Balcony's Rock Cactuses

Chapter 1: Jesse Jerome (Jem)

Dr. Rhodes looked at her sharply.
Jem stared back, uneased. She reached out for a butterscotch.
After five minutes of waiting, Dr. Rhodes sighed, her tired eyes trailed Jem's blank face.

'Jesse, I can't help you if you don't talk.'

Helen Rhodes flicked her pen through the information given about Jesse Jerome. The piece of paper seemed as blank and mystery as the girl sitting in front of her. There was a few short descriptions:

Trouble concentrating.
Symptoms of Hypersomnia are shown.
Ran away from home 4 times in the last 3 years.
Serious mood swing but no bipolar signs.

Jem chewed on another butterscotch and gave her a soft smirk. She began to make herself comfortable on the sofa.

'How am I today? If I say good, would you let me go?' She waited for an answer. 'No? That's what I thought. So why bother answering at all, hey? I can just sit here and eat butterscotches until our session is over.'

Jem picked up the entire butterscotch dish and unwrapped them while humming a short riff.

Dr. Rhodes took a quick glimpse at her watch, a bit of anger submerged in her expression.

It had been the third session this section and no progress was made. It was a hard case, Helen felt her self esteem slowly wearing off but there was one more thing she hadn't tried. Jem's Dad mentioned before the session that her favourite passage of a book were Dimension Z by Robert Kincaid. She just had to take a leap of faith.

Dr. Rhodes slowly walked to the shelf just to get her gaze off Jem and flicked through her nicely alphabetical classic novels collection.

'Have you ever read The Bridges of Madison County? It is about this couple who spent 4 days together.' She held onto a book and flicked the pages. 'There was this really nice quote... What was it again? To the universe, four years is... Wait, its... something about billion light years...'

Helen was interrupted.

'Four days is no different than four billion light years. I, however, try to keep that in my mind.' A recognisable twitch appeared on Jem's face.

She triggered Jem. One fact about Jem, she hated when people quote the book wrongly, especially a book that she dearly love. Helen Rhodes gave her a soft smile, Jem knew she had to talk or else the annoying middle aged woman in front of her wasn't going to stop quoting books wrongly.

'I am fine. Thanks for asking.'

Hints of satisfaction were shown on Rhode's face. She filled up the butterscotch plate as she sat back down on her chair.

'Look, Jesse. Your parents pay quite an amount of money for you to get better. I am here as your friend, not your enemy. I understand you need some time to adjust to me, but I have nothing but good intentions.'

Jesse knitted her dark coloured eyebrows together, couldn't stop twitching.

'Get better? Right. Because I'm nothing but sickness, my parents don't even want to do anything with me so they just throw me in here.'

'Jesse. You have ran away 4 times in the last 3 years.'

'And?' She raised her eyebrows curiously. Wondering what this intimidated woman had to say.

Jem was so close to giving her the middle finger, but she wasn't a savage. She knew not to cross the line.
Dr. Rhodes stayed silent, observing Jem.

'Look. It's fucking 9 in the morning and I am stuck here with you.' She searched for the doctor's name. 'Rhodes. And I don't think you are doing me any good. You don't pick your words carefully when you talk, you talk the stuff that is clearly stated in the fucking record. The only thing that is professional in here is the fucking butterscotch.'