Summer
Description
Officer Tifa pursed her lips and clicked her tongue as to catch Kayleen’s attention. “Kay-ssi. Did your mother contact you?” A frowned went past her.
It was somewhat difficult to start a conversation with Kayleen. Officer Tifa recalled the day when Kayleen was transferred here. Never in her twelve years of service, had she ever encountered a juvenile's case like Kayleen Alice. The first ten months was a disastrous period for that girl, she never spoke with anybody, not even to her only family – her mother. They had to sedate her so she could sleep, otherwise, she would curl herself into a ball at the room’s corner, and trembled the whole day, murmuring something only God knew what. Whenever a psychiatrist came, again, sedatives had became their option as to calm her down. Kayleen was a fighter, even good one at that – she was able to take five peoples at one time. Even though she was black-belt holder in Karate, it had yet remained a mystery as to why she couldn’t escape from the previous two kidnappings. There had been some rumours around saying that the culprits were people she knew or worse, she was part of their accompliance. Nevertheless, the case buried soon after the psychopath surgeon was being sentenced into death.
“Here,” Officer Tifa outstretched her hand and presented a medium-sized package to Kayleen. “My good luck present. Take it.” Kayleen didn’t budge. There hadn’t been a single word came out of her ever since earlier. Officer Tifa couldn’t predict what was stored inside of her mind. “It’s marshmallow. Your mother once told me that marshmallow was your favourite.” Officer Tifa reached out for Kayleen’s hand and smiled warmly at her. “Your hand was cold!” she exclaimed, which alerted Kayleen, and she quickly jumped away. A torrid look dawned in her face. Officer Tifa scratched her head in dismay. She almost forgotten that Kayleen was easily frightened by a certain “raise” of voice. It must have reminded her of those unpleasant moments. If one never experienced it, they wouldn’t know how terrified it could be. She was kidnapped twice, and the latter almost kill her. After the second kidnapping, she was held inside the mental hospital; it even came out on the newspaper that she had gone mad. During that period of time, just everything about Kayleen Alice sparked interests in the public’s eye; everyone wanted to know her progress. Kayleen’s mother was such in a tight situation. The media even dug out her past with her previous husband; everything was out of control, and also out of topic but as long as it was related to Kayleen Alice, the newspapers were sold. Reality had always been like that. Within the world of media, there were only good stories that sold, or one that didn’t. Regardless, they shouldn’t have revealed such information to the public. Everyone has had their opinion regarding the matters; some would sympathise, some would stigmatise, and some wouldn’t care less.
“Oh dear, I’m so-so sorry.” Officer Tifa stammered an apology as she approached her. Kayleen threw a hand up and shook her head hard. Officer Tifa was dumbfounded. The same thoughts darted in her head: how would this girl ever survive like this? She pitied her from the bottom of her heart.
It was certain that Kayleen wasn’t ready to be discharged. She had raised the issue to the authority once, but the response she got was something that she learnt in the theory book – a juvenile wasn’t supposed to stay for more than two years as stated in the Youth Justice System, and furthermore, the hospital’s side had released an official health report, denoting that Kayleen Alice was not a psychotic patient – she was just traumatized, and with little time, she would gradually regained her former lives. How absurd was that? It clearly showed that they were merely awaiting for the “green light” from the hospital, and after Kayleen was proved to be normal, there wouldn’t be a reason to let her stay. It irked her to the utmost degree. She wasn't blind but was forced to turn on a blind eye since it was beyond her scope of duty. Truthfully, Kayleen’s case was specifically neglected in some way. There was something off about it. Throughout the period Kayleen was under probation, they relied mostly on the hospital, like asking the psychiatrist to “monitor” her mood and all; in general word, people would say: to tame a dire animal with sedatives – they had never treated Kayleen as a juvie but a mental patient instead – there was no real treatment being done to her. To say the least, they only gave her sedatives and anti-depressant medications; she had never once, took part in any of their intervention programmes like the other residents. All in all, they were merely awaiting the probation period to end, then send her off. She used to think that Kayleen’s case was seemingly monitored by someone in the higher up. Her stomach clenched into fists just by thinking about it. They had kept her in her room and a few only was allowed to meet her.
✏Notes
Hello, thank you for visiting :) Please leave some comments below. Have a blast day, chingu-yah ^^
That summer...if only time had stopped
Comments