Vocalization

Alone Together

My head was aching, my body numb from the pain. I could feel the movement I was in. I had to be in some kind of car. Blanket. Bed. Of course, an ambulance. That was why it was so familiar. I had to have passed out. I opened my eyes, blinking due to the light coming from above. I knew it would not be long before I lost consciousness once more. I was grabbed by a sudden panic. Alone and scared. The paramedic tried to calm me down, but I was squirming inside. "Evelynn", I suddenly heard a voice. Geoff was here. Was he really or just in my brain? "Lynn, it's okay. You'll be okay. You're being taken to the hospital. I'll be there for you. Don't be scared." My breathing got slower, calming down, even if it took a while. Geoff placed his hand on my shoulder, sending a comforting warmth through it, even if it was right next to the wound. My eyes fell shut and everything went black again. What I had experienced in that horrific game had to have been the worst thing that had ever happened to me, even with all the horrible things I experienced almost every day.

I didn't know how much time had passed, but the next thing I knew, I was waking up in a hospital bed. A real hospital bed this time. My head was dazing again, but it soon calmed down. My right foot was up in a cast, held in an upright position with a band. I could feel that it was bandaged underneath, as was my left one. My right shoulder was practically immobile and my right wrist in a cast as well. With the only thing I could still properly move, my head, I looked around the room. My eyes got caught on the little table next to the bed. There was a vase with beautiful flowers in all kinds of colors with a pretty card attached to it. I could also spot a bar of chocolate and a little sticky note. And there was my phone. With my left hand, as clumsy as I was, I reached over to my right side, where the table stood, and picked my phone off of it. No more power. Wait, how was my phone there? The casing was also gone. Could it be...? It had to be. My parents had already bought me a new one. That had to mean that I had been out for quite a while, at least a day or two. I put the phone down on my stomach and sighed, then I tried to reach for the card. It was unbelievably hard, because the object was so flat and it was stuck under another, heavier object. Finally, my fingers slid it off far enough so it was standing out just a few centimeters over the edge. I clipped it in-between two fingers and pulled it over towards me. Doing everything lefthandedly was a challenge, but I was sure I would manage. Also, I would probably be ambidextrous after this. Not a bad thing to be. With some difficulties, I opened the card and blinked. This was a handwriting I had not seen before. Still, I read it happily. At least someone cared about me if my parents didn't.

Dear Eve,

What you did back in that facility was really awesome. We barely knew each other and you still almost gave your life just to save us. Meeting someone like you is rare and we hope your friends at home know how special you are. And if they don't, just remember you will always have friends in us. We owe you at least one gigantic favor.

Get better soon and call us if you can!

Geoff     Earl      Eli     Layne      J

My eyes teared up, before I quickly dried them. Then that sticky note had to be a phone number. It was so good to know that I was not alone. If only they knew that I did not have friends at home. Well, maybe they'd guessed. After all, I had said that I did not have a nickname. But if they were clueless, that was okay as well. I didn't want them to worry even more. The fact that I was in the hospital was enough to worry about. I felt set in stone. Immobile. I was stuck in this place.

Later that day, a nurse came in and brought me a charger. Finally, a charger! I had never been this happy about one before. The nurse was really kind. She even found a way for me to have another table at my left side so I could place objects down comfortably. It was for my health, she said while winking. Then she left. Everyone here was so kind to me. Was it because I was in this situation? Because I had just gotten out of a traumatic event? I held on to my hope that it was humanity taking over and spreading kindness. I plugged in the charger and then hooked my phone up to it. Now I had to wait. While the little black device was charging, I looked at the card once more. The handwriting was with a swing and possibly done pretty quickly, but it was still legible. Many boys I knew from school had handwritings that our teachers had a very hard time reading. I had used it to train reading crude letters. After all, you could never know when you might need it. If a boy writes you a love letter and you can't read it... Well, you're very out of luck. The cover of the card on the other hand was decorated with sheet music on a colorful backdrop, fading into each other with transparency and similarity in color. How did they know I liked music so much?

