Toy Soldiers | Teen Ink

Toy Soldiers MAG

September 19, 2008
By Michelle Mar BRONZE, New York, New York
Michelle Mar BRONZE, New York, New York
1 article 0 photos 2 comments

“Why are you here, Vanessa?” asks the woman with the bun. Two blond ringlets fall behind her ears and I want to yank them, to see if they will straighten when you pull them.

“I don’t know,” I mumble. She looks at me irritably, pen poised like a dancer at the top of her notepad. “Because of my grandma,” I relent. My voice is hoarse. We have to drink tap water here, and I’m really an Evian kind of girl.

“Vanessa,” she says sternly. I hear the undertone in her voice: You know that’s not why. And I do, minimally. But I don’t speak. My ears are itching for the headphones that have filled them almost nonstop for the past two months. My eardrums quiver at the unnatural silence

“Here at Horizons, the first step toward mental health is taking responsibility for your actions,” she lectures. I tune her out, mentally rapping what I can remember of Eminem’s latest. She leans forward and for a second I think she’s going to slap me. She doesn’t, though. She just looks me hard in the eyes. “You do want to get out of here, don’t you, Vanessa?”

I don’t understand why headphones have to be contraband.

I am one of only two non-suicidal patients. The other one is here for reasons I don’t understand. He raps Eminem in the halls too, but with a fierceness I can’t quite muster, talking back to counselors and swearing at the receptionists. I just don’t care that much.

My tray of kosher vegan-friendly cuisine has two Lexapros and one Topamax where the milk carton should go. All around the room, kids take their medicine like candy, joking as the pills dissolve on their tongues in smears of pink and white. I take mine quietly in a single gulp. I’m not practiced enough yet to swallow them dry.

After lunch, everyone gets up and silently moves the table to the side and pushes the chairs into a circle. A counselor enters, his glasses askew. I reach up automatically to check that mine are in place, but then remember that they took them and issued me contacts. They said glass is unsafe, that even if I don’t want to hurt myself, someone else might ask me to help them.

I wouldn’t though. I’m not here to cater to someone else’s agenda, to play Kevorkian to their wounded souls.

A girl with a bandaged wrist nudges me. Time for group.

“Hi, my name’s Natalie, and I’m here because I slit my wrists.”

“Hi, Natalie,” we chorus. I mouth the words because if I say something out loud, that means I’m here.

The rapper boy is next. He’s wearing black nail polish. From before, I guess. “Hi, my name’s Randy, and I’m here because I pushed my father down the stairs.”

“Hi, Randy.”

It goes like that for a few more people. Then it’s my turn. “Hi,” I say. This is only my second time in group, and this is the first time we’ve had to say why we’re here. Before, we just had to say how long. “My name’s Vanessa, and I’m here because I hit my grandmother with a chair.”

There is an uncomfortable silence. Suddenly my pride is leaking away, my remorseless acceptance of my actions crumbling at my feet. “She’s, like, 50,” I snap. “And she goes to the gym. I mean, she’s, like, this big,” I say, holding my hands as far apart as they can go. “Don’t get mental images of this weak old lady with, like, white hair. And the chair was ….”

“Vanessa,” the counselor says. “That’s enough.”

I realize that I am leaning forward. Abashedly, I slump back like a sullen child.

Newbies don’t get to watch TV, but Randy recaps it for me anyway. We’re not allowed in any rooms but our own without two counselors to supervise, so we lean against the reception desk. He tells me about some show on MTV. I tell him about how much I miss my books and computer. He tells me how badly he wants a cigarette.

What strikes me as more painful than anything is the fact that I don’t want to go home. I know I won’t do what I did again, but the circumstances will be the same. I’ll still be in my grandmother’s condo with my mother, who’s the reason why we can’t live in our house. My clingy brother will be there with his stupid stuffed snowman, and my grandmother will check the computer history to make sure I’m only going to kid-friendly sites.

The only company I want right now is Eminem’s. And failing that, Randy’s.

Or my father’s. But he’s in New York with his new girlfriend, and I … well, I’m not.

