...
Mom... Dad...
Am I doing the right thing?
Is it okay to break the rules
if it means helping someone?
To what extent is it okay?
...
When my pain becomes too great to hold,
will they believe that I'm sorry?
How do I prove that I'm being sincere?
How do I know if I'm being sincere?
...
Your faces are becoming blurry...
...
Niel is just wrapping up breakfast when Reed and Lydia return with their final report cards. Reed is gleefully bothering Lydia, Lydia is less than amused with his shenanigans, and Gabriel is caught in the middle of them.
"Guess what?" Reed giddily asks Mabel, who is curious about their marks. Illia is also off to the side listening in.
"What?" Mabel says.
Reed lifts his report card, but Lydia talks over him. "He got a slightly higher mark than me in an easier math."
"It's still higher than yours!" Reed refutes.
"Because the math you're taking is stupid simple!"
Niel gets roped into being a faux-judge in this contest, and while Lydia explains to him the different levels of math and how far beneath her Reed is, Mabel scans through the rest of his report card.
"Reed?" Mabel calls. At first, Reed is worried that she isn't impressed by something, but it's quickly made obvious that it's the opposite. "You did really well in science, and your teacher says you liked the chemistry unit and recommends that you take the full course in Grade 12. You like chemistry?"
"Uh, yeah. It was fun. I guess."
A flag is raised in Niel's head. Reed never seemed like the type of person to do well in academics—let alone enjoy it—so science class and this chemistry unit must be something special to him. Yet, he acts like it's barely an interest. Reed doesn't seem eager to share his thoughts, so Niel leaves him be.
The days go by and Niel and Illia's worries grow as Friday draws near. But before then, Niel has another session with Medova. With more time to prepare, Medova's goal is to encourage Niel to share more of what he went through at the lab. That way, with him, she can formulate a plan centred around the exact source of his stress. This goes awry, however, in the same way her past sessions with Illia went: with a reluctance to open up. Apart from a general admittance of being the victim of blatant torture, Niel adamantly refuses to talk specifics by saying little to anything at all. Even when Medova can get him to talk, it's only for yes-or-no answers to loose-ended questions. Ultimately, Medova is convinced that—among the horrors inflicted by the lab—a single, critical event plays a large role in Niel's mental anguish, though Niel won't share what that event is.
What Niel is willing to share are his reservations about working tomorrow, and that leads to the next part of their session: stress management. With time running short, Medova explains to Niel the nature of stress, how it can negatively impact him, and how he can recognize and observe the occurrence of his stress and his reaction to it. The session ending catches Medova mid-sentence, so this will have to wait until next week. Niel leaves the private room thinking that he's learned something, but feeling like little overall has changed.
Niel steps out of the private room and surveys the state of the house after being out of the loop for the last fifty minutes. He's still trying to rebuild confidence in using his Dust again, so he manually looks around instead. Mabel is tinkering with her watercolours in the living room while Gabriel watches, and Niel finds Reed and Lydia in their respective rooms. From there, he notices a chime coming from above, so he ascends to the third floor and sees that Illia is sitting on her bed and playing her kalimba.
Each metal tine plucked soothes Niel's spirit more and more, and he thinks that she's rather skilled with the instrument. When Niel peers into the room, he finds her enraptured in not just her kalimba, but her phone as well. She's learning how to play this tune. Despite her skill, though, she doesn't look very happy, and she's taking long, deep breaths. Is she anxious? Niel decides to sit down in the hallway and just listen to her play.
After a minute or two, the music suddenly stops, and Niel wonders why. He considers looking in again to check, but he doesn't want to be caught imposing. A scan would solve this problem. It takes some time to build up the courage needed, but he's eventually able to let go of some Dust to see what Illia is doing. His Dust shows that she is merely just looking at her phone. She picks up her kalimba again and plucks a note, but she puts it down right after and gets off of her bed. Despite the scan and without a will to use Shadow Dive, Niel is unable to react in time as Illia sticks her head through the doorway and catches him eavesdropping. She doesn't seem surprised by this, though.
"You found me," Niel concedes sheepishly as he pushes himself to his feet. "How did you know?"
With no way to explain herself without her phone, she invites Niel inside her room, and the pair sit on her bed.
'The note I played sounded strange, so I thought it might have been due to your Dust,' her phone reads. Niel didn't consider this. 'Why were you there?'
"Because I liked listening to you play."
Illia's face becomes flush with shyness, and she finds that she can no longer lock eyes with Niel. She has to correct her spelling multiple times while writing her next message. 'You can stay if you'd like.'