Finally, that stupid phone was decently charged. I turned it on and sighed. I had to do the setup first. That would take a while... So I spent half an hour on it, installing all the apps I needed and setting everything up. When I was finally done, I grabbed the sticky note that the nurse had put on my left for me and opened the calling interface. I typed out the numbers and pressed the call button, my hand shaking. Now all I could do was wait. Finally, I heard a voice on the other side of the line: "Hello?" Geoff's voice hit me like a wave of colors, a harmonic melody being played for the first time. My heart skipped a beat. "Hi, Geoff, this is Evelynn", answered happily. "Eve! You're finally awake!" "Sorry I didn't call this morning, I couldn't, really, my phone had no power left." "It's okay. Tell me: How do you feel? Is it bad?" And so, we started talking and chatting for hours, discussing various topics and catching up on the time we had been apart.

For once, I felt alive. I felt like I was part of society. Like I could finally be a human being. Or rather: I had found my species. I had been so sure I was not human for so long, just because I was so different from everyone else. But those five boys and I... We were one and the same. On the same wavelength. Together, we created a harmony. All the other beings around us were dissonant, not in tune with themselves and others. They faked their security and friendships, just to seem normal. To not drop out of place. Avoiding being out of line. But how would they ever create anything beautiful if they were not special to themselves? Each one of them had their own color, but if they kept fitting themselves in, they would all turn a muddy brown soon. On the other hand, I felt like Geoff and his friends were special. They let their colors fade into each other, but did not strife for monotony. And they welcomed me into their rainbow of light with open arms.

The days went by and I was getting more and more bored. I was stuck, so much was clear. The pain medication the doctors gave me made me sleepy and dazed, causing a depression. My mind was slow and the usual colorful world I would create in my head would not let me in. Even Talking to the friendly nurse about medical school wasn't helping at all. My sleep was dreamless and there was no hope inside. Talking to Geoff on the phone always cheered me up a bit, but soon, it was not enough. I needed more. I wanted to be with him and the others. To actually see them. Their voices were always crude and desorted through the phone, not with the same clarity they usually had. I knew I could not depend on them to keep me entertained all the time, so I just stopped calling. If they called, I would always answer, but I could not bring myself to call them myself anymore. Scared to annoy them. Scared to be a nuisance.

Then, one fateful morning, I woke up and looked at my phone. Geoff had sent me a message. Weird, he never did. We would always talk on the phone instead. I managed to unlock my phone after some struggling and opened the messenger app. It was a video. The thumbnail showed Geoff, Layne, J, Earl and Eli all in sports attire, seemingly in the middle of some kind of dance. I raised an eyebrow and clicked on it. How weird... But all my confusion hushed away as the video started. The five of them could sing! And they did it well. In the video, they were performing an acapella cover of OMI's Cheerleader, fully choreographed and planned out, arranged to fit their voices. Fitting it all into a workout theme, it worked out so well. They looked like they were having fun, singing and dancing, acting their part to make the video as great as it was. I did not realize it at first, but a joyful smile spread across my face as I warmed up from the inside. When the music stopped, the screen went black for a second. Then it popped to color again and Geoff could be seen in a close shot, lifting an imaginary dumbbell singlehandedly. He started talking some stereotypical macho things in a similarly stereotypical voice, sounding as if he'd been taken out of a cartoon. He changed his voice back again and sat down in a normal position, letting go of his role. "Okay, enough of that. We love you, Evelynn. Just wanted to let you know. You're our cheerleader. Get well soon, okay? And don't let a few injuries get you down." In the last few second, the shot panned out and the other four boys jumped in to tell me their goodbye, cheerful like little kids. My eyes sparkled, locking me in amazement for a few minutes. The next thing for me to do was obvious: Call Geoff again.

From now on, I would watch this video everyday when I was down. No matter how many times I repeated it, it would always cheer me up.