“Keep nailing it in,” said Nurse Shannon as Rachel and I worked on the board in front of her. Once in awhile she would come and assist us if we ever needed any help.
“Do you think Slanky is ok?” Rachel asked me. I shrugged my shoulders.
“You were friends with Slanky weren’t you?”
“No, I wasn’t,” I replied. I thought of all the times he had taken advantage of me. Thinking about them made me hammer harder.
“If Lexi doesn’t feel like saying anything, by all means she has every right to remain silent, especially about this inappropriate subject!” shouted Nurse Shannon. “Now, if only you would hurry up with your work, or we’ll literally never be able to fix this table!”
“Maybe you and I should go out there and find him,” Rachel whispered. “The cops are probably on the look-out; imagine what he would feel like if he was found and brought back.” Rachel’s words shook my heart. Maybe everybody knew that Slanky had always wanted to run away.
I stopped sawing for a second.
“It really is quite a nice day,” said Nurse Shannon “Maybe after we are done with this, we can go back and bring everyone out to play.”
***
I thought about how Stephen needed help. I thought about how he needed help. He had wanted to come home, and for a moment, I hoped that they would not be able to find him, but as I listened more to the voices of the nurses, afraid for him.
“Please don’t let them catch him. Please don’t let them catch him,” I seemed to be saying—even though I wasn’t sure if there was a god. A fear began to contruct within me—a fear that made me afraid that they would catch him.
Placing my hand on the windown, I waited, wondering what will happen.
***
“Junk, junk, and more junk,” said Nurse Shannon as she sorted through Stephen’s room. My eyes watched as she overlooked the family photo that was cracked. “A pity,” she said as she inspected the photo “I guess he really did have some kind of family after all. Too bad that they won’t be around to pick him up from here.” She looked at me. “They would probably get their act together in a faster way if they weren’t all misbehaving.” I said nothing. While I knew that it was a woman’s duty to speak out, I didn’t really have too much to say as far as this went.
“Well, I don’t know how far he went. As far as I’m concerned he’s as good as dead lying out there in the middle of the outside field,” Nurse Shannon said as she put the photo back on top of the shelf. “You don’t have to stand there. It’s not like you’re a servant of some sort.”
“Oh,” I said, dodging out of her way as she made her way out of the room. I grabbed the photo and looked at it for some time. The mother’s eyes looked saddened and grieved at the sight of their new-born baby. Maybe a hint of regret also tainted them. I could see the father, who seemed like he was doing his best to act like everything was alright as he sat next to his baby child.
Oh, the agony! Things did not have to be like this, and I didn’t even know what this was going to do.
If only he had stayed for another several moments, then he would have gained some kind of reconnection with his family. If only he had been patient for just a moment longer, then maybe he would have been able to see his parents again. He would have been able to go to the Niagra Falls like he had always wanted to.
***
I side-stepped a little bit as a car whooshed past me.
I had made up my mind. I was going to look for Stephen—wherever he was in the midst of the world. Several trees standing in the open reminded me of all the stories I had read in the books. It made me feel like I was traveling inside of the haunted forests. Why was I doing this again, really?
***
I saw a distant shadow at first, coming into view with the slightest amount of light. Stephen ran into me, all out of breath.
“It was just too much. All of it was too much.” He looked at me, his eyes bulging forth. “Running away. All of it. Don’t do it. I want to go back.” His grip tightened around my arms. H refused to let go, constantly keeping his hands wrapped around mine.
“If you go back, they will probably severely punish you.” He looked up at me.
“But I have nowhere else to go. Take me back and maybe we don’t ever have to come out here.”
“The police will probably hunt us down anyway,” I said. “But sure, if you really do need someone, I’m more than willing to accompany you back.”
***
The two of us walked side-by-side in the middle of the night. Neither of us said anything. Both of us were very quiet in the solitude that we gave.
“You know, running away wasn’t as fun as thought it was going to be,” Stephen said. “I am going to get in so much trouble for this.”
“Guess you don’t have any other choice but to brace yourself,” I replied, too tired to come up with a good pep response.
We walked for a couple more hours. Neither of us really wanted to think about the great dangers that lay ahead of us.
“Nurse Shannon is probably going to beat the crap out of us.”
“Shut up! We probably won’t be able to get anywhere if you keep up on this kind of stuff!” I said.
“Sorry, I just don’t want this kind of crap to be on my mind,” he retorted. “It really is a very worrying thing, you know? It’s like we have no choice but to go through the nature of this—“
A rhythm interrupted his thoughts. I sped past him, running through the alleyway with a lot of trouble inside of me.
“Hey wait!” he cried, but his cries reached me to no avail. I reached the side of the stadium to realize I was standing in the middle of the concert. The crowd was cheering with glee. A drummer walked up to the fore-front of the stage. A yellow teeth struck out in the middle of his mouth. A smile of greatness seemed all-consuming inside of his mouth
“Are you all ready to rock!” cried the singer The crowd cheered. We rocked off into a jam, running through all the guitar riffs and such. It was the drummer that caught my attention the most of all. His beating across the drum struck my ear as a powerful shockwave. I waved my hands in the air. I screamed with the rest of the fan girls. I—
BANG! I looked all around. Where had the shot come from? People screamed in all directions. I looked outward to see that the singer fell to the ground. I couldn’t understand why he was covered in a trickle of blood.
“Hey!” I cried, but people had already almost trampled on top of me. The soles of people’s feet stamped on me. What is this trap?
“Lexi!” I could hear in the distance. Losing consciousness. Feeling weightless. Then all of a sudden I could feel a hand pulling me out.
“What?”
“Lexi,” I turned to see that it was Stephen. His face looked grave. “Lexi, we need to get out of here. It isn’t safe for any of us to stay here.”
ns 15.158.61.48da2