Illia's performance suffers with her new audience, but Niel enjoys it all the same. She even seems less on edge. The two of them sitting on the same bed reminds Niel of Sunday night when Illia came to his rescue. Despite her telling him that he should, Niel couldn't bring himself to tell Medova about that night, and he doesn't want to tell Illia that, either. He wonders what secrets Illia could be hiding as well.
>>>>>>
At long last, it's finally time for them to go to the hospital. Dwayne instructs the four to wear a plain shirt and pants, and they make the trip over. Once through the main doors and inside the lobby, a familiar face awaits to greet them.
"Welcome back everyone!" Nurse Rosa greets.
"It's been a bit," Reed responds.
Just as Reed said, it has been a while since they've seen Nurse Rosa, and apart from her emerald hair, Niel had forgotten what she looks like. Her most defining feature is tied back into a neat ponytail, and her skin is bright from a lack of sunlight. The scrubs she wears are baby blue with a white accent that runs from under her arms to the base of her shirt, which accentuates her fit physique. An ID badge hangs by a lanyard from her shirt while her name tag is pinned to the fabric. Objectively speaking, Niel thinks of her as quite attractive.
The four children are escorted from Dwayne to a volunteer's hub room close to reception. The white walls of the lounge strongly resemble the lobby's, and several chairs, lockers, a rack of jade vests, and a mini fridge all adorn the inside. Also inside is an older, balding man wearing one of the vests.
“Ah, Reed! Lydia! Back again for another summer I see,” the man says. His name tag identifies him as Reginald Fogg, and it appears that he, Reed and Lydia are already acquainted. “And we’ve got some new volunteers, I presume?”
"That’s right," Rosa states.
"Ah, very good! It's always great to see new volunteers!" Reginald exclaims.
After a quick introduction, their attention is brought to the rack of vests, each bearing the title of volunteer and the hospital's name and logo. The children sort through the vests until they each find one of their size, and then Rosa gives them an ID badge and a name tag similar to hers and Reginald's. Now Niel understands why Dwayne needed to take their pictures a few days prior. Their name tags consist of a clear sleeve pinned to their vest holding a paper card that bears their name, and Niel wonders why they need it alongside their ID badge—which already has it and more—but he assumes there's a reason for it.
Next, they're shown the lockers and told that they need to stow their phones, wallets, and any accessories they have on them, including the Warden's Key. Reed and Lydia made sure to bring enough locks for everyone, and Niel is careful to keep the bulb of the Warden's Key hidden from Rosa and Reginald when he puts it away.
Rosa explains that at the beginning and end of each shift, they need to log their hours in a folder by signing in and out, and now is no exception. Each of them writes in their full name plus eleven o'clock as their sign-in time. And last to the lounge, the mini-fridge is stocked with cold bottles of water, and should they need to return here for a quick break, they have to tell a nurse before doing so.
With the lounge out of the way, the four are given a tour around the four-storey hospital. Reed and Lydia already know the layout, but getting an update on affairs after a year of absence doesn't hurt. Rosa shows them different tasks throughout the tour that volunteers can perform, like cleaning rooms, restocking supplies, interacting with patients, and more. How they need to behave and handle themselves is also taught, but not everything is new due to Dwayne teaching them a few days ago or from prior volunteering experience.
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Despite being shown all sorts of things to do, there isn't any work left for them at the moment. After a while of little to nothing happening, the four decide to group up in the lounge and take a short five-minute break.
"At least this and our training goes towards our total hours," Lydia says. Illia and Niel were also expecting more.
"Oh, yeah. That's something we got to skip," Reed says to the pair of rookies. "Normally we'd have to do an interview and go to orienteering and training before we get to start volunteering, but Phoebe pulled some strings and sped all of that up for us."
"Do you know who Phoebe is?" Lydia asks Niel.
"She's Dwayne's wife, and she runs the hospital," Reed answers before Niel can.
"I already know," Niel responds.
"Oh. Okay."
As they sit around and idly chat, Niel notices something he's moderately ashamed he didn't already know. He learned Lydia's surname from Aaron's headstone, and thanks to their name tags, he's now just discovering Reed and Illia's. Reed's last name is Ayers, and Illia's is Belfort. At least this saves him an awkward question.
When they all return to work, Rosa summons Niel and Illia to the third floor to help with something. She explains that a patient has just been discharged and that the room needs to be cleaned. It's the perfect opportunity to learn how it's done, so the pair give the nurse their undivided attention. Rosa walks them through wiping down the room and changing the linens on the bed, and Niel can't help but think of when he was a patient here. It's the same kind of room he stayed in. When it comes to changing the bed, Niel notes how Illia seems familiar with it, and he brings this up when there's a break in Rosa's teachings.
"She was a patient here before you arrived," Rosa explains much to Niel's surprise.
"Really? What happened?"
