Sadness and Sunshine

Chapter 3

*When I couldn't take it anymore, I finally left to see my therapist. I took the stairs since I'm deathly afraid of the elevators, and went up to his floor. I was out of breath by the time I got up the stairs, but taking the stairs and being out of breath is always better than the possibility of dying in an elevator from some freak accident. After I caught my breath, I made my way down the hallway to Dr. Sheffield's office. He invited me in as soon as I got there and I sat down across from him.

"What can I help you with today? Are you doing better?" he asked me, judging me quietly with his old gray eyes.

I shrugged. I didn't really know what to say. Should I be honest? Should I mention Frank? I wasn't sure. So I lied.

"Yeah, sure everything is fine," I said. "I'm not ready to leave but I'm doing a bit better."

Dr. Sheffield wrote that down and looked over his old notes from my previous visits with him. He looked up at me again and nodded.

"Are the voices gone?"

I sighed softly. Great not this question again. The voices were still there, so I was honest about that. He asked me several more similar questions before finally asking if I'd met anyone or made friends. I perked up a bit and began telling the story of how I met Frank, leaving out any details that only needed to be between me and Frank. Dr. Sheffield seemed interested and told me to keep going. I didn't have much else to say and I didn't want to venture into uncharted territory.

"Frank might die," I finally said.

I held my breath. Dr. Sheffield didn't ask me to elaborate, clearly understanding the situation. He wrote that down on his little clipboard and sighed deeply. He was judging me with his eyes again, and I could see that he was about to tell me to find a more lively batch of friends. Frank was alive, and the most friendly person I'd probably ever met in my life. I enjoyed his company, much more than I could say about any other humans.

Dr. Sheffield nodded with understanding and wrote down a few more things. The meeting was already coming to an end and I felt some relief. He kept staring at me until he finally spoke.

"I'd like to meet this Frank fellow, if you don't mind. Just to get to know him a bit," he said. "But for now, you can run along."

I didn't like the sound of that, but I headed back to my room. Much to my happiness and surprise, Frank was there waiting for me. I leapt onto the bed and tackled him, hugging him and kissing his cute little face. He returned the hug and kisses and pulled me to sit upright next to him. Once the excitement of seeing him died down a little bit, I looked at him. I tried to read his facial expression but I couldn't quite tell what he was feeling. It was a very complicated mix of emotions.

Frank smiled softly at me and looked down at the bed. He just sat there breathing for a few seconds and I watched his chest expanding. I followed along with his breaths and closed my eyes, finding that it was very calming. I leaned on him a little bit and held him, just wanting him to be close. I was worried about him, but I mostly just wanted to spend time with him at that point. I didn't want anyone to split us apart. Frank was all I had, and I was all he had too. He was so comforting.

I watched him for as long as I could, just trying to be sure he was okay. He was calm and was blinking slowly, looking over the room and at me. He was quiet but I knew he was thinking, and probably deeply. I wanted to talk to him but we were once again interrupted. There was a knock on the door and Dr. Sheffield invited himself in. He broke into a smile when he noticed there was actually someone sitting there with me and I wasn't making people up.

Frank reached out his hand and the two men shook hands. Frank cheerfully talked to the doctor about his current situation with cancer and he made it seem like he just had a bad case of the flu. I watched as he talked and he seemed so chipper and happy; I couldn't stop myself from just paying attention to his voice. Once again Frank was leaking out nothing but a positive voice. I loved it. I put my head on Frank's shoulder and held his waist, feeling him breathing. He was cold again but I was there to keep him warm. I started to doze off but he gently shook me awake. I opened one eye to look at him and he was smiling at me, his hazel eyes sparkling. I nuzzled him and looked up to see that Dr. Sheffield was gone. I was pretty relieved about that.