Frozen Memories

A Session At The Park

Three days following the incident leading to my rooming with Max Powers and to my surprise there wasn’t much in the way of bumping heads. It was significantly more peaceful being her roommate than it was in being Jessica’s. As long as I stayed out of her way she’d stay out of mine.

More importantly than that, it seemed to be a little quieter around the group home as well-or well not so much quiet as much lack of ruckus. Jessica and her lackey seemed to avoid me at every turn and I didn’t really see much of Max Powers, short of the rare times that we were in our room together. However, even then there was barely a word spoken between the two of us.

I looked in the mirror, preparing myself to go downstairs for my session with Ms. Groves. There wasn’t much to talk about butI began gradually becoming more and more uncomfortable in having our sessions in the house; it was becoming very apparent that they weren’t as private as they perhaps should have been.

Taking this into consideration made me dread my sessions with Ms. Groves. I hadn’t had any problems out of Jessica or her minion but Mrs. Falton seemed to make it a point to let me know that she was aware of our conversations.

I continuously brushed through my hair, watching myself through the vanity mirror. It was Max Powers’ vanity, so I took good care in not getting too comfortable with using it. I tried standing as close as I could, without knocking into the chair, while I attempted to brush my lavender silver and black hair back into a braid.

As I pulled my hair back, I looked at my features. Ever since that day at the hospital-where Dr. Byrne coaxed me to look into that mirror, I tried my best not to look into another. Somehow it seemed a reminder of whatever past I could not remember, every single time I did look at myself for a prolonged period of time. Another thing that bothered me-the main thing that bothered me, were my eyes; sometimes they were both one color of an odd blue swirling in hues of light and dark and then other times one eye-my left, was completely verdant. Even more bothersome was that it had only recently started happening. Or maybe I never noticed it until now. Maybe that was it.

Between my mind hopping back and forth between my not so private sessions and my current anatomy, I had not noticed that I had an audience.

“What are you doing?” 

My green-blue gaze cornered to the reflection of Max Powers standing in the doorway. I quickly backed away from her mirror, not wanting to upset her. No, I wasn’t afraid of her-I feel I must reiterate; however I was beginning to see how this generation’s youth reacted to others using their belongings without permission. If nothing else, I would have liked to have kept the peace as I wasn’t too bent out of shape about our living arrangements.

    “I apologize.” I said, turning to face her. “I was trying to fix my hair-”

“Why didn’t you just sit down? She asked coming into the room, watching me with a blank stare.

Needless to say, I was caught off guard by her response. “I-I did not assume that I could.” I admitted.

She scoffed, rolling her eyes. “I told you, Frost-I’m not a bully.” She shook her head and dropped her things on her bed.

“I am sorry for my assumptions.” I said. I could tell that she was a little offended at what I said about why I hadn’t used her vanity, though I meant no harm.

“Yeah, whatever.” She said.

I approached closer as I realized that it was a little too early for her to be home. I figured this subject would be easier to discuss than my quick conclusions to her being territorial about her things. “Why are you home so early?” I asked.

She looked at me. “Early dismissal.” Was her simple reply before starting out of the room. “Your council lady is here.” She said before heading off.

“Thank you.” I said but she was already gone.

When I descended the stairs, I was surprised to see Ms. Groves standing by the front door. I slowed my pace, wondering why she wasn’t sitting down in the designated room where we held our meetings.

“Hello, Wilhelmina.” She said.

“Hello, Ms. Groves.” I said as I reached the bottom stair.

“How are you today?” She asked.

“Well, thank you. I hope you are.” 

She smiled. “I am doing great, thanks.” 

 There was a prolonged silence before I decided to speak. “Should we go to the living area?” I asked.

She smiled. “Not today.”

“Oh.” This was surprising. “Are we not having a session today?” I asked and if we weren’t then why did she come?

“Yes.” She replied. “I’ve heard that our sessions haven’t been as private as we would like.” She said. The sudden look of discontent on her face was one that I had not ever seen before. To tell the truth, it was sort of unsettling to see; though, it did alert me to the fact that even the extremely kind Ms. Groves could become annoyed. “So I was thinking-it’s breezy but nice outside today. Maybe we could go to a park of some sort and have our sessions.”

Park? I remember Lisa Jones telling me about parks; places full of beautiful trees and plants and places to sit so that it all could be admired. I hadn’t realized how much my expression must have shown my excitement until she chuckled.

“Lovely!” I exclaimed.

“Great!” She said. I rushed out of the door when she called to me. “Uhm, Wil-Wilhelmina?”

I turned around. “Yes?”

She chuckled. “Might want to get your shoes first.”

I didn’t realize how close this park was to the group home and it was as beautiful as I could have imagined. There were numerous types of trees, all varying in different sizes and color. The essence of it all was intoxicating and euphoric, the breeze making things all the more pleasurable. I decided in that moment that this place was my favorite of everything that I had seen and experienced so far.

It was hard to pull myself away from it all but eventually Ms. Groves found a place secluded where we could sit and talk.