Illia is unable to explain to Niel directly without her phone or anything to write on, so she signs something to Rosa. This is the first time Niel has seen her use sign language exclusively to communicate.
"She was very sick back in January and spent a few nights here. I was the nurse that saw her the most," Rosa translates.
"Huh. I didn't know this." He also didn't know that Rosa knew sign language.
Illia signs again.
"I was a fun nurse, like how I brought her toys and taught her how to check her pulse," Rosa translates again, this time with a flavour of pride. Illia smiles with a shy blush.
After the room is cleaned, they return to the first floor in search of something to do. All that's available is sorting a few documents into a folder (which was purposely left in this state by a nurse for a volunteer to do), so while it isn't much, they take the task to kill a few minutes. However, it becomes clear that, due to a lack of volume, this is a one-person job. If Niel is proud of anything about himself, it's his patience, so he lets Illia have fun with the mundane task. This turns out to be the correct move because shortly after walking away, he finds his own job in restocking one of the examination rooms with a new box of gloves. He journeys from a storage room to the examination room and back to where he started, and he decides to check back with Illia so he isn't wandering meaninglessly.
To his surprise, she isn't done. If it were him, he'd have sorted double or more of what was there in the few minutes he was gone. So what's holding her up? He hangs back a bit and observes.
Every time Illia goes to read a document, she holds it far away from her face for several seconds before putting it down. Finding its place in the folder takes her even longer for the same reason. Is she struggling to read? Niel decides to intervene after watching her struggle with a single page for nearly a minute.
"What's wrong?" Niel asks, startling Illia into nearly dropping the folder. She hastily searches for writing material and finds some in the form of a spare pen and a torn scrap of paper.
'The text is too small for me to read.'
"It is? I can read it just fine."
Niel prodding like this makes Illia pause. She didn't want anyone to know, but he's caught her in the act and without room for excuses.
'I think my eyesight is poor. I can see things far away just fine, but everything gets blurry up close,' she reluctantly admits.
"Did you tell Mabel and Gabriel?"
'I didn't.'
"Why?"
'I don't want to get glasses.'
"Why not?"
'I'm scared of—'
Illia tries to scribble in the rest of her reasoning, but she's run out of available room on the paper and can't find any more. She conveys her emotions instead by worriedly shaking her head. Niel just decides to drop the subject altogether. For now, he assists her by sorting the rest of the documents so she can put the folder where it belongs.
The four kids are relieved when the clock strikes four. It may not have been tiring work, but the lack of things to do has left them drained nonetheless. They all sign out, leave their vests behind to be laundered, and take their IDs with them to the car where Dwayne awaits.
"How was your first day?" the big man asks once everyone is buckled in.
"Boring," Reed states matter-of-factly.
"There was, like, nothing for us to do all day," Lydia adds.
"You'll get days like that. Other days will be so busy you'll never catch a break," Dwayne says.
"I know. Been there, done that, got the promotion," Reed says.
"I'd prefer that over today," Lydia groans.
"I agree," Niel chimes in. Illia only partially nods her head.
Illia's vision bothers Niel. She's scared of something but wasn't able to tell him. When they get home, he looks up the process of getting glasses and finds absolutely nothing to be scared of. So then why is she so apprehensive? He decides to confide in his guardians for help, even if it means going behind her back.
"So she's farsighted?" Mabel questions.
"If that's what it means."
"I asked her about it before and she said there was nothing wrong. She always read things at a distance so I assumed it was normal for her," Gabriel says.
"She told me she didn't want glasses because she was scared of something, but I don't know what that 'something' is," Niel explains. "I looked up how you get glasses, and I can't see what she would be scared of."
"Was that on purpose?"
"Was what on purpose?"
"Never mind."
"We'll talk to her about it," Mabel says, bringing them back on topic.
"I think we should be discreet when we do, make her think we were the ones to notice," Gabriel adds. Niel approves of this approach, as he doubts Illia would appreciate him doing this after she took care to hide it from them.
Mabel returns to her new watercolours in the living room while Niel retires to his room until supper is ready. After everyone finishes eating, Niel overhears Mabel softly saying to Illia that she wants to talk with the mute girl, and Niel pretends to not have heard or be involved as they move upstairs. Gabriel follows behind them.
"We've been worried about your vision lately," Mabel confesses in Illia's room, shocking the girl into a petrified expression. "It looks like you're having trouble seeing things up close."
Illia taps furiously on her phone. 'Did Niel tell you this?'
"Niel? No, no. Dwayne told us that a nurse said it looked like you were struggling to read something today," Gabriel adds. Illia tilts her head down.
"Why did you try to hide it from us?" Mabel asks coaxingly.
'I don't want to be stuck with glasses for the rest of my life.'
