Split

Friend

Hedwig came to see me the next day, I don't think Patricia had given him permission but seeing as he had control over who had the light she had little choice in the matter. He let me go to his room with him and we sat listening to music while he talked at me. It wasn't difficult to keep him amused, all I had to do was point at something in the room and ask about it and he was talking for the next ten minutes.
"Mr. Dennis said you're gonna stay here with us now, do you wanna sleep over in here?"

"I don't think Patricia would be very happy about that, but thank you," I smiled, "maybe once I've been here a while they might let me."

He looked disappointed but pretended he wasn't, "yeah, okay."

"Have they said anything else about me?"

"Mr. Dennis and Miss Patricia? No..." he looked sheepish so I asked again and he squirmed, "I shouldn't talk about it..."

"Talk about what? I won't tell anyone."

"M... Miss Patricia doesn't think this is gonna work... they argued a lot, Mr. Dennis got angry and told her that he wouldn't help her if she got rid of you... she said that you'll ruin everything and that you shouldn't be here, but Mr. Dennis shouted at her. I didn't like it."

"Why does Dennis want me here?"

He shrugged, "Miss Patricia says he only wants you here because he wants you for himself," he said it plainly and I doubted he'd understood what he'd just repeated, so I didn't ask about it.

"Do you want me here?"

"Yes" he smiled, "I like you... except when you tricked me, that's wasn't nice... but we're friends again now. You're nice to me now."

"I'm glad you are my friend," I smiled back, easily influenced by his childish grin.

He jumped up from the sofa and wandered over to the tank of mice that was on his desk. One had been running in its wheel, but now stopped to sniff the air when Hedwig approached. He opened the top and dangled his fingers in, the mice scrambling to climb onto his hand. He giggled as they scaled his arm, then shook them off lightly and put the lid back on.
"Do you like mice?"

I nodded, "They're okay."

"I think they're good. Miss Patricia tells me they should be fed to the snakes. I don't want to feed them to the snakes... they're my friends."

"You don't have to do anything Patricia tells you to do. She can't make you do anything."

He returned to the sofa and sat down heavily to my right, "You'll help me keep them safe, right?"

"Of course."

He beamed at me, "good."

"I'm going to go back to my room and sleep," it seemed like such a long time since I'd slept, "thank you for letting me sit in here."

"No problem," he looked upset so I told him I'd come back another day and we'd do some drawing. He seemed happy with that and walked me back to my room where I climbed into bed and curled up under the blanket.