Be The Flame In The House Of Cards
Who Are You Now?
The woman paused slowly, and I allowed her to gather up her thoughts. Her voice came in a raspy tone, after a few tears were shed. "I-I was there on the day they...interviewed him."
"And?" I asked, and immediately felt sympathy for her. By her size, she had to be in her twenties, but her face demonstrated hard work and effort. She had done much in this life.
"I-I was the assistant, and my arrogant partner asked him about his illness. And Gerard told him about his parent's departure."
"Departure?"
"His mother was a nurse, and had been helping a patient. She caught their illness, and spread it to his father. They passed away, the tragedy."
I was lost at words. "Who's this 'mikey'?"
"His brother. When his parents passed, they became separated. Mikey was being sent to a powerful city in Russia, where he would get fine art education. Gerard was supposed to be sent there, but they found something about Gerard..."
"What'd they find?"
The woman pounded at the desk in frustration. "Those bastards...they labeled him for fucking insomnia, and that he was fucking crazy!"
Tears started to run down my cheeks. When I didn't respond, she angrily continued.
"Would you expect someone who's parents passed away one night to recover completely the next day? They locked the poor boy up because he couldn't close his eyes."
"B-but what about his other illnesses?"
"From my experience, most patients develop more illnesses when kept that way. And that's exactly what happened to Gerard. He had no one to visit him."
"Aunts, uncles?"
"Both of his parents had families that didn't accept them very well, I researched. None of his family wanted to see offspring created by Mister and Miss Way."
"What about 'tony'?"
"Tony?" she seemed startled. "My dear, what is Tony?"
"Gerard's imaginary friend."
She smiled sweetly. "Ah. Really?"
I nodded firmly.
"When Gerard was a small boy, he spent one night with my family before getting placed in the asylum. My husband's name is Tony, and they got along really well. He was the only friend after the incident. Then came the diagnosed kids, Hayley and the others. But Tony was the first one to tell him everything was all right. That he'd be okay."
"Have you spoken to Gerard lately?"
"He's mute," she chuckled.
"Yeah, I mean, he speaks now."
"What?" she asked, startled.
"I mean, you must've known his voice and all. Because of the interview."
She shook her head. "It was all written, he didn't speak a word."
"Oh," I said, quietly. "Well, he speaks A LOT now, so maybe he'd want to talk to you."
She laughed. "I bet he would rather speak to you."
Notes
new chapter! c: sorry for not updating this story in forever, I just had writer's block on this story c:
WHAT DOES THAT MEAN?!?
5/23/14