Remember This✔

Chapter Twenty-Three

Sometime in the evening Molly plucks up the courage to leave her room. She stops at the end of the hallway and glimpses the lights from the lounge to her far left. She's avoided that room since she became admitted and it still frightens her. She pushes open the exit door to the garden and she waits next to it as Shiloh runs around the perimeter of the high fence. He does his business and then sits and looks up at her as she considers it.

"Fine," she mutters. "But only for five minutes."

She opens the door and reluctantly turns right. Shiloh sticks to her side, almost pushing her forwards with his head. Her feet move very slowly towards the door and she timidly enters it, glancing around cautiously. The room is wide and spacious, filled with tables, chairs, lounge chairs, bean bags and snack machines. There is a soccer table against one side and two girls are playing a game with enthusiasm on their faces. On the other side there is a small library stacked with books of every genre. Molly goes there first because it looks like the quietest part of the room. Behind the shelves, there are computer stalls. That's where most of the population seems to be. Every computer stall is occupied and most of them seem to be watching videos on websites. She sees Lauren, the woman from last night, sitting at the far end stall and Lauren waves at her.

Molly waves back and shifts awkwardly as Lauren turns her computer off and leaves the stall. Lauren points towards a booth next to the window and Molly follows her over to it.

"Do we have to be quiet in here or something?" Molly whispers.

"No but they can get quite agitated if you raise your voice near them," Lauren says. "Your first time in here, huh?"

Molly nods and glances around at all the different types of people. "I had no idea the unit was this big."

"Yeah, there's about fifteen rooms," she says. "When I first came here I thought my hallway was the only hallway too."

"Are they all here for attempted suicide?" Molly stares at a boy that can't be older than fifteen, he eats pieces of fruit at a table and looks around sheepishly.

"Most of them. Seeing the kids is the worst. His name is Billy. His parents walked in on him hanging from a ceiling fan. His father ripped the fan off the wall to save his life."

"How do you know that?"

"Group therapy for under sixteens," Lauren says. "I host them sometimes; the doctors think it'll help me to try and get children to talk about their problems. I've heard many stories but that kid broke my heart."

"Bullies?" Molly mumbles.

Lauren nods. "That seems to be the theme. Makes my blood boil that the bullies get away with it, that they're not punished for what they did to them. You see that girl over there?" Lauren points her eyes towards a teenage girl with short, red hair that is reading a book on a beanbag. "A group of boys cornered her outside the mall, made her strip to her underwear to prove that she was actually a girl. They took pictures and it circulated around her school. The police got involved but they got off with a caution. Her mother was that angry that she took a crowbar down to the station and smashed their windows. She was arrested and released on bail, a day later Katie walked down to the train tracks and threw herself in front of a train. Luckily, someone moved her out of the way just in time."

Molly holds a hand to her chest. She doesn't have to imagine Katie's pain, or any of their pain, she's been there, she still feels it now. She watches as Billy walks over to her and sits beside her on a separate bean bag, Katie smiles at him and closes her book.

"The sad thing is," Lauren says, taking a deep breath. "There's that many under sixteens being admitted to the children's mental health ward that their capacity is overrun. That's why they send them here. But just like you, they'll only be here for a short time. Their parents can't afford the extra costs. So, the court will rule that they're fit for going home when the reality is that those children are the victims of underfunding and they'll probably die because of it."