Family

The Scarred Mind

Louis

"Louis," Eleanor said again, "We can't keep a five year old trapped in an eighteen year old's body in the house!"

"Yes we can." I replied. "Look at how happy she is." I pointed to Evie, who was happily watching Sesame Street. She was singing along with Elmo. I guess she remembered all of the characters, but the ones that were new threw her off.

"I am not a mother." Eleanor whispered. "I love Evie. You know I do. But I can't take care of her as a child."

"This is for Niall. I'm going to take care of her until she remembers him and us."

"I don't care who it's for." Eleanor started raising her voice. "I care about what happens between you and me. And last time I checked, we don't have kids."

"She's not a kid. She's Evie." I looked back over at her. "And she's the most important person to Niall, so I'll do my best to take care of her."

"Well, I hope you and Evie are happy together." She grabbed her coat from the chair. "Call me when you two work something out."

"Wait, El-"

"Bye."

"Eleanor!"

She slammed the door behind her.

Evie looked away from the TV for a second and then back to Elmo. She started clapping when Elmo started talking to his goldfish.

I sighed and sat down next to her.

"What's Elmo up to?" I asked.

"Nothing." She said. "Talking to his goldfish."

I smiled at her. "Hey, Evangeline. Can we talk?" I turned the TV off. She was a little distressed when Elmo disappeared from the screen, but then her face calmed. She knew Elmo would come back.

"Evangeline," I said, "I think that we should talk about the..."I almost called it a disease, but it wasn't a disease. I changed my sentence. "Let's talk about the brain."

She tilted her head. "My brain?"

"Yeah." I pulled my computer out and pulled out some pictures of the brain. "See this? This is your cortex." I said.

"Cool." She said.

"You know, yours is a little different. You know that you're supposed to remember certain things?"

"I noticed I'm different." She said, quietly. "I'm taller."

I laughed. "Yeah, you are." I opened up all of the picture files from the tour. "This is you, see?" I pointed to her. Then I pointed to Niall. "And he came home with us!"

"Yeah."

"Why are we standing so close?" She asked. "Look, he has his arm around me."

"He loves you." I told her. I leaned back. "You're engaged to him."

She quickly turned to me. "How?"

"Well, you're actually eighteen. And you love him. And he loves you. I'll give you a second to take it all in." I lowered my voice.

"He loves me." She whispered. "Why?"

"He loves you because you make him happier than anyone else."

"But I don't want to get married." She said. "I'm not old enough."

I decided to move on to another picture.

"That's the boy that took me to that hotel! Who are those that he's with? Why does he have red hair?"