.
"That's great, Violet!" The therapist cheered. "How about Jemma goes next."
She slow stood up and held up a piece of paper that was covered in black with a white circle in the middle. "Okay," She began to explain. "The black is me and the white is my emptiness. I am empty, not only mentally, but also physically and it's time I realize that because I am hurting the people around me by never eating." Her eyes glistened. I looked at her with sorrow. She's too perfect to be in so much pain.
"You're healing." The therapist reassured her. "How about Everett?"
He slowly stood up. His picture was of a generic green alien, holding a heart. It was poorly painted. "This is the alien that tried to take my heart." He explained. The therapist nodded. I couldn't believe this. Why won't anybody tell him that this is all his imagination? It's not real. His eyes poured tears. "You guys don't understand!" He pleaded. "Everyone thinks I'm crazy but this happened"
The therapist interrupted. "I understand, Everett, but you were suppose to paint your emotions."
"Don't you understand! This is my emotions! My whole life revolves around this! The aliens tried to take my heart away and almost killed me! I saw them! They're real!
"Everett." Marissa grabbed his hand and he smacked her away. She fell to the floor bawling.
Security ran in and tackled him. "No!" I heard myself yell. They pulled him out of the room.
"Everybody calm down!" The therapist yelled. "Let's get back to what we were doing. Marissa, honey, you go next."
She jumped up off the floor and wiped her tears away. She had her picture in one hand and Tuberculosis in the other. To everyone's amazement, the painting wasn't of her panda. The painting was of Everett, as best as she could do, of course. "This is..." She gathered herself. "Everett Villacorta and he is just wonderful." She gulped. "I don't care what any of you think or what you just saw. I don't even care what he thinks. He is wonderful."
The therapist seemed silently frustrated. "You were supposed to paint your emotions, Marissa." She forced a smiled.
"Nobody even knows what you mean by that." She replied. "So I painted what matters most to me right now and even though he just broke down, I still love him and I wish I could just stay with him forever, even if it was in a shitty psych ward." She sat back down, almost embarrassed.
"Okay..." The therapist seemed uncomfortable. "Victoria, you're going home today!"
"Yes, I am!" She was filled with joy. I can't wait for that moment. She held up a picture of a girl with purple hair. "This is violet." She stated. "Violet saved me yesterday, really. She maybe even saved my relationship. I'm gonna go home and get my husband back, today!" I smiled at her, feeling completely mystical because I made a small gesture that truly changed somebody life. I couldn't believe that I pulled it off. "Yeah," she said. "It's not my current emotion and I don't have an excuse, this isn't my emotion but it's my last day so I wanted to dedicate my painting to her and let her keep it."
"Thanks so much!" I interrupted.
"Please, remember this, Violet. You are such a good person and if I wasn't for you I probably wouldn't be getting out of here today." She nodded at me.
"That's exceptional!" The therapist said with joy. "September."
He stood up next, and his painting was amazing. On the page laid a painting of soy sauce, tuberculosis, aliens, an origami flower, and lips. But why lips? "This is a picture of all my friends. They have completed me." He said, awkwardly. He still continued to look at the floor. "Of course, the big mouth is Violet, but I've watched her grow and get better just in a few days and it seems to me that we all learned so much about each other and we all fit together like a puzzle." It felt nice that even though they are mad at me, he included me in this painting. Maybe he's not as mad at me as I previously imagined.
After a ver emotional group, I went outside to collect myself. I sat on the ground and smoked a cigarette. I couldn't help but think about my dad, he never called me back. It must be work. I skipped lunch and spent most of the day outside. I spent time meditating and watching the birds fly by. Every now and then random patients would walk up to say hi and the nurses would check on my but my friends never came. Thankfully, it's almost time for dinner and my plan is about to work. "Dinner time!" Came over the sound system. I ran to the great room and stopped September before he could walk away.
"I have a surprise for you," I said smiling. "but you have to sit with my during dinner."
He actually looked more scared than excited. "Okay, I guess." I grabbed his hand and lead him into the dining room.
"Let's go get our food." I said, leading him into the gray walkthrough buffet style kitchen. It didn't take him long to see the rice. His eyes filled with excitement but he stayed quiet.
We grabbed out trays and sat together. "You did this?" He asked, quickly pouring soy sauce all over his rice.
"With help!" I stated, looking over a Sylvia who was standing in the corner smiling.
"Thanks so much, V." He said, softly smiling. Soon enough Marissa and Jemma walked over and sat with us.
"I'm sorry." Jemma said, in the sweetest voice as usual. "I overreacted. I know what it's like to want to go home.
We all were finally back together just missing Everett. It was nice to have my friends back. We spent a lot of dinner laughing and comforting Marissa, who was still heartbroken over the incident with Everett earlier. I could tell she loved him. Maybe it's obsessive, but she does love him in some way. I thanked September for the picture he painted and admitted that I do have a big mouth. For once, all of us were smiling and telling jokes and the seemed to appreciate every sarcastic remark I made. After a while of talking, I realized Jemma wasn't doing any of her origami.
"You okay, Jem?" I asked.
"I really want to eat, but I don't know if I can." She sat staring at her tray.
"Of course, you can." I replied.
"It's not that simple, V. I wish it was."
"We just want to see you healthy, Jemma." September stated.
"Yeah, Jem, Tuberculosis would want you to eat." Marissa said in her hyper tone, placing the panda on the table facing Jem.
We all giggled. "Maybe tomorrow." She said.
ns3.144.149.217da2
and then Add to home screen.