Gracie

Chapter 4 - Goodbye Hug

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Liam's POV:

Gracie had been with us five days and she hadn't slept for four of them. It affected her drastically. The first day she was just like anyone who had missed a night's sleep; tired, uncooperative and grumpy. As the second day rolled by Gracie's speech capabilities were reduced; she was not normally a great chatterer but somehow her speech had reduced even further. She was also unable to understand simple requests. Her alertness, reasoning and problem solving were impaired. It made it more difficult, almost impossible, for her to assimilate new ways of life. As sleep plays an essential role in "consolidating" memories her short term memory was drastically prejudiced. As time ticked on and the third day arrived Gracie became paranoid and started hearing voices.

I once found her quarrelling with herself while sitting in the empty bath tub. She was hallucinating, arguing with some imaginary counterpart about rowing a boat. Whoever she thought was there refused to row, therefore, she stated, they were going to die in the middle of the Pacific Ocean! When she wasn't arguing with some invisible character, she suffered from phobic mania, obsessed about being watched and spied upon by numerous fictive cameras. Observing from afar a non-informed outsider would have found the scene comical but from within it wasn't funny at all.

By the late hours of the third night she couldn't tell the difference between colours and in her mind she was being hunted by a mass murdering clown who had killed the doll. What doll? I had no idea but she insisted that's what was happening. That's when I decided we needed professional help. However, my dad suggested that a bit of whiskey in some warm milk would do just as well. I didn't even acknowledge my father's silly proposition and instead went along with my Mum's idea.

Karen's POV:

I brought a behind-the-counter sleeping pill and halved one of them. I warmed some milk, crushed the halved, mixed it with the milk and prepared to take the mug to Gracie's room. While climbing up I heard some loud thuds and screams. As I approached the last step Gracie charged passed me followed by Liam, himself followed by his dad. It looked like a scene from a comic movie but in my mind it was just crazy and certainly not funny. They all ran into Liam's room. I followed still carrying the mug of milk. Liam tried to catch up with Gracie but, in their haste, both Liam and Gracie fell down.

"Ouch!" Liam exclaimed.

Liam was now on the floor cradling Gracie but she certainly wasn't happy about it and wriggled about to escape. Liam tried hard to keep hold of her. I must have looked puzzled so Liam explained that she had been trying to escape from some make-belief killer clown.

"Who?" I asked?"

"Bizzy, The clown!"

I know I shouldn't have laughed but the killer clown had a name.

I approached them with a grin and we both tried comforting Gracie but she wouldn't sit still. She wriggled about screaming, adamant someone had to tackle the clown! So we had to resolve to drastic measures. I had to pretend to fight with the invisible clown. I asked Gracie to point to "Bizzy". She did and I started to fight him. No, I wasn't crazy I was just pretending but Geoff, who had not said a word, could not contain his hysterical giggle. This was not helping!