Flickering Shadows

Meeting Shelley (Chapter 3)

MEETING SHELLEY

AFTER MY MOMENT of wanting to melt right into the floor, I decided to do something constructive.  I left the rec room-much to Carissa and Amanda's enjoyment, "Don't come back!" they'd yelled-and went to the nurses' station that was right outside. "Excuse me?" I asked quietly to a kind looking nurse. 

           She looked up and smiled. "Hi, can I help you?"

           I liked her automatically.  Jessica-her nameplate read-wasn't cold and hard like the other nurses...she must be new.  "Hi, um, I was wondering if I could visit a friend of mine."

           "What's her name?"  Jessica asked, getting ready to sift through numerous lists of room assignments.

           "Shelley...I'm sorry, I don't know her last name." I apologized.

           Jessica seemed to know exactly who I was talking about. "Are you Lucy, by any chance?"  I nodded. She reached across the desk to shake my hand.  "I'm Jessica, as you've probably already guessed." She gestured to the nameplate.

           "Yeah." I said, as she led me to a room just a few feet away. "How'd you guess?"

           "Dr. Howard came down earlier and said you would probably want to see Shelley today."  Jessica tapped the door. "Go on in."

           My hand shook as I took hold of the handle. I took a deep breath and swallowed my nerves. I pushed open the door and walked into Shelley's room.

           There she was-lying in her bed with so many bandages all over her arms and legs and face, and her leg in a cast.  Dr. Howard didn't tell me the full truth, it was much worse than she let on. There was no any visible skin; every piece was wrapped in white bandages. Shelley looked like a much cleaner version of a mummy.

           Much to my surprise, Shelley sat straight up and spoke in a clear, friendly voice, "Hi, Lucy!  It is Lucy, right? I'm so glad you came by, I've been dying for a visitor!"

           "You don't hate me?" I asked, amazed that she could speak and be even remotely civil to me.  Look at what I had done to her!

           She laughed; she had such a pretty laugh-like wind chimes.  "Of course I don't hate you, silly!  Yeah, I am scratched up, but I'll heal!" Shelley waved her injuries off as though they were simple paper cuts. "I get angry sometimes too, and do things that I regret."      She smiled, which gave her face-what I could see of it anyway-an angelic look.  It was impossible to think that Shelley could be anything less than a happy, kind girl. She couldn't be more than fifteen at most.  "So, I forgive you. I know you were here to apologize, and I am not letting you waste your time with that when I'm not even mad!"

           "Wow...well, I was not expecting that.  But thank you, for accepting my apology that I didn't get to make." I smiled weakly.

           "Anytime! We could be great friends, you and me."

           Just the word 'friends' made me smile like a little kid on Christmas Day.  I had never had many friends, even before I was put in here.  Since I moved to Colorado, I had had one best friend though, her name was Lindsay, and she didn't know anything about what went down on the inside.  After I was arrested she suddenly decided that we were incompatible as friends, and we have not spoken since.  I could really use a friend right now, so I grinned and said, "That'd be great!"