Unheard {ONHOLD}

Dr Kelly

The doctor’s place always smells the same. The smell of the medicine wafts into my noise and make me feel like I am sick when I am not. I feel like I am being examined by everyone who passes me. I know it’s not intentional, but, whenever someone passes by I feel like they are looking deep within me to try and find out why I am here.

I am waiting patiently, acting like I am not scared out of my mind about what Doctor Kelly has got to tell us. I can only imagine what she has cooked up. You see, Doctor Kelly is more of an inventor than a doctor. Maybe she does both jobs, I have never asked. She has all these little devices she always wants me to try for her to see if they will be a success. I wonder what it could be, for some reason I feel nervous.

Mum next to me is sitting patiently with her legs crossed and the latest issue of ‘What’s out there!’ lying on her lap. She is reading an article about some shocking secret that someone found out about. I don’t know what it’s about but she is so focused into it that she doesn’t even realise when Doctor Kelly walks out of her room and calls my name twice. I nudge her softly and she places the magazine on the table. We both walk into Doctor Kelly’s room. I sit on the chair closest to the doctor and mum sits next to me on my right. She is shuffling her things on her lap when Doctor Kelly starts talking.

“Ok, Good morning Jennifer” She starts off, her strong and sweet voice resonating around the room. “How has your holidays been?” She asks me. I nod my head while smiling at the same time. “That’s great. Is your little device working well?” She asks looking strangely hopeful.

“It’s working beautifully” Mum answers for me. “Jenny, get it out for her to see”

I pull the piffle out of my bag and I place it on Doctor Kelly’s desk. She picks it up and weighs it in her hand for a second. She then traces the edge of the piffle and smiles to herself. She is acknowledging a secret that we don’t know about.

“Just as I thought” She says once she has finished examining it. “The disk will fit”

“What disk?” Mum asks looking slightly worried.

Doctor Kelly crosses her legs and turns to us fully. She smiles a smile that tells us that she is pleased with herself for some reason.

“I asked you to come here today, Mrs Roland, because I have something that I would like Jennifer to try for me” She says slowly as if she has all the time in the World. “Just a moment” She swivels in her wheelie chair and when she turns around again, she has a medium-sized box in her arms.

Kelly places the box on her desk and she takes out its contents slowly.

“This,” She says pointing to a chip-like little thing. Sort of the memory card you put in a camera. “This is a chip that was designed to connect to your mind”

My…mind? What for?

“And this,” she says pointing to another little thing that looks similar to the ‘chip’ she just showed. “Is its partner. They work together” None of this is making any sense in my mind, but I am waiting for the punch line that will connect everything.

I turn to mum and she looks completely confused too. Kelly looks at us both and she laughs softly.

“Sorry, I guess I got excited and I forgot to explain everything.” She places both chips on the desk and she folds her hands in her lap. “Firstly, I will remind you that I am always trying to improve Jennifer’s err… experience with communicating with other people” Mum nods her head and I just wait. “Yes, she has the piffle that her father designed and created, but I was looking for a way for her to communicate with people using something a bit more automatic. It’s not completely automatic just yet, but I am working on it. All you have to do is place this little chip into the piffle, connect the other little chip at your temples and your thoughts will be written down”

Mum almost falls off her chair in surprise. “You are joking, you must be joking!”

“I am not” Doctor Kelly replies looking a bit offended. “Let me show you an example.”

Doctor Kelly clicks the chip and the right hand side of the piffle and then she grabs the other chip and leans towards me. She pushes the chip into my temple. I can feel it ticking to my temples.

“Ok,” She says leaning back into her chair. “The chip will suck unto your head so you don’t have to glue it on or anything.” She grabs my piffle and then faces it to me and mum. “Jennifer, put something into your consciousness and imagine the words as you are thinking of them”

I close my eyes and I think. I think that scientists should really find something more worthwhile to do with their time rather than making little toys. When I open my eyes, mum is looking at me with wide eyes and Doctor Kelly has a huge grin on her face. I look at the piffle and the things I was thinking about are written on it. A bit messy, but it is what I was thinking about, word-to-word.

I cover my mouth in surprise.

“All you have to do is practice and it will be just like talking, well not exactly… but close” Kelly says.

“How did you come up with such an ingenious device” Mum asks once she has finally overcome her awe.

“Well, I can’t actually take credit for this” Kelly says looking dumped. “It was an idea from this young girl who was around about your age Jenny. She just came one day, dropped off the idea, came another day and started working on it until she was finished. She was such a strange kid. She talked little and she was so smart, for her age I was surprised at some of the things she knew and did”

“What was her name?”

“She refused to tell us. She wouldn’t even take the money we gave her. All she said was ‘It had to be done, for her’ and she left. That was the last thing she said to us, haven’t seen her since.”

I wonder what she looked like. She sounds like a strange girl.

“She had blonde hair and the most unique blue eyes I have ever seen” Doctor Kelly answers me. How did she know that that’s what I wanted to know?

I look at the piffle. It reads: ‘wonder’ ‘looked ike’ ‘strange irl’. Each one spaced out on the page.

“Jennifer, if you want to right full sentences you have to think about the letters and punctuation, just like you do when you write. Also, whether it’s neat or messy depends on your state of mind at the time” Kelly tells me when she realises that I am looking at the piffle.

“Do you know any more about this girl?” Mum asks looking disappointed.

“Not much. I know that she had perfect posture that any doctor would complement, hair any hairdresser would be jealous of and eyes an optometrist would die for. I tested her eyes and she could see something that was 50 meters away, I was so surprised, but she wouldn’t talk about it”

Maybe she built this device on a whim. I think imagining the words in my mind.

“No, she seemed really determined to make it. She seemed genuine enough” Doctor Kelly says while getting up and bringing a box that looks like the one on her desk. She hands it to me and she sits down again. “This is a box of the same chips I have just shown you here. Take them and try them out for 2 weeks and then come to me and I will get your feedback. By the way, you can turn off the chip on your temple by squeezing the sides three times. You know the whole electronic thing, don’t put it in water etc. etc. etc.”

I nod my head and Doctor Kelly stands up.

“That is all so see you in 2 weeks’ time. Unless you get sick before that, which I hope doesn’t happen because it is really bad to be sick while trying out something new and precious like this.” She chuckles and mum and I give her a questioning look. “You give bad feedback that way” She says shutting the door behind us.

A/N an important thing to note here is about the 'girl' who made Jenny's new system. I don't think I will really introduce her. I might, but I also might not... :)

The girl is Layla from the first story that I had up here. I might put the story back soon but I also might not. So indecisive I know. :P

So if you were wondering who she is, don't bother wasting your time. It's Layla Cunningham whose story you can read very soon when I decide a title for it. ^^

Comment please! :)