Noumena: Sophie and Oliver

Chapter Thirteen: Oliver's Enigmaticness

Knock Knock.

I’d fallen asleep again, at the door stood Oliver. I sat up. The room seemed to lighten and soften as he entered. That artificial calm feeling washed over me again.

 You need him Sophie open up to him. I was stunned to hear the nice voice again; he had kept his distance, but why?

“I apologise for waking you. Didn’t think you’d be asleep.”

“What’s the time?” I rubbed my eyes.

“Seven o’clock.”

“I’m getting so lost with time these days, there’s so much light in this place and the sedatives… my sleep rhythms are all out of whack.”

He nodded at me. “May I sit down here?” he pointed to the end of my bed. I agreed.

For a while we sat in silence.

“You know, Oliver, when you’re around my hallucinations aren’t so bad.” I smiled at him. “It may or may not be a coincidence, but either way it’s helping me to trust you quicker.” Embarrassed by how my disclosure sounded out loud, I looked down at my feet poking up through the white bed sheet. He brought a hand to his mouth and cleared his throat to hide a chuckle.

“You’re seeing things more now?” he asked. I gave him a sad look in response. His own look turned compassionate and we shared a deep connected moment that swirled my insides. In that moment I saw that he truly cared about me already.

What a beautiful person you are, Sophie, Oliver said. Wait! Had I imagined that? His smile lessened and his eyebrows knitted together.

“What is it?”

“Nothing. It’s just… sometimes I think I can hear peoples thoughts, but it’s just my hallucinations.”

His penetrating gaze widened. “I’m curious now. What do you think I said?” His lips twitched. “Or maybe I shouldn’t ask.”

I bit my own lips. “You must think I’m absolutely nuts.”

“Can you tell me what you were running from? Before in the hallways. Your face was pale, your eyes dark and tortured, you were looking quite literally scared to death.”

A knot of shame formed in my gut. I worried I’d never be able to untangle it if I told him about the ghosts I’d seen.

Tell him Sophie, it’s okay. I trusted that voice. When I’d filled my lungs through taking a deep breath I told him everything.  Katie, the ghostly figures, how they’d chased me. He took this all in his usual his stoic, non-judgemental way. He didn’t speak.

“Say something!” The last thing I wanted was silence after spilling the truth about what I was seeing.

“This is your reality Sophie, it is not for me to judge. If it is real to you then that is all I care about.” He was being purposely avoidant. “The world is a strange place, the universe even stranger. Human’s are unbalanced.”

“Are you saying I’m unbalanced?”

“No you’re not….well you’re definitely not unbalanced. I’m saying that people are becoming more self-centred. Humans are destroying the planet. They’re consuming irreplaceable resources. Capitalism provides humans with a purpose for life, work is central to our happiness. Therefore, money becomes what makes up happy. We tell ourselves we need things that we don’t. Like bigger cars, televisions, houses. The happiness is empty, fleeting, once you’ve attained your goal, the happiness disappears.”

“I don’t understand what this has to do with anything?”

“Well if we keep consuming and growing at this rate, something’s going to give. Depression, obesity and isolation are all on the rise; science has made a path for humans that had never been imagined before. In much older days people turned to God’s or elders or the community when they had problems. They remained happy because there was always someone to turn to. Now, we question the existence of the supernatural. We turn to drugs, television, shallow relationships and addictions to escape the emptiness of life.  The world has become unbalanced and people very skeptical.”