Three Eleven Thirteen

Chapter Eleven

Chapter Eleven

Ellie is as brilliant as a silent observer. He's got the personality of an oblivious child, but I think he's like that just to fool me. 

He's certainly not oblivious.

His schedule is simple, he gets up, he paints, along with blasting Frank Sinatra all throughout the house, and eats a dreadful amount of sweets that would make a doctor have a seizure. Then, he reads. I told him he must practice reading until he understands how to speak and word sentences like a normal person. Right now, his dialogue is as bland as someone's who is foreign to the English language.

He does all of this expanded throughout the day, and then he goes to bed.

I realized that he's developing habits that may cause problems later in the future. His biggest one is his tendency to turn on every light in the house. I'm not sure if he has a fear of the dark, but when he's with me at night, he never mentions any desire to turn the light on in the bedroom.

I don't know what his problem is, or where a habit like that even came from. I even asked him about it, but received no answer. He stared in front of him blankly as if even he didn't know why he did it.

Sometimes, I truly think he is nothing by a walking abundance of unanswerable questions.

Turning on the lights isn't the only strange habit of his.

He stumbles, a lot. Almost like a child learning to walk for the first time. I catch him leaning on the walls and furniture for support all the time. He never used to do that. When I see him leaning on something, I call him out on it. As if realizing what he's doing, he'll stop and stand perfectly on his own without any need of support from anything.

I'm worried something may be wrong, like something if affecting him, but, every time he stands tall again, I doubt there's anything wrong at all

He's complicated, and I think I just have to accept that. 

It never occurred to me that I'm worried about him, I worry about him getting hurt, or having something wrong with his body, because I know if that's the case, I won't know how to fix him. It's not that I've enjoyed his company, but he's all I have. Without him, my life would be a sheltered bore. 

I've grown to care for him, morose than I thought I ever would. 

Today, I decided it's time I get out of my home, and enjoy the warm spring weather. Since Ellie is stuck with his own cycle throughout each day, I can't seem to bare another day stuck in the house. But I can't just leave Ellie home alone either, he's never been home alone before. So, I compromised.

We'll go out to the backyard. It's fenced in with a tall, wooden fence that nobody outside can see through, and most importantly, nobody inside can see outside. So long as Ellie isn't spotted by someone, he should be fine. I'm praying that he'll be fine, anyway.

I began putting my shoes on. Ellie was sitting on the floor reading some book that I've never read myself. I walked over to him, and kicked him gently. He looked up from his book.

"Come on." I said kicking him again, "Let's go outside."

He stared at me with a confused expression, "Outside?"

"Yes. Outside. The backyard." He just sat there, as if doubting what I was saying. Why he'd have any reason to doubt me, I'm unsure. I don't remember ever lying to him.

"Fine." I fake-huffed, and spun around, "I'm going outside, if you'd like to come, you may." I walked over to the back door, and opened it, not even seconds later, Ellie was standing beside me, looking out.

I bite back a smile, and ignore him.

I stepped out first, deciding to just do it. Forget baby steps, Ellie was better at learning when he dove into something. He is just as impatient as I am when it comes to getting things done. That, and I think he may being going through the actual feelings of excitement.

"You remember the rules?" I asked him. He didn't bother to look at me, as his eyes were trained on a squirrel climbing up a tree.

"Don't go near the fence." He said robotically, as if he said it over and over in his head already.

"And?"

"Stay near you." He was now staring at a caterpillar that was crawling on a stick in the grass.

"Good."

I watched him pick up the caterpillar, and allowed it to weave through his fingers, crawling across his hand. The look on his face was content, like he was studying each move the bug made.

"What kind of bug is that?" I questioned him, wondering if he knew the answer or not.

He was silent for a moment, "I don't know."

"It's a caterpillar."

"I don't know of a caterpillar." He spoke honestly, as it began to crawl up his arm.

I gently took the bug off his arm, and held it in my own hand. "A caterpillar is a bug that eventually forms a cocoon, and turns into a butterfly -or moth." I said that last part in a repulsed tone. I began educating him on the few types of caterpillars I knew. We then moved on to rabbits, then ants, and of course the revolting black spiders living on the side of the house.

We stayed outside for what seemed like hours, and as much as I was bored and wanted to go inside, I couldn't force myself to leave. Ellie seemed to enjoy it so much that I found it a bit cute.

And then the neighbors came out.

We could hear them from behind the fence. The kids, as they played on their trampoline. Ellie suddenly tensed up with each noise he heard. I felt my heart drop with each ticking second, and I grabbed hold of his hand. "Ellie." I said. He didn't look at me, I don't think he even payed attention to what I said. "Ellie." I said again, but louder. His head slowly turned towards me, the black in his veins dropping a shade. "Those noises are just kids." I tried to reassure him, but he shook his head, I didn't understand. "They are not a threat."

One of the kids must have gotten hurt, out of nowhere a piercing scream came from the backyard as a kid started crying.  

Ellie gripped my arm so tightly I forced myself to swallow down the pain. Was he trying to protect me, or was he physically asking me to protect him?

"They won't hurt you." I said again, and slowly began to inch him towards the back door of the house.

We were so close to the doors of the house, when another scream filled the air. The child kept crying louder and louder, and that was enough for me to lose my grip on Ellie as he slipped away from me and began heading towards the side of the fence where the kids were just on the other side. I called his name, as I ran after him, when he turned back to look at me, his veins and eyes were a solid black.