short story – Lourdes Sheejo

“We’ll meet again ”was the last thing I thought about before I shut my eyes and the darkness took me.

“Wake up sunshine” I heard the sound of Henry, one of the caretakers of this place, this place being the hospital for the mentally sick, a. k. a. Mad people. I was placed here after my unsuccessful attempt at taking my own life. If you ask me why I did it, I wouldn’t know either, I have no memory of doing it, sure life sucks and I wouldn’t care if suddenly the world dropped dead. I told this to the counsellor so she put me in here. If you ask me, jumping from a Two storey building sounds like a rookie mistake and now here I am constantly under surveillance but I’m trying to keep myself entertained by watching the antics of other patients.

Just yesterday, Ruth cut her own bangs then cried for an hour because it made her look like a horse. But that is not what makes her mad, the fact that she claims her dead grandma is the one who cut those bangs is why she is here. Sorry Rue but blaming granny for your bad decisions will only make you stay here permanently.

There is also Mary who killed her husband and 3 daughters because she loved them dearly and wanted them to be closer to God. I try to stay away from her, what if she starts loving me.

Then there is David who likes to pull down people’s pants at random times. But once you see him do it 12 times a day, it gets boring. This place is actually very sad and no matter how much I keep myself entertained, I just look forward to sleep time where I can shut my eyes and the world is dead to me. But then I wake up and they are alive, just like now.

Henry continued talking, oblivious to my inner monologue. I focused my attention on him “There is a new patient joining today and you are his assigned buddy to show him around”he said. I gave him a thumbs up and went to the hall to meet my new buddy. The buddy seemed to be around my age and was extremely handsome. Given that there was a scarcity of boys here who look cute and are my age, I was excited to show him around.
“Hi Sylvia, I’m Ralph,” he said. We shared pleasantries while I gave him a tour of the garden, which is the best part of this place. I asked him why he was here. He said that he works here and is not a patient, but given that he is wearing the blue uniform that they assign to the male patients, it is safe to say that he is delusional. He plucked a rose from the garden and gave it to me, said that it matched with my Red uniform and thanked me for showing him around. He sounded genuine and sweet. We struck up a friendship and everyday I hung out in the garden with him and spent time making up stories about the mad people here. Sometimes we did bird watching together. He said that he wanted to flyyyy and be free like a thunderbird.
He had a good voice and it used to brighten up my mood whenever he sang for me. We ended up sleeping together and then made a habit out of it, much to Mary’s wrath, she told me that I will not be welcomed in Heaven, though I am not sure which sin is she worried about, my attempt at suicide or me sleeping with Ralph. But how bad can hell be compared to this world anyway.

Today when Ralph did not come to my room I went to check on him and there he was, dead with a slit wrist. The world got to him I guess.
I did not scream or yell, I was numb and so decided to test Mary’s theory about heaven. I went to the roof and looked below. Two storeys look deep enough. I jumped.
“We’ll meet again” was the last thing I thought about before I shut my eyes and the darkness took me.

The story was inspired by the poem below:

Mad Girl’s Love Song
By Sylvia Plath

“I shut my eyes
and all the world drops dead;
I lift my lids
and all is born again.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

The stars go waltzing out in blue and red,
And arbitrary blackness gallops in:
I shut my eyes
and all the world drops dead.
I dreamed
that you bewitched me into bed
And sung me moon-struck,
kissed me quite insane.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

God topples from the sky,
hell’s fires fade:
Exit seraphim and Satan’s men:
I shut my eyes
and all the world drops dead.
I fancied you’d return the way you said,
But I grow old
and I forget your name.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)

I should have loved a thunderbird instead;
At least when spring comes
they roar back again.
I shut my eyes
and all the world drops dead.
(I think I made you up inside my head.)”

I like to call myself a die hard romantic who’s just unlucky in romance. I love love but love doesn’t love me back. Do you feel me?

My name’s Judy and for the past three years, I’ve had a crush on this guy who I saw at my aunt’s church. Let’s name him A. So Mr. A was a tall, dark guy with beautiful eyes and an equally gorgeous smile. To top it off he was an amazing dancer too! How could I not have a crush on him. But I’m not confident enough and lucky was not my name so I admired him from afar whenever I went to that church and stalked him on Facebook. This year I decided to go for the youth camp, where youth from different churches come together and camp.

Guess who I saw there? Mr. A! I was beyond ecstatic that I get to see him for three days. How did I get so lucky? So on the first day of the camp we had an icebreaker we played passing the parcel, where everyone sat in chairs in a circle, passing a ball, while the music played. When the music stops, the person holding the ball could ask anyone one of us a question, if the answer was no we had to run and sit on another chair while if it’s yes we we all remain seated. In each round the number of chairs kept decreasing and seat less people got eliminated. So the game was going well, I managed to get a seat everytime, then the music stopped and Mr. A stood up to ask a question and he got up looking directly at me and my heart skipped a beat, without losing our eye contact he stood at the centre and asked me.