"You won't be stuck with glasses," Gabriel says as he removes his glasses from his face. "If you're farsighted, you'll really only need them to read and that's it. You won't need to keep them on throughout the day like me, and even then, I forget I even have them on until I take them off at night."
Illia seems reassured by this, if only by a little.
"Once you get glasses and can see better, you'll wish you had them sooner."
Hearing that everything is turning out well, Niel abandons his eavesdropping spot just outside the door and goes back downstairs without anyone knowing he was even there in the first place.
>>>>>>
The sunny weather makes for a fine day at the secret glade. The four kids are in their casual wear appropriate for summer, and Reed carries with him a plank of wood in his arm and a thick rope around his shoulder. His goal is to set up a rope swing from the glade's largest oak tree, and the others are just here for the ride.
"So..." Reed murmurs as he gazes up the tree. The lowest branch thick enough to support the weight of a swing is at least ten metres up. "How are we going to do this?"
"We? Are you speaking French? There's no we, only you," Lydia refutes.
"Oh, right. Wouldn't want to break your fake nails trying to help, huh?" Reed shoots back.
"Want to say that again, asshole!?"
"Enough!" Niel roars, causing both of them to stand down and Illia to jump. He then apologizes to the mute girl. "Can't you climb up there?"
"All the way up there? Hell no! If I fall I'll break my neck!" Reed exclaims with a touch of exaggeration. "Why don't you climb up there and do it for me?"
"No. The swing is your idea."
"Agh, fine! But if I fall, you better catch me!"
"Of course."
With the rope still slung around his shoulder, Reed grabs onto the trunk and tries to shimmy his way up to the lowest branch. He barely makes it and hauls himself onto it with great effort. From there, he ascends the tree branch by branch, until...
"Niel? Can you bring me down?"
"Don't tell me you're scared?" Lydia calls up to him.
"I don't like heights!"
"Then why did you climb up there!?"
"Because nobody would help me!"
Niel sighs, and after he checks the area for people who may be watching them, he reluctantly lowers Reed to the ground via his Dust. He doesn't want to use his Dust, but Reed isn't giving him much of a choice.
"Can you do it? Please?" Reed begs Niel.
Again, not much of a choice. "Fine."
Niel decides to take a minimalistic approach to ascending the tree by bolstering his arms and legs with his Dust; the less he uses it, the better. The result is him climbing and leaping from branch to branch much like a cat, amusing Reed with this observation. He even perches on the target branch in a similar way to a cat sitting on a thin ledge. Niel unravels the rope (which he discovers was already cut in two) and ties two ends to the branch while Reed handles cutting the excess rope and tying on the plank at the bottom. When he's given the all-clear, Niel descends the tree.
"Great job, catboy!" Reed gleams. Niel does not.
"Want me to hit you?"
"Please do," Lydia inserts.
Illia has fun on the swing.
After spending time in the glade, everyone is ready to go home—apart from Niel. He wants to enjoy the sunlight while he still can, so Niel breaks away from the group to go on a walk by himself. With his heart as his guide, he ventures throughout the city again and takes in whatever sights he comes across, but he's eventually led back to the riverside park. There's something about this place that keeps drawing him back.
He wanders around the park for a time and sits by the river's edge where people aren't swimming. He reflects on yesterday while gazing into the current. Even though it's been only one shift, he isn't exactly looking forward to the next one come Monday. He doesn't feel like he did much and hopes he wasn't a burden to the staff there. Now with his fill of sunlight, he gets up to leave and return home, but a uniquely green sight catches his eye, and she's sitting on a bench with someone else.
"Oh? Niel!" Rosa calls out. Niel was going to silently pass her by since he hardly knows her, but it would be rude to ignore her now. He turns to her and pretends to be surprised.
"Nurse Rosa," he greets.
"You can just call me Ivy when we're not working."
"Ivy, then." Next to her is a man roughly her age, a shoulder taller than her, and with brown locks and well-groomed facial hair.
"This is Liam, a friend of mine," Rosa introduces. She then turns to Liam. "And this is Niel. He's one of the volunteers at the hospital."
"Nice to meet you, Niel," Liam greets as he extends a hand. Niel nods and matches him, and they share a handshake.
"Are you out on a walk?" Rosa asks.
"Yeah. I'm on my way home now," Niel answers.
"Take care going home," Liam says. A word of caution can go far in a city like Soul.
"I will."
"See you Monday!" Rosa says.
Niel waves and leaves the park. Liam doesn't seem to be a bad person, but there's something about their dynamic that's off-putting to Niel. Rosa was somewhat fidgety and more expressive compared to her work demeanour, though this could simply be due to her not having to act professionally when she's off work. He decides to let sleeping dogs lie and forget about this for now.