Her Million Miles; The Drive Series: Book 1

Chapter 11 Mystic's Escape

Mystic rubs her eyes as she is being awakened. She finds herself being helped into medical scrubs by a new nurse. She peers through her eyelids to see her name tag as "Elizabeth." "Why am I getting new clothes to wear" asks Mystic. Elizabeth says, "I do not know why but they told me to get you ready and that is what I am doing." Mystic looks up as another nurse comes in with a tray of food and places it on a table fit for one. They both leave her to eat and as Elizabeth says, 'try to have a good day.' Mystic looks at her and looks around the room then back to her and says, 'yeah right.'

A short time later and the shrink and Elizabeth come in and Mystic notices she has a brush in her hand. Mystic stands quickly as she sees them walk into the room. "What is this as she points to the brush in the nurse's hand?" The shrink has a smile on his face and says, 'the doctor has decided to show you some courtesy to you and allow you to go outside these doors for a bit to see if you can behave.' "Can you do that, Mystic?" questions the shrink.

"The nurse is here to brush your hair so that you can look presentable," says the shrink. Mystic is not buying it and questions the shrink, 'why would the doctor allow me now after all these years to go outside these walls?' "Well that is something you can ask the doctor himself when you get the chance too," says the shrink. A few minutes later Mystic, along with the nurse and the shrink are walking down corridors and halls to a door.

Mystic tries to peer everywhere to see an escape route as they are walking but to no avail she only sees this one door ahead of her. The bright light unfolds across Mystic's face. She lowers her head as she adjusts her eyes. They walk out into this courtyard of flowers.

A stiff aroma of sweet scents of different flowers invaded her nostrils as Mystic begins to cough a little. Elizabeth in a whisper says in her ear, 'take it easy, and breathe slowly so that you can take it in easier.' "The courtyard seems to do that to a lot of people when they first come out here," she says again to Mystic.

Per her advice, Mystic listens. Calmness falls over her as she lifts her head up to see the courtyard at bloom. Her eyes adjusted now to the warm glow of the sun. She sees other people in "lab coats" and nurses helping other patients in wheelchairs, some old and young all around. A big wall stands in the foreground with large flowers draping over it. They look silver in color with cauliflower branches and seem to glisten off the wall. They stand next to Mystic for a moment for her to get her barrens. Mystic looks all around to get a feel of the place; she sees three other doors like the one she came out of. Although, only the one she came out of did not have an orderly stand by them. They looked like titans next to her size and much bigger physically than what she has seen in her room.

The nurse led her down a few steps where different flowers circled them. Mystic reached out to smell a flower which looks like a wilted-dropped heart, white in color.

It smelled like a deep scent of honey, 'which would explain all the little bumble bees around them,' she thought. On the other side of the circle, there is a row of tall stem-like flowers which smelled like mint. They looked like little trees with the hue of purple. The scents alone could make you feel like you were by a fire on a cold winter's night, soaking up the ambers. A few more steps down and across a path into a gazebo reached into another circle. That is where they went to sit down and relaxed for a bit out of the sun's heat. A few moments later, Mystic is enjoying herself being out in the air. The shrink is called away for the moment and left the nurse, Elizabeth, and Mystic to themselves.

"So, have you been here long, Mystic?" asks Elizabeth. "I have been here for five years and four years prior at another place to get clean," she replies. "My goodness, I am sorry to ask," she says to Mystic. "No, it is okay, no need to worry." She says. Elizabeth starts to ask more questions about her but stops abruptly when she feels she is being too nosey. Mystic again tells Elizabeth that 'it is okay and that she is happy someone wants to speak to her other than a box on the wall.' For some odd reason, they continue their conversation and as Mystic starts to tell her, 'about her life and her daughter,' the shrink comes back. He lets them know 'it is time to go back in' and with sadness and an ache in the pit of Mystic's stomach, she complies. Elizabeth whispers as they walk behind the shrink that 'they can talk again when she is able to come outside again.'