Helpless

Song for Alice

Coma? Not exactly. Tom has been hurted by Timothy and actually he had to sleep whole day. His only friend here, Hay, lose his patience with him and stopped to waking him. But Tom can feel his presence. So he was calm with it. And then, after a two days sleep, he finally made his way to the hall. He was welcomed with familiar odor of spoiled things and he actually missed it. Then someone approached him and he stepped back. Alice shoved his shoulder and smiled. "I have my B-day today! I have my B-day!" She jumped around him like silly kid, much more than Hay, who looked at her with confusion. "Oh, come on, this lady need to calm down, or she will get her pills!" he whispered to Tom. Man nodded and said to her. "Alice, I promise you, if you stop now, I will sing you a song after a dinner." She blinked surprisingly and obviously stopped with jumps and looked at him with little smile. "Time for the pills! Come here and say your name and then you can go whenever you want!" they heard a cry from another room, where was a temporary medical centre. Tom moving so slowly, he still feel his bones on knees. "Hey, are you okay?" Rudy asked. Tom startled, because he didn't hear him come. "Oh, I am sorry, I did not want to scare you..." Tom said slowly: "I was beaten down. My knee is burning with the pain." And then he moved closer to Hay, who stood in front of him. Rudy followed him, but then he turned to someone behind him and Tom could heard his words: "No way, we need to calm him. He fought too much." Of course, Tom considered, he was that same as others here. He wanted to say something, when nurse yelled at him: "NAME! ARE YOU DEAF? I AM ASKING YOUR NAME! IS THAT TOO HARD FOR YOU TO TELL?!" Tom said nothing first second, but then he told: "I am colonel Tom Robbins." Nurse take a pill from an orange tube and forced him to swallow it. Tom didn't fight with him and then he left, looking for Hay. He found him sitting in front of cold heater (so ironic) and shivering. "Was you scared from that yelling?" He slowly nodded. Tom smirked a little, but then he sat nearby him and hugged him cautiously. "It's OK. I am here and fine. No one hurted me. He was just impatient." Someone stood in front of them, saying: "So cute! Guys, you are soo cute there. Did you get your pills already?" Tom rise his head to see who was that, but then see a Rudy. WHY I didn't recognize his voice? "Yeah, you could see that, you was right behind me." Rudy turned red. "Am sorry. You had to know I am not allowed to do some-" he was interrupted by Hay's harsh voice: "Shut your mouth off! You are not allowed to do anything? So bad, because if someone took the patient out of his stupid room and locked him from the world for a some days and told the policemen he was murdered... nothing you can do?! Are you really that poor liar, or you play with us?!" Tom looked at him with surprise. He was literally kidnapped by nurses? Why? What he did?

Rudy finally said a word: "I apologise.  I was not informed about you. What's your name?" Hay blinked at Tom with confusion. "I-I forgot..." he stuttered finally. Tom squeezed his hand and said: "You are Hay." Rudy looked at them with incomprehension. "You said H-Hay, but he was murdered, isn't he?" Hay stood up and shook colonel's hand out of his hand. "I go to my room, leave me alone." As he said, he walked away, leaving Tom with a nurse. "My apologies, he is little nervous, when he talks to people and sometimes he don't arrange his words. Sounds like he passed by hard times..." Rudy nodded quietly and then accompanied him to temporary dayroom, where were most of the patients. But Alice was not here. "Hey, you! Where is the silly lady?" Tom asked a nearby man. But he didn't answered to him, face yawning emptiness. Rudy began to speak to him and left Tom wandering in dayroom. Finally, best friend of her, Shirley, said to him: "She went to her room. I heard her crying." Tom looked at her surprisingly. He began to walk out of the room, when  Timothy stopped him. "No sleep time. You have to be there until the clock on this wall will show a lunch time. You get it?!" Old man looked at him: "You kicked me off. What do you think I answer? I thought my leg was broken!" All heads turned to them. "Hey, what's wrong with you? Leave him, he is innocent!" some of patients screamed at Timothy, when he put his hand on the Tom's neck. Timothy ignored them and forced Tom to sat down to the sofa. "Sit here and no move, or I will beat you down again!" he growled, when Rudy came to them. "Leave him! He did nothing to you!" Timothy rolled his eyes. "Do you want to cry because of him? Poor baby... look at him! Your hero is piece of shit now. He even can't remember that he is here for six years. All days are only one. Again and again. He is not a hero. He didn't deserve to acclaimed as hero." Tom's eyes went blurry and shook his head. "No, no. I am not here soo long! I can't be." Someone tapped his shoulder nervously, trying to calm him. But no words, no hugs, can fix him. He was broken now. Completely. But, in deep of his heart was a promise. Promise he need to be followed. Song for Alice.

"Where do you think you are going?"