Novelty of Noah - ON HOLD

Ten

The third week of June was coming to a close, alongside Noah's troublemaking tendencies. This meant that not an ounce of concern coursed through Noah's mind when Mauve requested to speak with him in her office. For Noah, this week had been congested with mental detox and a fresh new start.

He had plucked the destructive entity living inside of his head. Noah had symbolically pinched the entity with his thumb and index finger and proceeded to bury it where the entity has little access to Noah. This was the cleanse Noah had searched for. This was what his mind and his heart had squirmed in need of for the past year.

Over the past four days, it had been comfortably quiet inside Noah's head. His appetite had heightened. Previous to this week, Noah found himself spending forty minutes a day, struggling to consume a small bowl of cereal, each morning. His mouth would portray the actions of a washing machine, as the food would turn for minutes on end, in preparation for a forced swallow.

Following Noah's fresh change of mental state, he discovered his new physical abilities. For many months, Noah's limbs were weak and limp. When he first noticed this sense of weakness over his body, he felt as if he had several hooks from a spring scale piercing into his underarms and calf muscles. What had weighed down and pulled at the spring of the scales, felt like ten tonnes of bagged gravel. As a result of this feeling, Noah had a constant cycle of limited physical energy. There were days where Noah could not build up the energy to remove himself from his safe haven of a bed. As of this week, Noah spent seventy per cent of the days practising his tennis skills and accompanying the children with their exceptionally energetic games.

Noah believed he had reached the end of his dark night of the soul. An unfortunate and lethal state in which many do not arise from. Noah had found happiness, and he was not the only one to notice this.

"Come in, come in!" Mauve rose her hand and signalled for Noah to step further into her office, only seconds after she noticed Noah approach the doorway.

Noah followed her instructions and sauntered towards the seat which sat opposite of Mauve. Before he could politely greet Mauve, another greatly expressive comment fell from Mauve's mouth.

"Have you seen Adelia? I think she might be running late but she hasn't contacted me." Noah's chirpy grin fell when he realised he had not acknowledged Adelia's absence. It was currently noon, Adelia was supposed to be present at Hemlocks Yard two hours ago. Noah had lacked to recognise this before Mauve's voiced concern.

"No, I haven't."

"Well that's okay," Mauve had sensed Noah's sudden concern, "I'm sure she's fine, perhaps oversleeping."

"That doesn't sound like Adelia." Noah forced a disingenuine chuckle to match Mauve's current charisma.

Noah's response caused Mauve to take a rapid second glance at Noah. She screwed her eyebrows together in a knot. Mauve was confused as to why Noah had become so concerned. She understood that it was not usual for Adelia to arrive late to her shifts, however, the way Noah's expression and body language changed was as if Mauve had told him he has a terminal illness. Mauve decided to shrug off his reaction and move forward, onto another subject.

"Well anyway," Mauve chirped and shuffled in her seat, "I have some good news for you."

Mauve had hoped her use of words and spirit would cause Noah to perk up. Yet, it was evident to Mauve that Noah now struggled to retain his attention on Mauve.

"As you are aware, we monitor each individual inside this foster home very closely. I think we can both agree that your attitude and your mindset has been very positive over the last week."