Iris put her scarf on, it was November so it was getting rather cold. She stuffed her hands in her pockets while walking straight to the banks of the river where she sat down, took out her ear buds and played the music.
Iris lied down and closed her eyes, thinking of her aunt who would be still at work for another half hour. She worked at the same hospital as Isa, just in another wing. Aunt Abby was a nurse, they didn’t always see eye to eye but she took her in when Iris needed someone.
Aunt Abby is her ‘mother’s’ younger sister. Iris’s thoughts took her back to 5 years ago when she still lived with her mom. She took a deep breath, remembering the divorce between her parents, all the fighting they did before that and how it went downwards after that. And the blaming, blaming her father, blaming Iris for ruining her life.
People underestimate how much a twelve year old girl can feel. Iris saw her aunt’s boots appearing next to her so she stood up and nodded once at her.
“How was your session,” she asked while taking a whiff of her cigarette.
“Good”, she said curtly.
Aunt Abby was the reason of her going to see the psychiatrist so she wasn’t exactly fond of her now. They walked besides each other in silence while Iris looked at the street art she passed every day, it still ceased to amaze her.
Aunt Abby opened the front door of their apartment. Iris went straight to her room knowing that her aunt was likely to go to bed. She had another shift coming up this evening.
Iris opened her wardrobe, bend down and retrieved her drawings from under the lowest shelf. She wasn’t keen of letting her aunt find it again. She had send her to a psychiatrist, no need to send her to a mental institution.
Her art was like a nightmare on paper, that’s how her aunt described it.
Isa closed his office and fetched his keys from his back pocket, opening his black Mustang. His thoughts wandered to his eventful day. He had been doing this job as a psychiatrist for over 3 years now and even though it’s overwhelming to be confronted with broken minds, it is always a great fulfilment to make them release those demons they were fighting with.
Isa always saw it as a challenge. But something changed today, Iris. He couldn’t get her out of his mind. All of her features were carved into his thoughts. She was a challenge but she had to crack eventually.
Iris Hale, he was already looking forward to their next session. He closed his car door and got inside his house. It wasn’t the biggest house on the block but it was his.
He ran himself a bath and took his shirt off, the light illumining all the tattoos that covered his upper body. He had travelled a lot after university. And every country he visited were filled with heart-warming people, so he started getting tattoos in every one of them.
His skin turned into the perfect canvas for his thoughts and he didn’t even regret one of them.
Time crept by slowly at night, Isa went to his attic and opened the window to the roof. A blanket already covering it where he could sit. He suffered from Insomnia so that was the place where he turned to every night.
Peaceful moments in ungodly hours are heavenly. Hours passed by as he gazed at the night sky.
Thursday came around quickly and one of his patients Simon had been really testing his nerves, he almost lost his cool. Friday afternoon Isa was walking to his car but something on his right caught his eyes.
The rain was falling down in short rapid movements. Even though his vision was slightly blurred he immediately recognized the person as Iris. She was smiling at the sky while the drizzling rain soaked her clothes. The sight got his heart pumping wildly, she looked so at ease. Like nothing was bothering her. Nurse Abby called Iris’s name from under an umbrella.
