Read Online We Are Monsters by Brian Kirk - Free Book Online Page A

herself with her free hand. “It’s just so blazing hot. And boring. I’ve played about all the bingo I can stand.”
    Eli smiled at her, squinting against the sun wavering high overhead. A bead of sweat dripped down his spine and a mosquito squealed in his ear. He couldn’t think of anything to say, so he nodded and began to walk away.
    â€œNo, wait,” Miranda said. “Please, just talk with me for a minute. Please?”
    â€œIt’s best if we do that during a therapy session. I’ll be happy to talk with your social worker about setting one up.”
    â€œI don’t need therapy,” she said. Her eyes glistened wet for a moment, but she fought away the tears. “I just want to talk normally. Not in some structured setting. Not about my nonexistent phobias or my private feelings.
    â€œPeople come in here. Some of them…” her lips flapped as she blew out air, “…some of them are pretty messed up. But there are plenty of others who have nothing wrong with them at all, as far as I can tell. But then they’re put in this place and treated like they’re crazy, spending every day with people who really are crazy, removed from everything that’s familiar to them, with nothing at all to do but sit and, and…” She held her arms out to her sides in frustration. Her hair tumbled down from her head and framed her face. Her clear-blue eyes were quicksand.
    â€œAnd, well,” she continued, “it starts to make you feel a bit like you are going crazy. You start thinking, ‘Why am I here? What happened? How did this become my life?’ And then you think of the life going on outside these walls. Real life. And it’s going on without you. And every day that you’re stuck in this place is one more day you’ll never get back. And you think, ‘What’s wrong with this world if a normal, sane person can be plucked out of it and placed in this pocket of insanity? What kind of world could allow that?’
    â€œOnly a world that is in itself insane. So, that makes us all insane. And if that’s the case, then who determines who’s sick and who’s well? Why do you get to wear the doctor costume and I have to wear the patient one? What’s the point of this game and who sets the rules?”
    Eli frowned down at his feet. The grass growing between them had ragged edges from a dull mower. Below it, microscopic bugs burrowed and built subterranean cities. Several surely lay dead under his shoes.
    He lifted his head and looked at Miranda. The sun reflected off her sweaty face. “Real life happens here too,” he said. “Life happens wherever you are. It’s all in what you make of it. What you do with the opportunities you’re given.”
    â€œThat’s easy to say when you have the luxury of choice. You have the opportunity to leave whenever you like. I don’t. You have the opportunity to eat whatever you want. I don’t. You…you choose to be here. I don’t. I feel like I’m some shadow version of myself, stuck in this nightmare world while the real me is still outside, enjoying her life. And I feel that I’ll never make it back to that other version of myself.” The tears returned, and this time she couldn’t stave them off. “And I’m scared.”
    Eli felt an urge to rush forward and take her in his arms. “Look...I...I…” he stammered. He was sweating freely now and he wiped the back of his hand across his wet brow. “So a pool would make things better?”
    Miranda sniffled and flipped a strand of hair over her shoulder. She looked at Eli from below arched brows. Then she laughed, her slender shoulders beginning to bounce up and down. She leaned her head back and her laughter rose up towards the sun. It was pretty and musical, like a snippet of birdsong.
    Eli snorted then began laughing himself.
    Miranda composed herself.