“I just wanted to check on you and make sure that you are doing well. How have you been with your development?” Sitting inside this office gave me a headache. I could see Ms. Shannon’s head sitting on top of the desk, the knight’s sword readied as he prepared to cut off the head of my doctor, but she was all I had. It was either this or being sent back to the old family that I hated.
“I’m doing better,” I said. “The depression seems to be gradually wearing off. I don’t think I have been feeling overbearingly said as I used to.”
“Oh, that’s good,” she said, scribbling down notes. “Well, in a few minutes, you’ll get to be a part of another group.” I tried to put on a smile.
Inside of the other room, I could see Slanky sitting alone ad playing with the crane.
“Hey,” I saide, this time being a little bit more gentle. He shuddered a little bit when I came close to him.
“Excuse me, Ms. Louis,” one of the monitors said. I moved away from him, but not before looking at him for a little while. He continued playing with the crane by himself. The rest of the kids played around him, while Slanky was merely alone. Maybe he just likes to be by himself, I wondered. I turned away, not making another sound of disturbance, for even I was scared about the warden that kept watch over us.
***
I opened my eyes. Stirring inside my sleep, I struggled against the urges I had with the night sky.
“Lexi,” called Rachel. I turned on the other side and began to question what it was that had called me to open up my eyes.
“I told you that there is no sch thing as trying to open up my bed,” Lexi said.
“I can’t sleep,” Rachel replied. I sighed as I got out of the bed. I climbed ut of the bed. I thought I could hear a little bit of a creaking sound as the doors started to descend upon me.
There was Slanky, hiding behind the door with a blanket inside of his hand. He shivered as the cold started to creep up against his own skin.
“You’ve spent enough time being cooped up inside here,” I said. “Come on, let’s go outside.”
***
This was probably one of the few times that I actually got theopportunity to spend some time outside of the world I was familiar with. Walking out into the darkness, I could feel the wind rustling against my face. It just felt so good.
“You see? This is what the outside world feels like,” I told Slanky Slanky loosened a little. He calmed down after some time. His breathing felt like it was starting to become really calm.
“Look, there’s the band!” I pointed out. Slanky ran in my direction. Coming over the corner, I could see the drummer playing his usual rift. I remained hidden behind the block; however, out of the slightest of the eye, she thought that he made eye-contact with her.
When the band was done playing, he started talking a bit among the other members. I couldn’t quite reveal the face that I wanted to show. What if he didn’t like me? What if I got myself in trouble?452Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡhLe4hY5Set
I remained for the entirety of the concert. My eyes would not leave the drummer.
“You see him. You see him?” I asked Slanky, only to realize that Slanky had already left. Turning up around the corner, I could see Slanky screaming at the top of his lungs. He covered his ears with both of his hands, and his body shivered.
“Slanky, wait! Slanky, I’m sorry!” I said. Suddenly I felt the need to get back to the hospital wing, embarrassed that I actually felt the need to come out here, embarrassed that I had even bothered trying to bring Slanky along.
Rushing through the night, I saw how Slanky had collapsed on the ground. He groaned as if he had just suffered some kind of heart attack. I kept saying, “It’s ok. It’s ok.” But I knew that Slanky’s asperger’s syndrome was too much for him to handle. I knew that there were so many dimensions to his problem than he would tell me.
I pulled him through the night. He began to relax a little bit as we went in the middle of the darkened night.
***
The nurses had their heads turned to one another, not even keeping a single regard of the children around them. I could not stop looking at Slanky. All sorts of voices filled inside my head.
“He was taken in by a serial killer…”
“Some say he doesn’t talk because he never had any parents…”
“….Hard to tell what’s going on inside his mind…”
There really wasn’t a whole lot about Slanky’s past that was known. He kept himself on the side. I could almost wonder what kind of effect that I had on him when I pulled him out in the middle of the night. The rhythm in the night continued ringing inside of my mind. I moved the drum sticks with my hands, like I had a form of air sticks inside my hands and I was hitting several drums like the guy on the stage. The sticks traveled across the air with swiftness and power that went around. So many toms and snares were set up in front of me.
I could have stayed in the moment of drumming for forever. I could have just kept pulling out all the punches, except there was really nothing that I could do in the midst of this room. I could not express myself any further. I looked over at Slanky, who merely sat quietly drawing on the piece of paper.
One person played on a walkie-talkie, to which the doctor smacked it out of his hand with a “Don’t touch that!” Another had down-syndrome and sat there on the wheel chair as he had another boy run around him.
“Lunch time everyone!” shouted the doctor as if she was a military general preparing to line us all up for execution. All the kids lined up. “Slanky, Slanky,” called the doctor before she just decided to leave him.
On the piece of paper I saw the name “Kevin” written on it. On the paper I could see a stage with a drummer on the stage.
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