It was white as anything inside. They never liked hospitals all that much. They were silent. Smelled too clean. Too bright. It hurt everything they knew.
But they sat quietly during lunch time. A few other patients that they made friends with were off in their own world as well.
"Are you almost done eating? You have a visitor." A nurse smiled at them as she clicked her heels together standing besides their seat. They stood up and threw away their plate,"Okay," and walked back to their room.
One...Two...Three...Four...Ten rooms. There are ten rooms in total they walked passed on the way back to theirs. Keeping their third person mind set and speech was starting to get harder now. But that was a good thing. We wanted to break it. And the help that is happening, that they are getting is doing just that.
On that little journey, a silhouette came into view. One that sure started to look familiar.
"Dorin?" They spoke up in confusion. He lifted his head from the flooring and smiled, "Hi. Long time no see huh?"
Both of them went into their room. They sat on the bed while Dorin sat on a chair nearby. Both were quiet. The quiet they were used to on the star filled night sky nights on the rooftop. That's when Dorin broke the silence with a complement.
"Nice soft blue curtains with stars. Kasai. By buddy dudette.."
They looked up and smiled,"Thank you. They aren't my soft yellow curtains with white daisies on them. But they are the next best thing."
Dorin smiled. So did Kasai.
Dorin kept his gaze on the curtains before closing his eyes and slumping in the chair sighing, "So, why did you give me your curtains? And polaroid photos of moments of random things. And why are so many full of me?"
Kasai smiled and held up three fingers,"That is all three questions you used up in one go. No more, just remember."
Dorin laughed with a nod.
"Question one, I gave you my curtains because you liked them so much. You would make comments about them. You liked how simple my room looked. You liked the peach toned room with the soft yellow curtains with white daisies. Two, I took them because it's better to have something to hold so you can always have that memory in case you forget it by accident. Every moment was peaceful and kept a calm time so nothing felt bad. Three, so many are full of you because you are important to me. You helped me as best as you could and made things less bad. You helped me realize that not everything was my fault and that getting help won't hurt so much and I'll get better at some point. You stuck with me no matter how bad things got or I got. You never left."
Dorin was shocked. The person he knew never spoke like this or this much. The person he knew was nameless. Objectless. Have no grounding to the world around them that they seemed out of this world with how they saw the world they lived in. Which made them ever more interesting.
He snapped back to reality and grabbed something from his pocket,"did you get those curtains from a store?"
Kasai nodded in confusion as she watched her friend fish in his pocket. Then she saw the soft fabric with some daisies on it. Dorin handed it to her.
"I took one of the curtains off she you had your favourite thing. You told me it was your favourite visual stim and a good tactical stim too. So, here. I kept one since you gave me it."
Kasai took it and got up, taking one soft blue curtain with stars and folded it neatly, giving it to Dorin.
"Then you take this, so we each have one. What do you say?"
He smiled taking it and put it in his pocket then grinned,"Sounds good to me! I'll put it up when I get home! Oh!" he pulled out an image of both of them in the peach toned room with soft yellow curtains with white daisies and placed the photo on the table,"Mom made a copy so I have one too. I have to go now, but I'll be back in a few days. I'll see you later Kasai. It's nice to meet you and know you fully now."
Kasai nodded and smiled following Dorin out of the room and hugged him tightly before he disappeared out into the lobby. That's when she remembered what he asked years ago when they first met and how she responded.
"When is the loneliest you've ever felt? How about the one time you felt the most sad? Like, the moment the one thing you up most cared for, was just gone, leaving you feeling a vast openness. When was that?"
"Since forever I suppose."
"Really?"
"Yes."
Kasai smiled to herself as she went back into her room and laid down,"Last time I felt lonely? Just a few minutes ago, but I know you'll be back."
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