Conversations of the Mind

“Why don’t we try something different today?” The voice of the doctor was forced, to anyone who listened to it, it would seem as if she was talking in a gentle and patient tone, but to the anyone who saw the way she was looking at the girl in front of her it was very obvious she was eager for the last ten minutes of the appointment to pass.

Of course that desperation only increased when she didn’t receive any type or answer to her suggestion. But, honestly, why should she expect any different? She had been carefully informed about the situation in which Alexis Reed was and everyone, or almost everyone, knew she didn’t understand or answered to anything that was said to her. The only reason the doctor had accepted taking her case was because of the money that came with it.

But she wasn’t the only one who was bothered with having Alexis there each Wednesday of every week. All the members of the Reed family were upset with the idea of the eldest daughter visiting a therapist weekly, or course, everyone apart from Lillian who had been the one to suggest such option.

It didn’t matter how many times she had been told that the reason her step-daughter was in that state had nothing to do with an emotional trauma and was purely medical. There was no way Lex would get any better or get back her memory suddenly just because she spent an hour of each week with a doctor who wasn’t even trying to make any progress with the patient. But the amount of times she had been told by Thomas and Charles that a psychologist would be of any help were not important to her, Lillian would not listen.

So Alexis Reed found herself again in the same red velvet chair as she observed the office, in front of her was a chair very similar to her own and a woman was sitting in it, behind her sat a large dark wooden desk, and the wall behind that was covered in a large bookshelf even if the small amount of books didn’t call for so much space.

After a minute passed and not a single sound came out of the girl´s mouth, the doctor stood from her chair and walked towards Alexis, she took her by the wrist lightly, just to make her understand she needed to get up. When her order had been understood and followed, the woman led Lex towards her fest and saw her in one of the black leather chairs in front of it while she rounded the desk and sat on the other side. She opened one of her man drawers and moved things around until she pulled out a piece of blank white paper, offering it to the girl. A few seconds later, she pulled out a pen and placed it on top of the paper.

“Alright, Alexis. I want you to take the pen and draw whatever it is that comes to your mind, the first thing that pops up,” she said.

If Dr. Reed had been there, he would´ve taken his daughter by the hand and walked out of the office without paying for the appointment. If he knew that the times Alexis was spending in that room was being used with stupid commands such as that one, it would´ve caused another argument in his marriage. If he had heard the doctor said such thing, Thomas would´ve rolled her eyes and would´ve reminded her that his daughter didn’t even know what a pen was, let alone how to draw.

But he was not there, so it took Alexis only a few minutes before she took the object in her hands and turned it around several times before moving it closer to her eyes to see it better. But the proximity the girl had placed between her eyes and the pen was so small she almost stuck the damn thing in.

The doctor leaned towards her quickly and startled over the desk as she took the pen from the girl who behaved like a new born baby and placed it back on the drawer. Her eyes had hidden her frustration in the back; it was wrong frustration because she knew who her patient was before she even decided to take her in. But, without taking into account who the girl was, the woman was a psychologist and she should be used to having communication difficulties with her patients and the way she reacted to them was a real insult.

She had to hold on a few more minutes before the clock on the wall rang a loud bell and she could finally show her first and only genuine smile. It was the only moment of the day when she truly smiled, when her appointments came to an end. She got up from her seat and walk towards the girl, taking Alexis by the wrist and pulling her up, only letting go of her when she opened the door that led to the lobby.

In a couch on the other side of the lobby were sitting Lillian and Roxanne, who stood from their place when the door of the doctor´s office opened up. Roxanne walked towards her sister and took her hand to lead her away from the two women, Lillian, on the other hand, got closer to the doctor to talk about the progress her step-daughter was having.

Roxanne rolled her eyes as she walked to the elevator listening at a distance the conversation her mother was having with the useless doctor, she was saying that Alexis had a serious problem but that she had no doubt they would work through it with a long and persistent treatment, that she was certain that together they would pull the girl out of the state of shock she was in.

“Yeah right,” Roxanne murmured under her breath. She had grown tired of telling her mother time and time again that her sister´s problem was not that she was in a state of shock but that her brain had been gravely injured.

After she parted from the doctor, Lillian walked towards her daughters and together they waited for the elevator to open. Rox pressed the button of the first floor as soon as they were all inside and they began to go down slowly in an absolute silence. Roxanne was sure that they were both thinking about the same thing: the psychologists and Alexis appointments, only they were looking at those things in completely different ways.

