The Eleventh Ward

Chapter 4

Over the next few days, life in the eleventh ward made me feel like I was just a normal teenage girl. I learnt about Grace, and how living with schizophrenia had made any chance of living a normal life hopeless. She told me how Liam had been by her side at his own funeral, and how her dad had walked out on the family because he couldn't deal with his daughter constantly talking to his dead son. She told me how nobody would ask her to the junior prom so Liam offered to take her. And when she had stood on top of a multi storey car park, and the police asked why she was there, she told them Liam wanted an answer to his question. Luke told me that she had never even given a clue to what the question was, but sometimes went into a sort of panic attack because she still hadn't answered it and she didn't know how without getting in trouble. I'm still trying to figure out what the question is.

Luke also told me about when he left for the first time. He was seven years old and in the middle of class when he suddenly went into a fugue. When he woke up, he was playing football with the 9 year olds and claiming he was a new student called David. His hair was a completely different style to normal and he was immediately taken into a young child psychiatric ward. Two months later he was returned to normal childhood life but still continued regular therapy sessions. His parents rarely told his counsellor about when he had another episode from fear they would loose their child, but after the thing with the armed robbery they had no choice to but to admit that his mental illness was still very much real.

On Tuesday, most of the group was in therapy, which left me with some quality time with Michael. The boy with the bright green hair seemed to confuse me more than any of the others. Ever since I'd been admitted to the eleventh ward, I'd paid so much more attention to how people acted. It was a habit I'd picked up in prison after my cellmate came up with a way to link how people acted at certain times, to figuring out what crime they'd done. It was total bullshit, but I still liked to play along. For example, Calum was a flirt around everyone, and he seemed to use his eyes as a secret weapon, but whenever Lacey was around he'd turn it up, and she would get pissy when he flirted with girls right in front of her. The rest of the time, Lacey acted as if the ward was like high school, and despite being anorexic, she would skip in the cafeteria at breakfast and dinner as if she was on stage at all times. And to her, she was. Not only did she suffer from a serious eating disorder, but Lacey was an attention seeker. There were two other anorexics beside her in the ward, and they kept to themselves, constantly acting like they weren't good enough to socialise with the other patients. And when it came to meal times, they'd walk into the cafeteria with their shoulders hunched, looking defeated in their attempt to stay their desired weight. But Michael, I could never figure out what was wrong with him until I paid special attention to him. When around Calum or Lacey, he was confident, cocky. But when he was with Luke, he acted normal. He would still have a laugh and joke about, it was nowhere near the standard of being around Calum and Lacey. When with Erin, he seemed almost scared of her, but that was only when they were alone. As a group, he went back to what I assumed was his normal state. What I found strange though, was when it was just him and Grace. I found them together in the her room while the others were having a ping pong championship in the lounge. I had been instructed to find them, and after checking the cafeteria and the games room, I had no choice but to admit that they must be in each others rooms. When I finally figured out which room was Grace's, I opened the door to find Michael pushing her against the wall. His hands were firmly wrapped around her wrists, and he was too pre-occupied with putting a love bite on her neck to notice I'd walked in. Grace's eyes were tightly shut, but when I moved my foot and the floorboard creaked, her eyes flew open and a tear escaped down her left cheek. She wasn't the only one who heard it. Michael's hands immediately released their grip and he turned around to face me, a smile appearing on his face.

"Brandi, what's up?" he smiled. I didn't know how to react. I didn't want to take my eyes of him, but when I saw Grace breathe a sigh of relief behind him, I realised what had happened. He wouldn't do anything in front of someone, I'd saved her.