The Bear House

Act 2. Chapter 7: A study on the boy in a new world

Act 2. Chapter 7: A study on the boy in a new world

It was odd that Arthur decided that they study Welsh instead of Danish. The psychiatrist, slash, Danish butler, slash, estate representative, slash, witch, did clarify that the Goldies are originally from Wales, and most of their codexes are in Welsh.

Colin would have asked, but he delays the question for something more important. "When I was there, I keep seeing this tiny bear hanging around the balcony. I don't know if that was the drug, but man, the bear was acting like a human."

The two are surrounded by a few dusty and old-looking books with weird inscriptions and drawings of flowers and fancy intricate circles and lines. There are some modern books on the Welsh language here and there. Colin eventually excused that his head hurts, and so Arthur stopped the lessons for a while and they drifted to small talks about Colin's time in the Bear house. This is not an official psychiatric session, but for record-keeping sake, he took out his 'Colin's Mind' journal and he takes notes when necessary.

"It's the drugs, probably. Or maybe a part of Noah's suggestion."

"Would you know why? I mean, you guys are kins, right?"

Arthur's gaze slowly detached itself from the journal, looking up with his usual stoic face. This stoic face, however, is more stoic than Colin could imagine Arthur produces. "I would not know. I'm sorry Colin."

Colin nodded down. "Do you at least know what little bears mean, 'cuz you know, it was like... a part of my hallucinations?"

Arthur breathed and shifted his sitting position to a more professional one. "Perhaps bears signify the main predator of that place. But you, for adaptations sake, have found a way to diminish its predatory qualities. It wanted to fool you, it wanted to eat you, but you asked it to have some tea and it has become docile. It has become interested, and now, it can't kill you. It found... companionship with you."

"I... I never told you I offered my hallucination tea."

Arthur paused briefly. "You did? What a coincidence. I was just using a metaphor."

They laughed together, albeit with the preexisting and looming thoughts about the thing in Colin's head. The reason why they decided to study Welsh, and eventually study the Witchy Codex of the Goldie family, was to search for a possible cure for cancer. Medically, it is almost impossible to cure cancer because each cancer is unique to every person. Aside from the fact that cancer can develop in different organs, the reason for cell deviation that turns a normal cell into cancer cells can be different, too. Arthur tried to explain cancer cell generations, but Colin's brain just won't take anything in. At least he's interested enough to scan and skim the witch books for fancy-looking pictures, entertaining himself by bothering Arthur every now and then with:

(Arthur, look. The picture says a person can turn into a cat. Read it!)

(No, Colin. It's a spell to tame a cat.)

(Ow? How about this? Does this spell mean I can tame a bear?)

(No. It's a spell to turn humans into bears.)

(Can you just teach me a fun spell?)

(Maybe you can teach yourself a fun spell if you study Welsh first. And stop bothering me, please. In case you forgot, I'm trying to save your life.)

Ms. Keller has been out since yesterday. Overall, Colin hasn't seen his mother for a week. Partially avoiding her, Colin also made it to a point to stay in his room as much as he can. Ms. Keller never knock his door to at least comfort him about the cancer. Nobody cares, not even his father, not even Jacques. Ironically, only Arthur cares. In his own special way.