IRIS

chapter twenty-nine

"Are my parents dead?" Dr. Ruth looked up at Iris quickly, not expecting the girl to start off their session with a question of her own.

"Why do you ask?" Iris adjusted herself in the seat as she looked around Dr. Ruth's office. Iris' doctor said it was safe for her to start walking again, so they decided to have the next meeting in her office instead of Iris' room.

"I had a dream last night, but I'm not too sure that it was a dream." Dr. Ruth nodded as Iris spoke about her dream. "It felt more like a memory."

"Tell me about your dream." Iris spent the remaining portion of their session talking about her dream. About hearing them fight, to hearing the front door slam. About walking around the house, not being able to find them. About walking outside to see both of their cars gone. About going to Ms. Annie's house and drinking hot chocolate. About seeing police officers and a social worker. About seeing her grandmother.

"Are they dead? I mean it's the only realistic explanation." Dr. Ruth was surprised to see that Iris wasn't emotional about the topic.

"I think that's a conversation for you and your grandmother to have." Iris sighed but nodded, Dr. Ruth helping her to walk back to her room. When they walked in Iris saw her grandmother sitting in one of the chairs, flipping through a magazine. Dr. Ruth left the two alone as Iris asked the woman the question.

"Are my parents dead?" Her grandmother looked away from the magazine quickly, panicking slightly at the question. Iris stayed silent, waiting for the woman to respond.

"Yes. They passed away quite some time ago." Iris didn't understand why but her eyes filled with tears. She didn't remember anything about the couple, besides that night and she didn't think it was because of her amnesia.

"How?" Iris' voice cracked as she looked down at her hands.

"Car accident." Her grandmother put the magazine down as she prepared herself for the conversation ahead of them. "Your parents were very different. They didn't always get along, and your mother was sometimes impulsive. The night they died, they had gotten into a fight. Your mother threatened to leave and she did, to which your father chased after her. It was raining and the roads were slippery, they both ended up hydroplaning and losing control of their cars. They found both cars in a ditch not too far from your old house."

Iris reached up to wipe away the tear that ran down her cheek, when she noticed there wasn't one there. The girl felt so emotionally exhausted that she couldn't even cry at the news of her parents dying.

"Is this a bad time?" Iris looked over to the door to see Eli. She smiled softly at the boy before looking back down at her hands.

"No, dear. I'm going to run down to the food court." Iris' grandmother smiled at the boy before slipping past him. He walked in slowly and sat down next to Iris on the bed.

She leaned forward and laid her head on his shoulder, not wanting to talk just yet. She reached out to the small table that laid across her bed, picking up the worn down song book and flipping it open.

"Read one of them to me?" Eli looked down at the girl, confused as to why she wanted him to read it. "I can't read."

"Oh." Iris felt embarrassed having to tell the boy she was at the reading level of a 3 year old, if that. "Okay, well this one is called Again." He cleared his throat before he began to read the lyrics. "Baby blue jeans, had your hand on my knee-"

"Wait!" Iris' head snapped up from his shoulder, picking up her phone and headphones quickly. "I have a recording of this one." She gave one headphone to Eli as she played the voice memo, the two reading over the lyrics as Iris sang them into their ears.