Only Colours

Chapter 1

Note: This is a stand alone side story to Hey Jude. The events of the two stories overlap but are told from the perspective of different characters, so they both contain spoilers for the other.

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When Mikey was six, he made his first friend. Her name was Claire and she was in his class at school. She helped him by passing the teacher's instructions on to him. Before he had met Claire, the only person Mikey had been able to see or hear had been his mum. He didn't know why. Nobody did.

Claire could turn things into ice with just a touch, but it was a secret. She wasn't supposed to tell anyone, but she told Mikey anyway. Mikey told her about how he saw colours in place of most people. She didn't really understand, but it felt good to tell someone. It felt good to have a friend.

Mikey could see her parents, too, and sometimes he went over to Claire's house to play. One day when Mikey was at Claire's house they were outside playing with the hose and an ice tray. They would fill the ice tray with water and then Claire would freeze the cubes. They were making a big pile of them together. They wanted to make a tiny igloo, but the ice cubes kept slipping.

Then Claire's dad came outside and he saw them and he was very angry, but inside he was scared. Mikey saw it in the colours. Then her mum came outside too and she cried and Claire cried, and Claire's dad told Mikey that he couldn't tell anyone, that nobody would believe him anyway. Mikey told him he hadn't, that he wouldn't, but Claire's parents were still scared and angry. Mostly scared.

They called Mikey's mum and she came and took him home. She asked what was wrong, but Mikey didn't tell her. The next day, Claire wasn't at school. She wasn't at school the day after that, either. Mikey never saw her again.

Mikey could see some people, but he rarely approached them. They were strangers. Some people he could see didn't have colours, and somehow Mikey had always known that meant something bad. He cried and told his mum he wanted to go home when he saw those people, though he never told her why. It made her sad that he was different.

Mikey's mum had taken him to many psychologists, psychiatrists, doctors, and other specialists over the years, but they had never been able to help him. He couldn't even see or hear them, so how could they?

Sometimes they did tests, blood tests and brain scans and all sorts of things, and often that meant they had to touch him. Mikey screamed and cried and refused to cooperate, refused to even talk about the situation except to tell his mum he didn't want to go to any more hospitals. Unlike Claire, Mikey had to focus on his mum in order to see or hear her. After she made him do those things, he refused to give her his attention, sometimes for days at a time. He would pretend he was completely alone, that nobody else existed in the world except for him. Eventually she gave up and stopped trying to make him do those things.

At least until Mikey was eight and she wanted to take him to see a psychologist a colleague at work had recommended. He worked in an office, Mikey's mum told him, not a hospital, and he wouldn't touch Mikey. They could just go and see what the psychologist had to say and they could leave any time Mikey wanted. Mikey knew his mum was sad, desperate, tired. He could see it in her colours and on her face. He agreed to try.

The instant they entered the office, Mikey's eyes met Dr Lucas'. He had dark, grey flecked hair, and Mikey returned the gentle smile Dr Lucas gave him with triple the intensity.

"You can see him?" Mikey's mum asked with hopeful surprise. Mikey gave a nod of confirmation.

"Well, that's a good start, isn't it?" Dr Lucas said, his voice warm and friendly. He was warm and friendly on the inside, too. Mikey instantly decided he liked Dr Lucas.