The Reckless and the Brave.

“Please Cindy, please! I need to talk to her! Just please!” I pleaded for the thousandth time. “Alex I’ve told you a million times already, I can’t let you see her. Only family is allowed in there.” I could see she was starting to get a little annoyed with me, because her usual bright smile was slowly disappearing.

It’s been 2 days since the incident and I’ve been bugging Cindy about seeing Summer ever since. But of course she wouldn’t let me. It was against the rules to let other patients into the South Wing. Also the patient in the South Wing weren’t allowed to have any visitors besides close family.

“Just tell me Alex, why are you so interested in her?” Cindy asked. “I just wanna make sure she’s okay, that’s all and I kinda wanna apologize for scaring her.” I confessed. Cindy studied me for a second. “Stay here.” She said and left the room.

A few minutes later she came back. “Come with me.” she said. I followed her to the big white doors of the South Wing. It didn’t look very different from the rest of the building. She made a right turn and we came into a hallway very similar like the one where my room was. She stopped in front of number 6. “You get 5 minutes, that’s it. I will be outside the room ever second of it, if I tell you to leave sooner, you will, understood?” “Yes Ma’am.” I said. “There something else you need to know, she doesn’t speak.” Cindy said. “She doesn’t? You mean she’s a mute?” I asked. “Yes and I’m trusting you to be brought up well enough not to make a comment about it.” I nodded and she opened the door.

“Summer? Dear, there’s a visitor here for you.” She said softly. Summer looked up and froze when she saw me. It only lasted a second before she relaxed again and glared at me. She stared at Cindy as if to ask ‘what is he doing here?’. “Why don’t you ask him?” Cindy said and disappeared. Summer scribbled something in her notebook, ripped out the page and practically threw it at me. What do you want? It said.

“I… I came to apologize for the other night, I didn’t mean to scare you.” I said. “And I wanted to make sure you were okay.” Summer studied me for a few moments. Her gaze softened a little and she nodded. She handed me another paper. It’s fine. It’s my own fault, I shouldn’t have left the room. I’m okay by the way, thanks for asking. I smiled a little. “You got in a lot of trouble?” I asked. Not really. The nurses were cool about it. My mom freaked out though. How about you? “Just a warning this time.” I shrugged. Summer nodded.

There were a million other things I wanted to ask her, but the door opened and Cindy walked in. “Times up!” She said. “Come on, we have to go back.” “Just a second.” I said and turned back to Summer. “I already know you’re name is Summer. I’m Alex.” I said and held out my hand for her to shake. She looked at me for a second before ever so gently taking me hand, shook it for a split second and let go like she got burned or something.

Cindy was staring at us with wide eyes. “Uhm.. so… Oh yes, Alex, let’s go.” She stammered and nearly pushed me out of the room. Once we we’re out of the South Wing Cindy hurried away towards the nurses office. I shrugged and went to find Mandy.

I eventually found Mandy in the library, sitting on the floor in front of a window, reading a book. “Hey.” I said and she looked up with a smile. “I met her.” I said, sitting down next to her. I looked around and saw we were the only two people in the room. “Who?” Mandy asked, putting down the book. “The girl, Summer, I met her.” Mandy’s jaw dropped. “What!? When?” “Just now, I begged Cindy if I could see her. I think I was driving her crazy, because eventually she agreed.” I said, staring off into space. “And?” Mandy asked eagerly.

“She doesn’t speak.” I said. “She doesn’t? Why not?” Mandy frowned. “Don’t know, I had to promise Cindy not to ask.” “Fair enough.” Mandy nodded. “So tell me, what’s she like.” I thought about my answer for a second before speaking. “She’s…. distrustful, like she’s scared of people.” Mandy waited for me to say more, but I didn’t. “Oh.” Was all she said and picked up her book again.

After a few minutes she put it down again. “So it’s Saturday again, expecting anyone?” She asked casually. I laughed. “Don’t worry, Jack will be here soon and yes he’ll be her for you this time he made that very clear last week.” Mandy looked down, blushing deeply. “I’m sorry, I never wanted to steal your best friend from you.” I laughed. “Oh don’t worry about that Mandy, it’s fine. I’m happy for you guys, really.” Mandy grinned and gave me a big hug. “I know it sounds crazy, but I like him so much Alex. It’s insane.” She said, burying her face in my chest.

I looked at the clock. “It’s almost one, Jack will be here any minute.” I said and she nodded. Mandy quickly scrambled up and dashed towards the exit.”See ya later Al!” I couldn’t help but laughed at her ‘lovesick teen’ like behavior.

I just sat there on the floor of the library, not sure what to do. I didn’t really feel like doing anything so sitting on the floor seemed good enough, for now. That was until the door opened and Dr. Samantha came in. “Alex? Ah, there you are. Amanda already told me I might find you in here. Could you step into my office for a second? There’s something I’d like to talk to you about.” “Yes, of course.” I said, suddenly very happy with the distraction.

I followed her to her office. Inside she waved her hand towards the chair, indication me to sit down. She didn’t waste any time and went straight to the point. “She shook your hand, correct?” “I… who.. my what?” “Summer of course! Cindy told me what happened in her room earlier today.” Samantha said impatiently. “What? Uhm, yes.” I said, a little confused what was going on. Samantha smiled, looking like a kid at Christmas morning. “Oh that is wonderful!”

“Uhm may I ask what is going on?” I said. “Oh of course, I’m so sorry Alex.” She apologized. “As you might have realized Summer doesn’t really trust new people, she’s also extremely sensitive to people touching her. I can’t go into details about this, but you have to understand she’s been through a lot.” I nodded and Samantha continued. “Cindy told me she shook your hand when you left, maybe only for a second but she took your hand. She normally won’t let anyone but her parents and a few nurses touch her.” “So that’s the reason why she freaked out the other night?” I asked. “Yes.”

“Alex, there’s something I would like to ask you since she reacted so well to you.” Samantha asked carefully. “I want to ask you if you would want to talk to her.” I frowned. “I don’t understand.” “I mean just talk to her, get her to open up to you. The fact that she willingly shook your hand is a big step in her healing process. We have tried everything for so long, but nothing worked. I know this isn’t how we normally do things around here, but I think it will be good… for both of you. You both need to learn to trust and open up to people again. It doesn’t have to be long, an hour a day would be enough.”

I thought about spending an hour a day with Summer and my heart seemed to skip a beat. “Alright, I’ll do it.”