Another Galaxy

chapter four

I'm starting to get scared.

The next day at school passes like a blur. All I could remember was I fell asleep most of the time and stayed wide awake at my Geometry class where I expected him to show up.

But once again, he was absent.

The feeling of incompleteness starts to gnaw in my heart. I don't even know why. Probably because he had been a current visitor of my brain and his presence needs to materialize before I think he's some part of my imagination.

Right.

This thought woke up me up when I was having a nap time before our training for volleyball starts.

What if he was some figment of my imagination after all? It sounds really illogical, but oh please, I had been illogical since the first time I saw him.

Had I gone crazy? No. I had probably gone extra psycho over some stranger who meddles with my brain most of the time. Isn't that supposed to be a same thing?

"Goodness gracious," I stood up and kept my thoughts shut while Mr. Frederickson blew his whistle.

I paced into the courtyard like a zombie, well I probably looked like one.

The training started and once I got sweaty and engrossed on it, I kind of feel like happy to get him out of my thoughts for once. Maybe I could always play volleyball always to keep him off my mind.

Things got heated in the game and I could barely register what happened.

I ended up having a sprain in my right foot and one of my teammates bringing me to the clinic.

--

When I reached the clinic, the nurse instantly massages my foot here and there and told me to get some rest on the bed.

Will Mike Moore enter my mind here again?

Yes, he will. Again.

I'm quite dissapointed for ending the game like that. It was so good and I didn't knew some sprain could stopped me from that.

Where the hell is Mike Moore by the way? Why is he absent? And why does nobody answers for him when Mr. Johnson asked every time he's absent? Why do I choose to be mute about it? I feel like I'm totally missing something very obvious here.

I was halfway through closing my eyes when the clinic door suddenly chimed in.

It was series of voices, one that's supposed to be nothing but the usual chatters of some teachers to the nurse. This time though, I heard something unusual and to be honest, really stood out of the casual talks that made my ears perked up.

"I know, that kid was strange."

"Will he ever go to school again?" Inquired the nurse.

"Maybe, but of course he still have to work some time to cope up with all of these."

"God, I missed him."

Silence.

It was such a normal conversation but something in there made me stood up from my bed and strayed the curtains a bit to take a look.

It was the voice.

It was his voice.

My heart beat faster than they should be and once my eyes peeped out, I was immediately captured by green eyes.

It wasn't his eyes. It wasn't him. It was some middle-aged man in professional clothes with an ID tag that tells me that he's a doctor in Lourstad Mental Institution. My hand push the curtains away to get a better look on him. Or probably so he could take a better look on me. He was just some stranger and I don't find him attractive but there was something in him.

Once our eyes met, familiarity surged around those old green eyes like a tidal wave. The scary thing was, it was the same familiarity I felt with Mike Moore.

It was then that I realized that the nurse was frozen like a deer caught in headlights. Not being froze because of a sudden shock but the kind of froze when the world suddenly stopped spinning and you're suddenly unconscious. With eyes open and heart beating. She was still looking at the man.

But our eyes met.

This scene is too familiar.

This must be a dream.

I need to wake up.

But before I knew it the man was walking towards me in the same pace Mike walks towards me in my dreams. He reached out to me, and pressed a paper to my hand.

This is terrifying. Absolutely crazy and unbelievable. 

I need to wake up. I need to wake up. Please, I need to wake up.

But I didn't woke up. The doctor walks away while keeping his eyes on me. Then he was gone by the door in seconds.

I blinked once.

Was that real?

The nurse was on her seat and was doing some paper works when she notices me, standing like I had seen some magical unicorn stalked out of the room.

"Oh hey, you're awake." She smiles.

"I was sleeping?" I realized the question sounded ridiculous once they stumbled out of my mouth.

"Um. Yeah?" She looked at me questioningly like the answer was too obvious.

"Who is that man?"

She looked taken aback at my question. I know what she was going to say. I know it will only add to my doubts about my sanity.

"No one really visited here since you." She answered casually, flipping through the papers.

"Of course."

I looked down at the paper in my hand.