Dear Olive

"Charlie, I wish I could tell you what I'm looking at, but I don't know. I know that it scares me though and we need help. You're bleeding and you just passed out. I think what worries me even more though is you seem to be feeling things again. So something in there," Olive said pointing at my head, "is broken."

"Then take me to a hospital," I argued," or better yet the clinic that did this to me in the first place. I saw Dr. Edelstein. Whatever is happening, he can fix it. I -"

My sentence was cut short. Whatever words I was going to speak died on my lips as Olive pressed hers against them. She kissed me for the next several seconds and I was powerless to stop her.

"I love you, Charlie," Olive whispered when she pulled away. "I have always loved you. You accepted me for exactly who I was and didn't need me to be anything more or less. I can see the person I love in your eyes. I can hear his voice talking to me. I'm not going to let some doctor take him away from me again."

"You left me," I accused as my my fingers clawed into her right shoulder. I hated how pathetic it sounded, but it was true.

"No Charlie," she disagreed, "You left me, because you thought I betrayed you.I didn't correct you, because I didn't want you to know what they did to me, and more importantly, I didn't want them to do it to you too. "

Natalie cleared her throat in the background and brought me back to the present. She apologetically raised her hand and said, "Ive got to go check on my Aunt Rose. Olive, will you make sure he gets checked out?"

That roughly translated to,good luck sorting your shit out, I'm going to leave now.Natalie probably wished she'd never set foot in my house and stepped into my literal and figurative mess. At least she got a mixer out of it.

Olive nodded solemnly in response to Natalie. Then looked back at me and told me,"I'm calling my Dad, Charlie. If he doesn't know what to do, he'll know someone that does."

As she pulled out her cell phone and dialed my brain went in dizzy circles. I tried to picture Olive's father. If memory served me right he was a generic looking man with a mild personality. I wondered what he could possibly do to help.

Then I thought about what Olive told me. Her father let the doctor's change everything about her, but let her keep her personality. What type of father would force the change on his daughter and why would she still trust him after that? Unless there was more to the story and the rabbit hole went even deeper.