Four White Walls

Chapter Three: Dinner

The cafeteria was full of people. It was noisy and crowded and it reminded me much of a high school cafeteria if it weren’t for the age of the people in it. 

I followed Rowan and entered another room. We got in line and two ladies were serving food that looked like real food, not slop like one would normally find in an institute or a high school cafeteria. Drool poured out of my mouth like a waterfall as my eyes set on a honey glazed ham and homemade mashed potatoes and turkey gravy. I took my plate and held it up, slightly positioning it closer to the woman with the ham. She had dark hair and even darker eyes. She smiled at me and gave me a huge chunk. I was so hungry and concentrating on my ham I had almost forgotten about my mashed potatoes. The other lady was older and seemed a little grumpier, but she didn’t spit in my food like my high school lunch ladies did. I appreciated that.

Rowan guided me to the furthest end of the gigantic dining table. He set down his food, but didn’t sit down.

“Want me to get you something to drink?” he asked.

“Oh, yeah,” I said, not taking my eyes of my golden ham. 

“What do you want? We have fruit punch, lemonade, water, milk, orange juice, and root beer,” he listed off.

I thought for a moment and looked at my meal in front of me. What would go best with ham and mashed potatoes? “I’ll have milk.”

Rowan left and came back with my milk and lemonade for himself. 

“I sat over here because this is where my group sits. You’re going to be sitting in our counseling group as well, so you don’t need to be introduced to anyone else unless you really want to,” Rowan explained.

I took a bite of my succulent ham and almost collapsed from delight. They must have five star cooks imported from Italy back there! “So I won’t be meeting everyone here?” 

“Of course not! There are way too many people that are institutionalized,” Rowan laughed. “You just have to get to know the people in your counsel group. I checked who’s in yours. It’s me, Rosalina, Heidi, Derek, Jared, Autumn, and Abigail. Of course, you’re going to have to know who Jeremy is.”

“Jeremy?” I asked. 

Rowan pointed to a guy who was in a strange position in the corner. His left arm was making an arc over his head to hold onto his right ear and he was standing on his tip toes. He wore baggy clothes and I couldn’t see his face because of his Marine’s hat that he wore dipped down over his face.

“Jeremy Wheeler is a catatonic schizophrenic,” Rowan said, chewing his ham. “He never says anything to anyone. He just arrived about four days ago. He’s been this way for about two years and nothing seemed to have set it off. His first attack was when he was found posing like the statue of Liberty for two hours outside of a post office.”

I looked at Jeremy and felt sorry for him. My mom may have thought I was bad, but there were people worse off than I was. 

“How long does he normally stay like that?” I asked.

“He’s always in a different position… but when he gets in a position it can be anywhere for minutes to hours,” Rowan shook his head. “It’s sad, but I know there’s hope.”

A short guy at about 5’4” wandered up to the table and sat across from us. He had black hair and the brightest blue eyes I had ever seen. He smiled at Rowan and me and said, “Hey, Rowan, who’s your new friend?”

“Hey, Jared, this is Malakai, he’s new here. He has OCD. His life is counted out by fours,” Rowan introduced. “This is Jared Smith. He’s a Paranoid Schizophrenic. He has stalkers around every corner. The FBI plants bugs and trackers everywhere and switches brains with his friends to get information out of him, but sometimes they go a while without doing it, isn’t that right, Jared?”