“So this one time,” Randy tells me, “I stole my cell phone from the nurses. And I was just standing there trying to think who to call. ’Cause who do you call when you’ve been stuck in a hospital for six months? I wanted to talk to everyone I knew. But I knew I had, like, ten seconds, so I ran to the bathroom and stood in the shower and turned the water on.”

“Who’d you call?” I ask urgently. That detail makes his whole story. I want him to say it was his dad, or his girlfriend, or his drug dealer. I want him to say that it was the most beautiful conversation he ever had.

But he picks at his nail polish and says, “This kid from my psych class. I asked him about the homework.”

I sit there, stunned.

“He was all, ‘Dude, you haven’t come to school in six months.’ I didn’t know what to say, so I hung up and gave the phone back to the nurses.”

“Wow,” I say quietly.

On my eighth day at Horizons, Randy and I find a small radio in the custodian’s closet. We search for Eminem songs for a good 20 minutes. Finally, we catch one, just as it’s winding down. We mouth the words that are bleeped out, and I stare into the blinking red light of the radio like I’ve suddenly recovered my sight after 30 years of blindness.

When I am discharged, my mother comes in her maroon minivan to pick me up. My brother is with her, clutching his stuffed snowman. Pens and pencils are contraband except in the common area, so that’s where Randy and I stand. We write our phone numbers on each other’s hands, though he tells me to send letters to Horizons “for now.”

I promise. My resolve crashes, and as my mother’s heels click past the reception area, I shudder. I’d rather stay at Horizons for seven years than go back with her. What hurts is that I can’t choose. I could fake a suicide attempt, but I know I won’t. Something in my face lets Randy know all of this. “Hey,” he says in that raspy way of his. “Hey. You be a soldier, okay? Don’t let them get to you this time. Be strong.”

I close my eyes. “Like Eminem,” I say quietly.

“Yeah,” he says. “Okay? Say it.”

“I’ll be strong,” I mutter.

“No,” he says seriously. “Say what I said. Say ‘I’ll be a soldier.’”

“I’ll be a soldier,” I promise.

Randy kisses me on the cheek. Casually, because that’s all we’ve ever been. “I know you will,” he says.

I walk to the car with my chin up. When my mother hands me my headphones with her familiar cluck of “I wish you wouldn’t listen to this,” I tune her out without any help from the music.



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This article has 247 comments.


niesh13 SILVER said...
on Jul. 2 2010 at 6:42 pm
niesh13 SILVER, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
6 articles 0 photos 54 comments

Favorite Quote:
Love Me, Hate Me. I Really Don&#039;t Care . <br /> Truth Is...Life Goes On , With or Without You

Wait - Sorry Lol. Wasnt Payin Attention 2 The "Realistic Fiction."

niesh13 SILVER said...
on Jul. 2 2010 at 6:40 pm
niesh13 SILVER, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
6 articles 0 photos 54 comments

Favorite Quote:
Love Me, Hate Me. I Really Don&#039;t Care . <br /> Truth Is...Life Goes On , With or Without You

Is This a Tru Story.? If It Is Hope Yur Doin Well :) . If Its Nt This Story is Good. Eitha Way...if Its True or Nt. This is a Masterpiece :)

on Jul. 2 2010 at 4:30 pm
champayneischaos BRONZE, Plano, Texas
3 articles 0 photos 1 comment

Favorite Quote:
I&#039;m not upset that you lied to me; im upset for now I can no longer trust you.

This is amazing. Eminem is so inspiring. ♥

on Jul. 2 2010 at 12:02 pm
haventy0uheard PLATINUM, Kings Park, New York
28 articles 0 photos 186 comments
I loved this so, so much :] from the original idea to the eminem refrences and your awesome writing style it was amazing! you're a great writer check out my work if you want

on Jun. 13 2010 at 7:48 pm
waiting_to_be_found GOLD, Conifer, Colorado
10 articles 1 photo 73 comments
Wow. I loved it, unique... man, keep writing. 