Lillian was optimist, she wanted to believe that her daughter was not permanently damaged and even less that her problem was clinical and not emotional. No, she tried to reassure herself that Alexis´s problem was only the extreme trauma she had gone through with such an awful accident. Roxanne on the other hand, knew that these visits to a psychologist were a complete waste of time. The only thing that stopped her from saying that to her mother was that she knew Lily had only the best intentions at heart, she wanted to help Lex and this was the only way she knew how. Roxanne would never have the heart to tell her mother it wouldn’t work.

The doors of the elevator opened up and the three women walked out of the building and into the city. Seeing them all together it was quite easy to see which of them shared blood and which didn’t. While Lillian and Roxanne shared the same golden blonde hair and blue eyes, Alexis had the same light brown hair as her father with the same hazel eyes that were identical to her biological mother´s.

Lillian´s truck was parked on the other side of the street a little bit ahead of the building, so the three women had to wait for an empty street to cross; Rox had her sister´s hand inside hers and guided her to the other side. While they walked along the sidewalk towards the truck, Roxanne said, “Mom, why don´t we catch up with you later at him?” The blonde woman turned over her shoulder with a raised eyebrow. “I wanna go to the mall with Lex.”

Lillian shook her head several times as a small chuckle escaped her lips. “Of course not, Rox.”
“Why not? You know nothing bad will happen to her as long as she´s with me, I know how to handle her and I know I can´t leave her along,” the girl replied as she continued walking. “C´mon, it wouldn’t be so bad, we could eat there together and afterwards we get new dresses for dad´s party.”

The last thing Roxanne said caught her mother´s attention, she stopped mid-step and looked down at the clock in her cellphone while looking at the date as well. The party Thomas Reed was about host in their hose was getting closer and closer and it was very true that neither of her daughters had something to wear.

She turned to look at her daughter with a disapproving expression before showing her a small smile as she nodded. “Fine, you may go, but you have to be very careful. Alexis is not used to being surrounded by many people and I don’t want anything to happen to her.”

“Don´t worry, mom,” Roxanne replied with a smile. “I won´t let anything happen to her, I know how to take care of her.”

Lillian was about to reply when she realized she had lost the attention of both of her daughters, but Roxanne´s attention had only followed her sister´s. Alexis was looking at a distance at the only thing that was familiar in the entire city; speeding down the street in his bike was Travis O´Connor, and Lex´s eyes were glued to him from the moment she recognized him.

Roxanne´s eyes followed her sister´s until they found the guy at the same time he sped past them in his bike, turning over his shoulder slightly to look at Alexis. Rox smiled looking over her shoulder to the guy who was now lost between buses and cars. “Alexis might have lost her memory, but she sure hasn’t lost her good taste,” she said with a chuckle observing the way her sister stared at the spot where the guy had disappeared.

The joke was not welcomed by Lillian, who furrowed her brow. “Don’t be ridiculous, Lex can´t even talk, let alone be attracted to boys in the street.”

&&

It was funny to Travis that no matter where he went, he always seemed to run into Alexis Reed in one way or another. It had been over three days since he had found out of the reality of the girl from the park and he had seen her each one of those days, always at park with the exception of that day.
She had recognized him before she had even seen her, that was easy for him to tell because the moment he had turned to see her, her emerald irises were already on him. It didn’t really bother him, actually he found him somewhat curious that a person who he didn’t even know and who didn’t know him could find him in a mass of moving people.

Travis continued riding down the main avenue of Seattle until he was in the outsides of downtown; getting lost in the maze of smaller streets flanked with houses of a more medium economy than the one Alexis was used to. He took several different streets and turns until he stopped at his parent´s house.

He climbed off his bike and walked with it towards the front of the house, resting it against a wall. On the outside, the house of the O´Connor family was a very nice place, the house was made out a light beige wood and the frames of the windows were white, they had a garden up front that was decorated with colorful flowers and a tree on a corner right below the balcony of one of the rooms on the second floor.

Travis walked up the steps of the porch two at a time and knocked on the door with his fist, he waited a few seconds before the door was pulled open in one clumsy move by a little girl. She was about half of Travis´s height and her hair was a beautiful dark brown, so long it reached past her waist, but her bright eyes and the smile that stretched her pink lips made her look older than what she really was.

“Uncle Travis,” she exclaimed with a smile so wide it almost devoured her small face.
He smiled as well and kneeled so that he could face her better. “Sophie, how are you?” as the words left his lips he took the girl by the waist and pulled her up in his arms.

She let out a giggle and her cheeks blushed by having him so close, she placed one of her hands on his shoulder and the other on his cheek. “I´m great, but Nana says that if I don´t help momma putting the things of the table, she won´t let me eat cake, and I really want cake because it´s of chocolate and my grandma baked it.”

