chapter 04:
"how many cigarettes have you smoked since your last visit?" adam asks luke.
"i actually lost count after the 20th" replies luke.
"okay, at least that's better than last week" adam fixes his patient's papers, before stapling them.
"last week, you said that you lost count after the 35th, didn't you?" asks adam.
"yeah" agrees luke. "but I want to stop. how?" luke's tone, defeated.
"listen, luke, you can't cut a habit you've been living with in a day or night. you need time-"
luke can't help but interrupt adam's words, "but what if I don't have- time?"
adam puts his cup down on the table. "don't think like that and don't fear time. we only attract what we fear" he simply states, as if it's that easy.
he folds his hands together and speaks, "listen luke, cutting a bad habit takes a long time" while stressing the word 'long.'
"we don't recommend quitting such habits very quickly. it will only drive you to miss it just as quick as you desire to quit. if you cut it down slowly, missing it won't occur as much because you'll still be doing it, but very little."
"and in this way luke, you'll trick your mind. you're still doing it, but not as much."
adam speaks again, "try to smoke only 2 cigarettes, today instead of five, and 10 this week instead of 30, okay?"
luke nods his head, itching his wrist.
he hears adam's voice, again saying, "in this way, even if you feel like you've had enough cigarettes for the day, you might not even want to reach the fifth one by the end of the day."
"I understand, doctor."
rose is helping jack drink his soup.
"I had a meeting with mr. zed today." she searches for a reaction from him.
none.
"it went well, actually. so well. i'm almost done."
she hears jack swallowing the creamy soup.
she wipes the excess soup off his mouth with a napkin.
jack has been doing okay, stuttering every now and then.
"you know what?" she starts. jack looks at her, waiting for her to talk.
"mr. zed said that he sees potential in me. maybe he'll ask me to write a scenario or something."
she smiles and thinks that she sees his lips tug up.
georgia and issac enter the hospital and find rose in the cafeteria.
"hello dear" mumbles georgia. "how are you? and how's jack?"
"he's okay" pouts rose.
georgia rubs rose's clothed-shoulder. "it'll be okay."
"is he awake?" she asks.
rose hums. "I can take you to his room" offers rose.
"mama, I know his room number. it's 711."
"sac, how did you get 25? 4 multiplied by 5 isn't 25. it's 20."
rose is helping issac with his math homework in the hospital's cafeteria.
after georgia visited jack. he went to sleep.
"does this mean that 4 multiplied by 6 is 25?" issac asks rose so innocently. she wishes it was correct.