Monica N. said...
on Jun. 10 2010 at 10:31 pm
wow! so unique! loved it!

on Jun. 10 2010 at 3:28 pm
hiddenangelz211 DIAMOND, Haverhill, Massachusetts
59 articles 0 photos 39 comments

Favorite Quote:
Live Laugh Love ~Unknown<br /> I&#039;m selfish, impatient, a little insecure but if you can&#039;t handle me at my worst then you sure as hell don&#039;t deserve me at my best ~Marilyn Monroe <br /> Dream as if you&#039;ll live forever. Live as if you&#039;ll die today. ~James Dean

very insiteful! love it! :D

Annie G. said...
on Jun. 10 2010 at 3:25 pm

that was amazing. i loved it so much. i envy you for being such a great and talented writer. please write more. maybe a sequel...

i marked this as one of my favorites. congrats on having it published in teen inks mag!! :D


on Jun. 10 2010 at 2:49 pm
abby0road SILVER, Gales Ferry, Connecticut
5 articles 14 photos 5 comments
Wow!  Like everyone said, you want to hear the whole story!  But it's perfect as a short story.  Absolutely amazing!

on Jun. 10 2010 at 4:11 am
livsinthecity SILVER, Toronto, Ontario
6 articles 13 photos 40 comments

Favorite Quote:
Love means never having to say you are sorry.<br /> -Erich Segal (in Love Story)

Great story...absolutely fab!!

 


on May. 23 2010 at 8:35 pm
FireWhiskey SILVER, Durango, Colorado
9 articles 0 photos 11 comments

Favorite Quote:
&quot;Dreams are only Dreams, unless you do something about them, than they&#039;re life&quot;<br /> ~By me

I would love to learn how to write like this. You are able to write with a little edge so that the reader wants to continue even when the story is over. I admire this sense of writing and hope someday I can be even remotely half as good of a writer that you are.

on May. 23 2010 at 1:05 pm
sunnyhunny PLATINUM, Litchfield, New Hampshire
22 articles 3 photos 329 comments

Favorite Quote:
&quot;An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind.&quot;<br /> -Ghandi

Great story!  It makes me want to hear more.

on May. 19 2010 at 10:14 pm
Allison101 BRONZE, Milwaukee/Wauwatosa, Wisconsin
4 articles 5 photos 13 comments

Favorite Quote:
Love doesn&#039;t make the world go round, it just makes the ride enjoyable. -Franklin P. Jones

that was absolutely beautiful, you are a great writer! :)

tweeet. said...
on May. 19 2010 at 7:04 pm
tweeet., Atglen, Pennsylvania
0 articles 1 photo 4 comments

Favorite Quote:
happy birthdayy.

i really love this, it's amazing.

WhoaDude said...
on May. 19 2010 at 6:11 pm
I thoroughly enjoyed this piece. Your writing is what I aspire mine to be like...But the shortness of it made me sad. More?

on May. 19 2010 at 6:02 pm
writingchild SILVER, Auburn, Massachusetts
8 articles 2 photos 16 comments

Favorite Quote:
&quot;For in a minute there are many days.&quot; (Romeo &amp; Juliet)

I love the originality of the story and how you don't give us the details up front. Great job!

on May. 19 2010 at 2:32 pm
greenwithvelvet SILVER, Fallon, Nevada
5 articles 0 photos 14 comments
The fact that the story doesn't tell you everytihng is what makes it great. Writing unnecessary sequels can kill a great idea.

on May. 19 2010 at 2:30 pm
greenwithvelvet SILVER, Fallon, Nevada
5 articles 0 photos 14 comments
This story is really well done!! It is original and believable. Great ending.

on Apr. 27 2010 at 5:27 pm
elle_la_vie BRONZE, Cresskill, New Jersey
1 article 11 photos 23 comments

Favorite Quote:
the man who smiles when things go wrong has thought of someone to blame it on. :)

i really like this, i hope you continue it. :)

on Apr. 27 2010 at 9:33 am
CourtneyLove BRONZE, Belleville, Michigan
1 article 2 photos 10 comments

Favorite Quote:
Baby You Can Brusie Me But You&#039;ll Never Break Me &lt;3

This is such an amazing story! I love the way it is written and how the storey plays out. Keep it up :)