Demented

Saudade

  Frank stared out the window as he held Andy. He daydreamed about witnessing his parent's car pull up at the gate. That's all he thought about. He missed his family so badly, but he knew he was a disappointment. They were never coming to see him again. They could at least write a letter, right? It had been nearly two years since he last saw them and it hurt like Hell.

  Frank knew there was no overachieving reason to be despondent over their "disappearance." After all, they were horrible parents.

  Unbeknownst to Frank, Gerard had looked back at him. "Why are you crying?"

  Frank brought his sleeve up to his eyes and wiped away the tears he didn't even realized existed. "I...my parents."

  Gerard bookmarked his page and closed his novel. "You miss them?"

  "Yeah," Frank sniffed.

  STATIC.

  "Why do you miss them so much? They were bad to you, Baby."

"I know. It's just that- they were all I knew. I was used to them somewhat existing in my life. It's so weird because I haven't seen them in such a long time."

  "That makes sense."

  "I don't know why I care about them so much when they don't care about me." There was a long silence after Frank stated that. Frank ran his fingers through Andy's fur, wondering what to say next. "Sometimes I feel selfish to think that way. They're paying thousands of dollars for me to be here. I've always had a roof over my head and food on the table, but I could always see the disappointment in their eyes. I could sense how much I annoyed them when I told them about my problems- which I rarely did. I was never good enough for them. I just didn't think I was worth getting a new number to avoid." Frank uttered the last sentence, crestfallen. He attempted calling them a few times, but the number had been disconnected.

  "Frank, sit on my lap. We need to talk about something that should've been talked about a long time ago."

  Frank kissed Andy's head and placed him back in his cage. Gerard grabbed his hands and helped Frank up. He settled himself on his right thigh. "So...?"

  "You don't need them in your life at all. You know that, you just keep denying it."

"True," Frank nodded. "I need to get over them."

  "The only way to accomplish that is closure. You need to tell them one last time how you truly feel. Whether they like it or not, you need to express your feelings."

  "H-how am I gonna do that?"

  "Maybe...a letter?"

  "That is, if they haven't moved too," Frank laughed a bit, trying to find something humorous in the situation to feel better.

  Gerard sloppily kissed his cheek. "So what do you think?"

  "I should write them to get closure."
_______________________________

   Frank and Gerard lined up with the rest of the patients. They eyed the man and woman with cameras. What they had all heard was that they were going to have their pictures taken.

  Dr. Bitch quickly smiled at the male photographer to signal that she was ready to start talking. "Hi everyone. We need to put out new advertisements. It was decided to use pictures of you guys. Everyone who is under the age of eighteen, your parents have consented to your picture going out to the public. We're not going to use everyone and we're not going to use every picture. So, many pictures you can keep and if you want, some can be hung up. Listen to the photographers and be respectful."