“That´s what Nana said?” asked Travis as he closed the door behind him and walked towards the kitchen as the girl spoke again.

“Yes,” he nodded her head up and down enthusiastically. “But putting the things on the table is boring and I don’t want to do it because I get bored.”

Travis laughed at the girl´s choice of words and kissed her on the cheek just as they walked into the kitchen. Stirring a spoon inside of a pot, stood his grandmother with her previously black hair now silver, she had given into the old age and didn’t feel the need to constantly dye her hair. On the other side of the room was his mother cutting some bread in small slices, covering them with butter and garlic before passing them to Tara, Travis´s daughter and Sophie´s mother, so that she could put them on the stove to toast.

It would be a lie to say Travis wasn’t overwhelmed with happiness with the simple sight of his family all together. If there was something he thoroughly enjoyed was his time with his family, the Wednesday´s afternoons were his favorites because he didn’t have to go back to his apartment to see what his friends had decided to cook, and their cooking abilities were pretty questionable. Because of that, going every week to the traditional lunch with his family was one of the things he looked forward to.

Still with Sophie in his arms, Travis walked towards his mother and placed a hand on her shoulder to catch her attention. The woman turned to him and her face brightened with a smile when she saw him, he leaned down and kissed her on the cheek softly before shifting his niece´s weight on his hip.

“How are you, dear?” she asked putting the knife in the sink and taking a cloth to wipe away the breadcrumbs that had fallen on the counter. The question caught the attention of the other people in the kitchen and Nana and Tara turned to see him and shot him a welcoming smile. At the sight of her mother, Sophie extended her arms in her direction to let her know she wanted to go with her, Tara cleaned her hands on the apron she had on before walking towards her and taking her daughter from her brother´s embrace.

“I´m good, a little bit worried about school but nothing I can´t handle,” he replied leaning against the counter and crossing his arms.

Nana turned her head towards him. “Problems at school?” she asked before letting out a chuckle that intensified her wrinkles. “I truly doubt you have any sort of problem at the university, Travis.”

Nana Sylvia was the reason Travis had decided to study psychology, she had studied the same thing when she was younger even if at that time it wasn’t really normal for a woman to study a full career. But that had never mattered to her; in fact, there were very few things that could bother her in her youth. She was one of those girls who fell madly in love with a boy when she was very young and they got married shortly after, when she was only sixteen years old, two years later, she had her first daughter, Travis´s mother.

He shrugged his shoulders nonchalantly. “They aren’t exactly problems, just too many things to do and even less time now that I´m so close to graduating.”

“I don’t think you have many things to worry about, Travis,” Tara said while she took some plates out of the cupboards and giving them to her daughter slowly, making sure she didn’t drop them. “The only thing you have to focus on is on passing all your classes and that has never been an issue for you. Besides, there´s nothing to distract you, I know your social life is not nonexistent, but you don’t have a girlfriend to take up your time.”

“Of course that is if you don’t count the girl from the park,” joked Tim as he entered the kitchen to help set the table.

Tim was Tara´s husband, they met in college while he studied architecture and she studied graphic design, they started dating when she was twenty-two and he was twenty-four and they got married sometime after they both graduated. Which was the same age Travis was getting close to, but the plans of his life went in a really different direction.

Travis´s life for the past few years had been completely focused in finishing his studies, enjoying his time with his friends before having to worry about getting a real job, and meeting as many girl as he could. Of course that was a lie to a certain point, Travis didn’t strolled along the streets of Seattle or the hallways of his university flirting with girls and throwing looks at any woman that crossed his path. But it so happened that they chased him as if being with him would forever change their lives. He didn’t complain at all, he enjoyed the company and, most of all, having the freedom of not wanting something serious and them not being upset about it.

“No, I don’t count her,” Tara commented with a playful smirk. “She can´t count because he doesn’t even know her name.”

“Her name´s Alexis,” Travis said, his smile was not like his sister´s, in fact, it was barely there at all. The news surprised them all and their eyes rested on the tall man letting him know wanted to know more. “Alexis Reed.”

His mother turned around covering her mouth with her hands, her expression that of complete surprise and sadness. Tara arched an eyebrow while Tom analyzed the new information without really understanding and the Nana simply stared at her grandson.

“What?” asked Tim confused. “What´s the big deal with her having that name?”

Tara turned her head towards him. “Alexis Reed, you don’t remember her? She´s the girl who got hit by a car a few months back, it was really big news. I never knew what happened to her.”

His mother shook her head. “Me neither. Are you sure it is her, Travis? I think you must be confused.”

“Yeah, how can you know it´s her when you never even met her?” Tara asked agreeing with her mother.

