Insane
Loony Bin.
I sat down next to an older lady trying to ignore the nurse that was glaring at from the hall. The women’s hair was grey, she was wearing a simple light blue nightgown. Her hands placed in her lap, her fingers are wrinkled; Doris has been in here since she was six.
Doris at the age of five and half told her mother not to let her father go on his business trip. But her father went, and died in the exact way Doris had explained to her mother. Her mother was terrified of her daughter, blamed her, and called her a devil in disguise. The effects of these words still haunt her older features, her lips chapped from silence.
Doris used to talk, she loved talking; she’d tell the nurses how many children they would have, who they would marry. Most of the time this was always brushed aside. But when Doris talked about two Towers falling and a useless war, she was locked up in isolation because of the feeling behind her words. No longer a gentle telling but a fearful one that spread through the residents of the hall at that point like wildfire.
But even well in isolation she tried to get her point across, no matter who passed her room, she would scream and holler that they needed to prevent the Towers from falling and how that was to be done was to create peace.
When nine eleven happened, the nurses shook their heads, and asked her where she had gotten these ideas from.
“Why and who?” They repeatedly asked, but the once talkative Doris wouldn’t utter a word.
So now I sit with her, every now and then I whisper how it wasn’t her fault. Her lips don’t move, her hands placed on in her lap don’t move and her eyes stay trained on her aged hands. However this time when I try to comfort her, for a split second I'm afraid she has truly become completely still one she will never move from.
And then her breath came in ragged.
I sighed with relief and watched as a nurse came in with a plastic cup full of water and in her palm three pills, blue, pink and red. I watched and waited for Doris to tell her how she didn’t need to take pills, that everything she said was the truth. But Doris took the pills with a dull look in her eyes.
My teeth gritted together in anger of the silence I knew was the result of this woman's last wall breaking down. If only things were different, if only people could see. But this was not the case.
"Doris, sometimes all you can do is try," I know my words will have no effect, I am also aware of how little these words mean to me.
The nurse turns to me and glares, shooing me out of the room with her hand. I stand up, with one last glance of still Doris I make my way out of the room.
I glanced down at my watch as I enter the hall, realizing what time it was I quickly make my way down the hall my heals clicking ever so slightly against the tile floor. I slowed however when I saw a red haired little girl, her large brown eyes wide, opened, seeing everything and anything.
Her parents where knelt on either side of her explaining why she was here and for how long. The girl shook her head at them, looking away as if she was older and wiser. This probably was the case. She may not look older but her young eyes have seen things that nobody on this earth should see.
The comfort they give for these horrible images is to put her in the loony bin to rot.
Doris at the age of five and half told her mother not to let her father go on his business trip. But her father went, and died in the exact way Doris had explained to her mother. Her mother was terrified of her daughter, blamed her, and called her a devil in disguise. The effects of these words still haunt her older features, her lips chapped from silence.
Doris used to talk, she loved talking; she’d tell the nurses how many children they would have, who they would marry. Most of the time this was always brushed aside. But when Doris talked about two Towers falling and a useless war, she was locked up in isolation because of the feeling behind her words. No longer a gentle telling but a fearful one that spread through the residents of the hall at that point like wildfire.
But even well in isolation she tried to get her point across, no matter who passed her room, she would scream and holler that they needed to prevent the Towers from falling and how that was to be done was to create peace.
When nine eleven happened, the nurses shook their heads, and asked her where she had gotten these ideas from.
“Why and who?” They repeatedly asked, but the once talkative Doris wouldn’t utter a word.
So now I sit with her, every now and then I whisper how it wasn’t her fault. Her lips don’t move, her hands placed on in her lap don’t move and her eyes stay trained on her aged hands. However this time when I try to comfort her, for a split second I'm afraid she has truly become completely still one she will never move from.
And then her breath came in ragged.
I sighed with relief and watched as a nurse came in with a plastic cup full of water and in her palm three pills, blue, pink and red. I watched and waited for Doris to tell her how she didn’t need to take pills, that everything she said was the truth. But Doris took the pills with a dull look in her eyes.
My teeth gritted together in anger of the silence I knew was the result of this woman's last wall breaking down. If only things were different, if only people could see. But this was not the case.
"Doris, sometimes all you can do is try," I know my words will have no effect, I am also aware of how little these words mean to me.
The nurse turns to me and glares, shooing me out of the room with her hand. I stand up, with one last glance of still Doris I make my way out of the room.
I glanced down at my watch as I enter the hall, realizing what time it was I quickly make my way down the hall my heals clicking ever so slightly against the tile floor. I slowed however when I saw a red haired little girl, her large brown eyes wide, opened, seeing everything and anything.
Her parents where knelt on either side of her explaining why she was here and for how long. The girl shook her head at them, looking away as if she was older and wiser. This probably was the case. She may not look older but her young eyes have seen things that nobody on this earth should see.
The comfort they give for these horrible images is to put her in the loony bin to rot.