Only a skinny shimmer of light entered through the drapes. A flower field on a cloudy day; thats what Daniel’s mind saw when the grey drapes tangoed with the wind. As Daniel sat and dangled his feet from the high bed, he thought of what she was doing now. She was so elegant and beautiful. One could not replicate the bright mood she gave off every time she spoke. As she flew through his mind, he could not help but wonder- where was she now?

Daniel did not have many friends where he was at. He got up in the morning, drug himself out of bed and began his repetitive day. He ate breakfast with people who did not act their age, he drank orange juice from the same glass and choked down the same medications day by day. Though his life wasn’t always like this, Daniel was once a boy. He played and he ran. Daniel everyday looks out the window and sees the swaying of the trees and he can almost hear the buzzing of the bugs hopping from one delicate flower to the next; nothing to lose, just doing the thing they were made to do.

“Mom, I don’t want to be here anymore. It was decent before but now it sucks.” Daniel slammed the phone down carrying a wave of vibrations through the hallway. As the clock slowly ticked, Daniel’s repetitive day was right on track.

“Why hello there Daniel, how are we doing today?” The old man dressed in a white coat asked.

Daniel simply rolled his eyes, turned away and responded the usual, “Just dandy doctor. May I leave today?” Daniel knew this answer very well.

“Have you improved over the last 24 hours? You know the procedure Daniel, in order for me to release you, you must show true improvement of your mind.” Now tell me today about Carla.”

Daniel took a deep breath in and told the doctor of what Carla did today. “She looked so beautiful today doc, it was simply amazing. She wore a red shirt and bright blue pants that made her look as bright as the sun. Anyway, today I was sitting in my room reading a book when she popped out of my window. She made me jump and I landed right on my rump. She told me we’ve reached a speed bump.

‘Daniel, I have some bad news,’ She said, ‘mother has called me and I am leaving tomorrow for Brazil. I don’t want to leave you because we’ve become such great friends but-’ And there I lost it doc. Friends? She called us friends? If she only knew. I love this girl. Everyday I know I tell you she is the one but I truly believe it. Anyway, after that we got in a giant fight. She doesn’t understand that I am stuck in these horrible four walls of hell and she can go to Brazil and be whoever she wants to be. I will never be who I want to be, I will always just be this kid who eats a sloppy lunch in a sloppy gown in a sloppy crazy house. Shes gone doc, and I can’t get her back. She jumped out my window and out of my life, within one second.”

That lone sliver of light faded from the floor of Daniel’s familiar floor. The cloudy field of flowers sank into a depressing darkness that spread itself over Daniel and everything he thought was right in his life. The doctor’s clipboard bent back and forth from the force of the pen running on the paper. The room began quiet. Down the hall, a wheelchair squeaked and a pill bottle fell over. The silence in the room turned the white walls in closer and soon they moved away when the doctor spoke.

“Daniel, son, can you tell me what happened when Carla jumped out your window?” The doctors pen tapped slowly on the clipboard perfectly in sync with the white and black clock starring in Daniel in the face.

“Don’t do it Daniel, don’t tell him about Carla, you’ll never get out of this place.” The clock whispered to Daniel pointing it’s second marker right in Daniel’s eyes. A small squeak came from the pen bouncing off the wood. Soon the room began to fill with arguments about Daniel’s residence in his room. The chair hit Daniel on the arm as the pillow gently soothed the boy. Daniel’s mind wandered and the ticks from the clock filled the room. Counting and waiting for the words Daniel would soon speak.

Daniel jumped up, causing the clock to fall off the wall. “Stop talking everyone! I’m not going to tell the doctor about Carla. So what if she’s a woman? So what if I love her? I see her everyday. Every night she kisses me and cuddles me. Then in the morning she rejoins her peace under my pillow. It is alright! He will not know and I will soon leave and be with her all day.” Daniel gleamed like the sun.

The slight tapping of the pen stopped, and without the gentle ticking of the clock, the room was truly quiet. Daniel pondered on this silence. The whispers in his mind hushed and the chattering of the room soon left Daniel’s thoughts. The doctor nodded his head and left the room. The gentle steps sounded like a trumpet. Loud and perfectly conducted.

Daniel sat in his bed for quite sometime. The silence spoke to Daniel in a way nothing has ever spoken before. Daniel soon got up to continue his regular day. However, his regular day was different. In the outside world, everything stayed the same. As Daniel picked up his orange bottle and stuck it deep in his pocket without twisting the cap, he returned to his very familiar, peaceful white walls. Those white walls were as white as snow. Every blemish, crack, and hole was soon perfected and covered with white. White filled Daniel’s senses to the maximum. The walls smelt familiar, as if he was home again. Fresh linen sheets and warm cookies filled the room. Daniel felt so peaceful, so alive. Daniel laid into his white sheets and turned off the lights. Soon his white walls were blanketed with a grey shade similar to a storm cloud.

As if it was rehearsed, Carla came to Daniel and sat next to the resting boy. “I am very sorry Daniel, I couldn’t leave without you. I need you in my life. Brazil or no Brazil, where ever you are, I am, and where ever we are, there is happiness. I love you Daniel and I wouldn’t change that for one silly flight to anywhere.”

Daniel’s heart dived off the deep end. This was the moment and the words he has been waiting to hear. Daniel jumped into Carla’s arms and felt as though this was real life, like this was his job. Loving Carla was his personal pollen and Carla was the lone flower, dancing in the wind. “Carla”, Daniel whispered, “ I cannot lose you, yet I cannot stay here. Let’s leave and never look back. We can start a family and grow old together.” The corners of Carla’s mouth raised and her eyes were as bright and round as the moon.

Daniel stepped out of bed and went over to his lone window. Breaking apart the bars using his old friend, sunlight jumped through the exposed window. Daniel grabbed Carla and followed by example what she did every time she left. He propped himself up on the pedestal and saw victory below him. Freedom and love were calling him down and his true love was there to catch him. Daniel looked at Carla and with hope, soared out of the window and flew to a place where he can be forever with Carla.

The drapes laid on the floor feeling lonely as ever. The grey storm cloud lifted and the flowers in the meadow danced in the light and lit for eternity. The broken clock ticked one last time as the doctor opened the door to the bright, white room. As he approached the window the orange pill bottle was kicked from his feet. The bottle landed on the drapes and the words Schizophrenia danced along with the flowers, enjoying the light they received. Four stories down, a peaceful boy dressed in white was on the ground hugging his trophy of victory he waited very long to earn.

One week later that same trophy was perched on a grey stone on a sunny day. A red figure can be seen from across the park. If one gets close to the figure, the parrot’s tag shimmers in the sun creating a beam of light pointing towards the flowers nearby. On the tag reads ‘Carla’. The toy perches on the stone to accompany Daniel in the life he always wanted. The stone reads, “Hope is the thing with feathers that perches in the soul -Mark Twain.”