Lilly In The Storm

Chapter Fifteen

       My tired eyes gaze out the window as the car finally comes to a halt in an unfamiliar parking lot. I look around until a large sign at the front of the building comes into my line of sight. It reads "Mayo Clinic Health." Why a hospital? Maybe they need to check me for frostbite from running in the snow. I wiggle my fingers and toes, I feel fine.

       I tap Mom in the front seat. "Hey Mom, it's okay. I don't have frostbite, I feel okay." I tell her while wiggling my fingers again, this time by her face to show her.

       Mom refuses to make eye contact. "We're not checking physical things, Lilly." She mumbles.

       This answer only leaves me with more questions. "What do you mean?"

       She turns around in her seat and rubs my knee. "It'll be okay Lilly, you'll understand soon enough," She gives me a weak, reassuring smile.

       Still confused, I get out of the car with my parents. We walk up to the front desk, they ask where they can find the 'psych ward' whatever that is. They proceed to show the front desk guy some papers, showing they had already planned this appointment. The man points us in the direction of where we need to go. We start walking to our mysterious destination.

       We arrive at a waiting area with 'psychiatric ward' written on the wall. When we take our seats, I feel the urge to go to the bathroom. Mom points out a small corridor with a bathroom sign above it. When I enter the hallway where the bathrooms were, I ran into a familiar face.

       "Zero!" I yell.

       He looks at me with his eyes wide. "Lilly! Why did they take us here?!" He asks in panic.

       The nerves I had felt upon our arrival start to become panic, spilling out of me. "I don't know! What's wrong with me?!" I begin to break down in tears.

       Mom hears the commotion and comes running over to me. She pulls me off the ground and aids me in walking into the bathroom. "It's okay, Lilly. Everything will be okay." She tells me, wiping her own tears from her eyes.

       We come back from the bathroom and I sit back down in the waiting room with Zero. As we sit we hear one of the doors from the hallway open. A doctor comes out holding a clipboard. He looks down at the board then back up at the anxious faces of the patients in the room. "Lilly Fraye?" He questions.

       Mom and Dad get out of their seats. Mom grabs my hand then we're off to the office. This office is significantly nicer than a regular doctor's office. It has comfortable chairs and a calming aura. Instead of being lit by a large, harsh ceiling lights it is instead illuminated by lamps scattered around the room, leaving it dimmer than the hallway we had just came from. Instead of tile, this office has wood flooring. It is similar to how Mr. Erikson's office looks.

       Dad, Mom and I all take our seats in the room while the doctor sits behind his desk. Zero is the last to enter the room, he stands next to me with a hand placed on my shoulder. I pick up my chair to bring it closer to the doctor.

       He rolls his chair back a tad to the filing cabinet located behind his desk. He skims through until he finds a particular paper that he takes from the cabinet. He closes it then returns to his original placement.

       He takes a quick look at the paper before placing them down on the desk and speaking. "So, first things first. I'm Doctor Bennett, I'll be taking care of you today." He shares a handshake with each of us then continues. "I see that you have had concerns with your daughter's mental health. Would you like to tell me a little about that?"