ℕ𝕆𝕀𝕊𝔼

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• 𝙲𝚊𝚛𝚛𝚢 𝚘𝚗 𝚆𝚊𝚢𝚠𝚊𝚛𝚍 𝚂𝚘𝚗 - 𝙺𝚊𝚗𝚜𝚊𝚜 •

Beatrice sat in the back seat of Bob Newby's car with Will in front of her, sitting in the passenger seat. She always loved hanging out with Bob. She thinks he's great company to be around.

Bea brought her art book today, as she does everyday. Her plan is to show Will the pages because she feels that he should know what she's drawing. Even if no one knows what it actually means.

The young Holland was staring out the window for a good amount of the drive, testing her eyes ability to focus and unfocus on random things passing by. She only jumped into Bob and Wills conversation when she heard Bob ask if he had ever mentioned a Mr. Baldo to the pair before.

"Mr. Baldo?" Will slowly asked, staring at the driver as if he had grown two heads.

"Yeah. I was a little younger than the both of you—," Bob states, looking at Bea in the rear view mirror before his eyes flickered back to the road, "—standing in line for the Ferris wheel at the Roane County fair."

Both Bea and Will hummed in response, as a way to tell him to continue. "And suddenly, I feel this fat white glove tap me in the shoulder. I spin around, and there he is. Mr. Baldo." This makes Bea shudder. She hates clowns.

"'Hey, kiddo, would you like a balloon?'" Bob imitates the clown making Will laugh. "Go ahead, laugh. It's funny. It wasn't funny back then, I can tell you that." He chuckles with the boy.

"But, I couldn't get him out of my head. Every night, he would come to me in my dreams. And every night when he came to me, I ran." He sighs. "It got so bad that I made my mom stay in the room with me until I could fall asleep every night."

Will's jaw slacks as he stares out the front window. "Really?"

"Really." Bob confirms with a nod. "It went on like that for months." He continues, "And then one day, the nightmares suddenly stopped."

"How?" Bea asked, now intrigued with the story.

"Well, I fell asleep... and just like always, Mr. Baldo came to me. Only this time, I didn't run. This time, I stood my ground. I just looked at Mr. Baldo in his stupid face, and I said, 'Go away. Go away!' Just like that, he was gone. Never saw him again. Easy-peasy, right?"

"Easy-peasy," Will echoed, nodding in response.

"Just like that," Bob repeated and snapped his fingers.

If only it was easy-peasy.

Once dropped off at the school, Bea and Will got out of the car and walked in. While Will was hoping to face his fears, Bea was still thinking about Mr. Baldo. Even his name gave her the creeps.

•••••

"The case of Phineas Gage—" Mr. Clarke started, "—is one of the greatest medical curiosities of all time. Phineas was a railroad worker in 1848 who had a nightmarish accident. A large iron rod was driven completely through his head." He told the class as he drew a line through the skull diagram on the board.

"Phineas miraculously survived. He seemed fine. And physically, yes, he was. But his injury resulted in a complete change to his personality. So much so that his friends that knew him started referring to him as 'No longer Gage'. At the time, this was known as the American Crowbar Case. Although it wasn't—"