“Do you have a boyfriend?”

we just stared at each other for a moment, he, waiting for my answer and I sitting tongue tied, then I said No and he smiled while all started running to grab the chairs to sit. We both didn’t get a chair. We both got eliminated.

While the game continued, I stood outside pondering about what had just happened, did I day dream? That’s when I heard “Hey” I turned to see Mr. A standing behind me. Dear God, he is so tall, he is smiling. Was I supposed to say something? He waited. “Oh, hey” I replied two seconds late like an idiot. “I’ve seen you in my church before” He said. I must say, Mr. A has a very deep boyish voice that gave me the feels. “I’ve seen you too” I replied, having nothing better to say. But I didn’t want the conversation to stop so I asked him what he does. We spoke some more though the conversation was not going anywhere, and I didn’t know how to keep it flowing, finally he said he’ll see me around and went to his friends.

I was never so shocked in my entire life, the guy I like just had a whole ass conversation with me. He wanted to know if I was single, do I let myself expect the unexpected? He is interested in me. While we retired for the day, I couldn’t wait for tomorrow, to meet him again. I woke up way early the next day in my dorm room which I shared with girls from other churches. We all had become friends instantly. These girls were cool and funny and fun, we had spent the whole night playing kho kho and mafia (a mind game)

We assembled for breakfast in the hall, and I searched for A. He was nowhere to be seen, I ate with my new friends and then I noticed him sitting with his friends. Should I wave at him? Will he wave back? Like a little chicken I didn’t wave. He didn’t approach me the whole day, didn’t even make eye contact! I’m leading to believe that I must’ve imagined that whole conversation yesterday. Before departing for the night, I gathered enough courage to look at him and smile, he smiled back but it was not his signature gorgeous smile. Disheartened, I decided I’ve shown enough courage for the day and left to go to my dorm.

He is not interested, he was just making conversation. I repeated in my mind and told one of my new friends about it. She gave me a life changing advice “Get over it bro” Why didn’t I think about that? Get over it and phoof I’m over it. It’s not that simple! But I tried listening to her and decided not to let him occupy my mind and stop me from completely enjoying this last day at camp with my girls.

The final day, we were made to play another game, where a balloon was tied to our waist with a long thread so that the balloon was at the floor level. We had to run and burst each other’s balloon with our foot while also trying to protect the one tied to us. The game started and I ran to burst some balloons and crashed my head on A’s chest, he smiled, but I’m not going to let it affect me this time! He is not interested, he was just making conversation yesterday. Judy focus on the balloon! I pushed him and stamped on his balloon and it burst. Never felt better! He was mildly surprised but laughed and ran towards me to burst mine, I didn’t run fast enough and my competitive Mr. A burst mine too. I told myself to stop thinking about him and ignore his smile. Argh! we both got eliminated and I walked away in the opposite direction to him and stood, didn’t look at him, nah ah, not even a peak. I swear! But he walked towards me, I kept ignoring him. “Hey you burst mine before I did yours! You don’t get to be angry” he said. I kept ignoring. “Come on Judy, you have to agree it was fun” he pleaded laughingly. God, he is so handsome he is way out of my league what was I even thinking. “I didn’t know you are such a spoil sport” he kept pestering. “Ugh, I’m not mad about that stupid game A!” I said. He was surprised, “then why are you mad?”

“Because you kept ignoring me yesterday, I thought you were interested in me!” I shut my mouth a little too late. He went quiet. I wanted the earth to swallow me right there, why did I say that to him!?

“I am interested in you” he said looking at me, he went on, “I thought you weren’t, because you didn’t seem to be interested in our conversation and I thought it’s better if I drop it, instead of making a fool of myself”

I didn’t know what to say to him, he thought that? And did he just say he is interested in me? Think Judy, did you hear correctly? Slowly I told him, “A, I am shy, I liked you way before you even knew me” I laughed, “Hell, I’m very much interested in you!” He smiled, and I wanted to kiss him then. Should I kiss him? I don’t know to kiss, should I close my eyes from the start or after our lips meet? What will h… He kissed me. He. Kissed. Me. Aaahhhhh and it’s amazing, I kiss him back, he is smiling I can feel it, I smile too.

Two month’s later…

Hey I’m Aaron, Judy had told me she is visiting her friend for the weekend. We decided to meet at the cafe. Damn, it’s crowded today. I didn’t get to see her after the camp, she’d gone out of town for an internship. It’s been two months of only texting and now I finally get to see her.

There she is, searching for me, I wave. My mouth automatically has a big smile. She is walking towards me, so beautiful, I can’t believe she liked me for three whole years. She was like a magnet pulling me at the camp, I had to ask if she was single and I can’t believe my luck!

She is here, smiling at me, I should kiss her now.