Visitor (Normila / Laurmani)

Chapter 17

Normani sat in the recreational area trying to pretend that she understood what a fellow patient was telling her. The patient claimed that, once her dead grandmother brings her magic sneakers, that they could fly out of the hospital and be free. Another patient listening in kept yanking out his hair and eating it. Normani was definitely the sanest person there.

When the doctors could no longer find anything physically wrong with Normani, she was involuntarily placed in the behavioral unit of the hospital because of her suicide attempt. By law, she could be kept up to seven days without a court commitment, and she knew that she was going to be kept the full seven days with this being her second suicide attempt.

It was visitation day, and Normani was elated about being able to see her parents and Camila, but also felt sad for the many patients whose family members had forgotten about them. She sat in the visitation room anxiously waiting for her family. No one wanted to tell her over the phone what had happened with Lauren, so she was shocked to see her father come in on crutches and Camila's face battered and bruised.

"What happened to you guys?" Normani inquired after hugging everyone.

"Lauren," quipped Andrea as she and the others took a seat.

"Wait...what....how?" Normani questioned.

Derrick groaned from the pain in his leg as he slowly sat down. "Let's just say that Lauren wasn't very happy with you leaving her. I don't believe she meant to hurt me, but she definitely was trying her hardest to beat the life out of Camila."

Normani reached out to grab the hand of Camila who was sitting next to her. She cringed looking at the cuts and discoloration on her face. "You must be in terrible pain," said Normani.

Camila nodded. She hadn't spoken a word since entering the room. "Can you talk?" asked Normani.

Again, Camila nodded her head. "So, talk to me. Say something," Normani demanded.

Andrea then interjected, "Camila doesn't want to open her mouth in front of anyone because Lauren knocked out two of her teeth."

"Oh, my God!" Normani cried. "Poor baby." Normani hugged Camila and squeezed her tight. "Where is Lauren? I hope she's in jail."

"I spoke to her mom yesterday," Andrea began. "She said that she is in the San Antonio State Hospital."

"They might even take her to Vernon in North Texas. That's where they house mentally-ill, violent criminals," added Derrick.

Normani grimaced. "A mental hospital is the last place she wants to be."

"She needs to be there," Derrick stated. "Did you know that she killed two little boys when she was younger?"

Camila and Normani glanced at each other remembering what they had seen with the memory machine. But, Normani had enough of talking about Lauren. She really wanted to speak with Camila and was annoyed that she wouldn't open her mouth.

"Say something," Normani whined. "I don't care about your missing teeth." Camila adamantly shook her head adding to Normani's frustration. "How long are you going to refuse to speak? You can't keep this up."

Andrea broke in to answer for her. "She should be getting implants before you're released. The dental school at the UT Health Science Center is doing the work for free."

Normani huffed with disappointment, but accepted that Camila wasn't talk. Derrick and Andrea informed Normani that they were able to use her key to get into the duplex she shared with Lauren and moved her stuff to Camila's apartment. The visitation time allotted was only an hour. Before they left, Normani told Camila to buy Neosporin for her cuts to reduce the scarring.