All You Need Is Love

Katherine was not adventurous. She always kept things the same. Every morning she woke up at 7:00 am and drank her coffee at the small round table with a slice of toasted olive bread. She would drive to work through the fog and rain until she reached the big brick building she called work. This job had slowly consumed her life until it was everything. Katherine walked up seemingly endless stairs to the gaping front doors, nodding pleasantly to the front desk security on her way in. She continued down the faculty hallway and turned right into her office. Slumping down on the chair she sat there for a moment, letting her shoulder blades sink into the cushion, before opening her file cabinet.

Katherine worked as a therapist at Sanabel, a research and care organization. Sanabel was where people went when no other facility could help them due to incurable diseases or crazy symptoms with unknown causes. Seventy percent of the patients received made the small yellow faded rooms their resting place and of the other thirty percent only a small fraction left fully recovered. The doctors and scientists of Sanabel were all amazingly brilliant and submersed themselves in helping the patients, however people were sent there with impossible conditions and Sanabel couldn’t quite cure the impossible.

Katherine was especially interested in a young girl’s file. The girls name was Anabel and she was only four years old when she began having trouble separating the monsters under the bed from the real world. Her condition progressively got worse, even with treatment. She was eventually marked as untreatable, her prognosis being that she would continue to get worse until the real world had dissipated to nothing in her mind. Anabel’s parents used to visit until it became too painful; their last visit was four months ago. Anabel is now five. Katherine shook her head while looking down at the contents of the white binder. She walked to the patient’s hall on the opposite side of the building and entered Anabel’s room.

                Anabel was laying on her bed, arms and legs sprawled like a starfish and her long dark blond hair stretching out like a crown. She stared at the ceiling, seeing her own world and made no recognition that someone had entered the room. Katherine sat in the worn blue armchair and reached forward to brush a strand of hair from Anabel’s clammy forehead. She slowly looked over at Katherine and smiled before directing her attention somewhere in the corner as if she was watching a beetle climb around the clean floor. Katherine pulled out her pen and wrote down the date in her binder. She leaned in toward Anabel and began with the questions.

“Who has visited you today sweetie?” Katherine asked gently, referring to Anabel’s imaginary friends.

“Who has visited me?” Anabel looked up at the door with purpose, as if she was looking at someone. “Well Ashley is always here” she glanced to a corner “and sparky” she said, looking at the ground. Anabel stared at the door again with intent. She scrunched her eyebrows in thought and her eyes darted back and forth around the room for a minute before, whispering quickly. “There’s scary people here but they said not to tell anyone.” Her eyes continued to scan the room as she spoke.

“What did they say to you?” Katherine rubbed Anabel’s back and looked at her with concern. It was obvious that Katherine cared. She wasn’t supposed to form emotional connections with her patients but this little girl had climbed her way into her heart when they both needed someone to care for.

In a whisper light as silk, Anabel replied “’Don’t look, don’t listen, just follow’ they said. They want me to…” her voice trailed off as she stared at the door, her dark blue eyes growing large with fear. She scuffled backwards into the corner and began to rock back and forth, whimpering. Katherine moved to the bed and held Anabel in her arms. “It’s okay, they can’t harm you. You are safe. You are with me.”

Anabel looked up at Katherine. “You will protect me?” Her teary eyes were filled with hope, fear, and longing.

“Of course I will.” Anabel burrowed her face into Katherine’s chest and hugged her tight before frantically looking back toward the door.

“He’s coming. He’s mad now. Stop him! Stop him!” Anabel squeezed her eyes shut and began to cry, shaking and clenching the sleeve of Katherine’s deep purple blouse.

Katherine stroked Anabel’s hair and said firmly into the air “Leave her alone, you are not welcome here.” Katherine looked down at Anabel and hugged her “It’s okay now sweetie, he’s gone.”

Anabel slowly opened her eyes and looked around the room. A grin spread across her snot streaked face. “You did it!” She looked back and forth across the room, her eyes moving from point to point. What a world she had created for herself. “All the bad guys are gone! Thank you Katherine, I love you!” Anabel tossed her arms around Katherine and they hugged again, this time light and happily.

“I love you too sweetie.” Katherine felt her chest warming and her eyes filled with happy tears. 

Story in Progress

Evelyn’s Thursday morning began like any other, although it would prove to be very unusual. Her alarm goes off at 6:00 am with a startling nasal tone. Evelyn rolls over and groans, eyes covered in sleep and dark blonde hair stacked on her head pointing every which way. She rubs her eyes and looks around the dim room. Momentarily, she feels the serenity of the darkness and imagines the comfort of seeping back into the blankets and into slumber. Click. She flips the switch on her bedside lamp and the room is flooded with soft yellow light. The contrast is so striking that she must scrunch her eyes and squint until they adjust. She slips on her bunny slippers before walking out across the cold hard wood floor to the kitchen. The kitchen is dark, empty, and almost silent apart from the soft static of the radio. Evelyn frowns as she pulls out the coffee pot to find it empty, nothing but shiny metallic staring up at her from the bottom.