    “So, I take it you like nature.” She said.

My gaze was still wandering over the mixed color of plant life before I answered her. “Like? I don’t think ...that explains how I feel about this place.” I whispered in awe of such natural beauty. It wasn’t until I came back to currents that I realized that there were tears falling from my eyes. How odd. “I’m so sorry.” I chuckled, wiping the tears away. “This must be a strange occurrence.” I joked.

Ms. Groves only smiled, however. “It’s actually more normal than you’d think.” She said.

“Really?” I asked. I found that hard to believe.

She simply nodded, looking around, seeming to admire her surroundings as well. “Amazing that humans can recognize such beauty, sometimes.” She said in a voice so low, I could barely hear her.

I didn’t say anything to counter her words, wondering about the meaning behind them. I figured, she would explain her words if it were meant for me to know. She finally looked at me, not explaining her words, however shifting to another subject; dare I say, something a little more peculiar.

“Do you know about nymphs, Wilhelmina? Elves?”

Never having been asked such a question, I was curious to see where she would go when she learned my answer. 

“No.” I said.

She looked at me a little longer before speaking again. “Hm, in time.” I thought I heard her say, though her lips didn’t seem to mouth those words. However, I could not clarify before she continued. “It’s said that when nymphs see beauty outside that of their world-when they witness the compassion that humans have for nature, they shed tears.” She said. “Tears with the power to heal and bring life.”

Her short story was so beautiful and whimsical, I almost wished that I was that creature that she spoke so highly of.

“If only.” I chuckled.

Her smile never faded as she continuously looked at me. “You have the features of one.” She said.

“A nymph?” It wasn’t my place to say whether they existed or not but had I not known any better I’d think that, based on the way Ms. Groves was talking, she saw one before. “You speak as if they exist.” Did they? I couldn’t help but ask myself this. “As if you’ve seen one before.” Deciding not to take the risk of looking foolish by asking this question, I kept my response subtle.

“Well, let’s just say, I’d think that if I were to see a nymph, they would be similar to your features.” She said. “Otherworldly and beautiful.”

Though, I felt that she gave me entirely too much credit in concerns to how attractive I was, I was grateful that she thought so highly of me. Unfortunately, I didn’t gather the chance to respond before she moved on to another subject-one more mundane and unfascinating.

“So, I gather that you have not been completely honest about your difficulties adjusting in the home.” She said. 

“And what makes you think that?” I asked curiously.

“I heard about what happened the other day, Wilhelmina.” She said to me. How on earth did she find out? I was sure Mrs. Falton did not care enough to keep her updated. “Why didn’t you tell me that you were being bullied?”

I sighed. “I handled it.” I simply answered her. “I am sure I won’t have to worry about the girl again.” 

“And what makes you think that?” She asked.

I felt like telling her what happened would come off as bragging and I certainly wasn’t proud of the way I attacked Jessica. However, I would not lie and say that I wasn’t satisfied with the lack of bullying that I was seeing the last couple of days.

“Wilhelmina, you have to start being upfront with me.” She said.

“I choked her.” I quickly said. “Slammed her against the wall-until she couldn’t speak.” I sighed, saying it aloud made me even more ashamed. “But I was sure that I hadn’t grabbed her that hard-certainly not hard enough for her not to speak!” I tried to defend.

“Oh my-”

“It was weird because she started breathing a mist-like-I don’t know-like it was cold or something, now that I think about it.” I looked at Ms. Groves. “But surely that could not have come from me!” The more I thought about that moment, the weirder it seemed to be. “Maybe it was just cold in the room.”

“Maybe.” She said. She touched my hand and smiled. She never flinched when she touched me. I looked at her. “Just be careful around her, okay.”

“I don’t see much of her anymore.” I said. “I’ve been what they call re-bunked anyway.” 

“And how is that going for you?” Ms. Groves asked.

“Despite the initial disagreement, it is fine.” I answered, when another question returned to mind-one that was still bugging me. “Who told you about all of this?” I asked. 

To this question she smirked. “Not sure I should say. She wouldn’t want me to.”

“Well we both know that it was not Mrs. Falton. So who?”

“I should report that nasty Mrs. Falton.” Ms. Groves suddenly said, her face suddenly disgruntled. “She does a horrible job with you girls-”

“Ms. Groves.” I cut her off. “We already talked about this.” I said, wordlessly reminding her of the talk we had about the risk of replacing Mrs. Falton with someone even worse. “Who told you?” I asked, instead, shifting the subject back to where it started.

She sighed. “I promised her that I wouldn’t tell.” Then she smiled. “Just know that you do have a friend in that home looking out for you.”

Friend? The word and its definition in itself seemed so foreign to me since I left the hospital, that I found it hard to believe that there was anyone looking out for me at all. Still, all I could do was take her word for it. After all, the idea was nice.

“Nice thought, I guess.” I found myself saying.

Ms. Groves warmly replied. “Nice indeed.”