Travis had imagined that giving his family the news that the girl from the park of whom he had talked about so much was the same girl who had suffered the tragic accident everyone had heard of and who had been the town´s talk for months, would bring up a lot of surprise and room for a large conversation. That why he had really doubted whether he should tell them or not, he hadn’t talked to them since before he realized it was Alexis that day at the workshop and as Wednesday got closer and closer, Travis didn’t know if telling his family was the best idea.

He just shrugged his shoulders. “Yeah, it´s her, I´m sure. Her father went to the workshop a few days ago and he took her with him, Jim knows him and he knows about what happened to her,” he replied stretching the truth a little. He felt it was unnecessary and more complicated telling them the actual story about how he had found out about Alexis life.

“So what happened to her?” asked his mother.

Travis walked towards the cupboards and started taking out the glasses before placing them in the counter for Sophie to take to the table. He had gotten somewhat uncomfortable with the conversation because, in the small amount of time he had of knowing Alexis, he had realized he didn’t like it when people talked about her as if her life was their business. And in that moment, he just wanted to hurry things up so that they could change subjects and start eating.

“She got run over,” he said, trying to be brief. But when he turned around he was met with his family´s expectant and interested expressions, so he went on, “She got run over and she fell into a coma for a few months, I don’t know how long. She just woke up a few weeks ago and she apparently doesn’t remember anything.”

Tim tilted his head to a side slightly. “Well, I think that´s normal, isn’t it? I´ve heard that coma patients usually can remember their accident.

But the guy only shook his head as he looked at his brother-in-law. “No, Alexis doesn’t remember anything. At all. They say her brain was too damaged because she doesn’t know anything at all, that´s why she never speaks when I see her and that´s why she seems not to understand a word I say.”

“Oh no, poor girl,” Travis´s mother said shaking her head from one side to the other, probably thinking what she would do if one of her own children had to go through that. “It must be so hard for her.”

“I don’t think so,” he said and, once again, everyone looked at him as if he was insane. But lately he had been thinking about it a lot and he had reached that conclusion. “I think it´s harder for her family; her dad looks as though he might die at any second by just looking at her, but she´s actually happy. She doesn’t know what´s going on.”

Tara thought about it for a moment before shrugging. “Well, it makes sense. After all, she doesn’t remember anything of her previous life so she has nothing to miss.”

“Who has nothing to miss?” Travis´s father asked as he walked into the crowded kitchen. As usual, he had a newspaper in one hand and his reading glasses in the other. Every pair of eyes looked at him with humor and a little kind-hearted frustration, they had just covered that part of the conversation and Travis was not in the mood to repeat it just the get the same reaction out of him. But his mother stopped any type of explanation when she took the bowl with the sliced bread in one hand as she exited the kitchen.

As if it had been an order, everyone started to filter out into the dining room as they took the last things they needed for the meal, Tara opened the fridge and pulled out a bowl with a salad and gave it to Tim, who took it and walked out of the room, she took a jar of lemonade and followed him, leaving Travis and Nana alone.

In was exactly in that moment, while he was along with her, when Travis realized she had not said one word in the entire conversation about Alexis. So he walked towards her as his grandmother turned off the stove and placed a spoon inside the pot with pasta.

“You seemed quite defensive back there,” she commented casually.

Travis frowned slightly. “I don’t know what you mean; I just told them what they wanted to hear.”

“Yeah,” she nodded her head, “but you didn’t seem too happy about it.”

“I don’t know, maybe I just don’t like it when people talk about things they don’t know,” he replied with a shrug trying to seem nonchalant. “I´ve never liked gossip and even less being a part of it.”

Nana turned in her spot to shoot Travis a knowing smile, but she didn’t say anything for a while, not until he arched both eyebrows expectantly. “I think you might´ve started to care for the girl.”

Travis shook his head without a thought. “No, it´s not that. I don’t even know her. I just wanted to know what was up with her, why she seemed so different.”

But nothing he said would make his grandmother change his mind and he knew it. Nana had never seen him so interested in a girl before and now that she did she wanted to make sure Travis didn’t do anything he shouldn’t. “So know that you know why you´ll stop seeing her?”

“No,” he replied without missing a beat, but he noticed the expression in his grandmother´s face and he had to explain himself. “That doesn’t mean I´m interested in her as a woman, but in her as a person. I´ve never seen anything like it and it´s very interesting to see how she handles herself alone in the city.”

Nana nodded but the same knowing smile never left her lips, as though she was aware of a secret he did not yet know. “Just be careful, Travis. The girl might seem and act as a one-year-old child, but she still has the hormones of a twenty-year old woman and you don’t want to get into trouble with her family. We all know the reputation you have.”