“Francis?” she calls out to her roommate; there is no reply. Evelyn lets out a deep breath and turns off the radio. She stands in the middle of the kitchen for a moment, hands on hips as she looks around and ponders different thoughts. Where could Francis be, her roommate was always up early. Usually by the time Evelyn walked in to the kitchen Francis would be there, flipping pancakes and singing along to the radio. Usually the coffee would be made hot, steamy, and fragrant. Evelyn started the coffee pot and walked to Francis’ room door. Knock, knock, knock “Hello? You in there?” still no reply. She rests her hand on the doorknob, then lets it fall back to her side. Francis likes her privacy and hates it when people go in her room while she’s not home. Maybe she took the day off? Evelyn thinks to herself on the other hand she could be sleeping but how rude to not answer my knocking. Bewildered, she wanders back to the kitchen and pours the freshly brewed coffee into her favorite mug. She’s taking a sip when she notices the clock on the stove says 6:36 am. “Oh dear” she mumbles, she had completely lost track of time. She shuffles her way to her room holding her now sloshing coffee mug and rushes around to prepare for the day. Dress? Skirt? Jeans? Shirt? It’s all a blur to her as she grasps the first decent outfit she can find. Plopping down in front of the mirror she slaps on her makeup.

            Twenty minutes later she is ready to go. Crisp white t-shirt with a wrinkled cardigan and the good old blue jeans. Evelyn glances nervously to her roommate’s bedroom door. This was all very unlike Francis, but she decides to just give her a call later. Evelyn walks out into the frosty morning air, scrunching her arms in closer to her body and noticing the puffs of her hot breath. She locks the front door and walks to her car to head for work.

The small townhouse is left dark and silent, dirty dishes still in the sink from last night’s dinner and the coffee pot half full. Francis’ room is cold and feels isolated; it usually appears bare and neat unlike the rest of the full home, scattered with furniture, empty blankets, and random knick-knacks. Today her room is crowded. Papers are spread along the floor and jumping up the walls on thumbtacks. Her bed is occupied with stacked brown boxes and clothes piled high as possible. No room for the sleeping Francis that Evelyn had suspected. No sign of her anywhere.

Evelyn calls Francis after pulling into her parking space at work. Back home there is a ringing in Francis’ room coming from somewhere within the mess. Evelyn nervously taps the steering wheel as the cell goes to voice mail. This is so unlike her she begins to worry should I leave a message? The phone beeps “Hey, it’s Evelyn.” How do I say this? I don’t’ wanna be weird if she’s just fine. “I was just wondering what you’re doing today? I’m thinking maybe we should get takeout for dinner tonight. Uhh. I gotta talk to you about something so call me back soon!” That should do it. Evelyn gets out of the car and is walking through the parking lot when her phone starts ringing. She smiles, sure it is Francis returning her call. “Hey!”

“Evelyn?” Francis’ voice is very soft but Evelyn is just happy to know she is okay.

“I am SO glad to hear from you! Where have you be-“

“Where are you? I need you to meet me. Now.”

“I’m at work.. I just got here.” Evelyn twirls her hair around, something she does when she is tense. What is going on?

“This is an emergency. We could be in a lot of trouble. I need to go. Meet me at our brunch spot. No one can know.” Click. Evelyn looks around disgruntled and confused. She looks down at her phone and notices that the number was unknown. Summoning up every bit of her courage, she walks back to the car. She’s hoping this isn’t some kind of prank while at the same time hoping it is so that everything can be okay. A sense of insecurity is gnawing at her gut, she feels like something is wrong. She stares at her reflection in the car mirror for a moment, looking into her hazel eyes and trying to find the appearance of courage. At a loss she closes her eyes, leaning her head back, and takes a deep, shaky breath before pushing her uncertain feelings aside and placing her hands on the wheel.

The café is warm and filled with the sound of gentle music, clinking mugs, and coffee being brewed. A small figure sits in the corner behind a newspaper, almost like something you would see out of the movies. Evelyn walks in and looks around at all the faces but she sees no sign of Francis. She walks up to the counter and orders her regular white mocha. The Barista tries to make small talk but Evelyn is very obviously distracted as she continues to glance around the café. The barista gives up after listening to a few halfhearted mumbles and hands Evelyn her drink.

            Psst. Pssstt. Evelyn whips around startled to see Francis sitting in the corner behind the newspaper, hardly recognizable with her hair up in a baseball cap. Francis never wore hats like that. Evelyn rushes to the second seat at the table and speculates Francis’ condition as they speak.

“What is happening?” Evelyn asks with a frantic whisper. Francis has deep bags under her brown eyes which are smeared with day old mascara. Her regular stupid-sweet grin is replaced with an empty stare, no trace of emotion but a small wrinkle between her eyebrows.

“Wait, first.” Francis holds up the newspaper to shield their faces, making it appear as if they are reading it together. She takes a deep breath and makes eye contact with Evelyn. “I’m so sorry.” Her voice shakes and she looks as if she is ready to cry.

“What happened? I’m sure we can work everything out Fran, you just gotta talk to me.” Evelyn feels afraid but wants to appear calm to Francis. Francis is not fooled but needs to get out the point of this discussion. She takes a gulp of her coffee with trembling hands and begins,

“I have a secret. My name is not Francis.”