1) I've been reading this insanely good Danny Phantom fanfiction. And I mean, seriously good. I've been addicted to reading that all day.
2) This is the one most people would probably find the most entertaining other than my fanfiction addiction. We thought my sister had broken her ankle earlier. You see, she fell on the way to the toilet, on a completely flat surface. It seriously looked like she'd broken her ankle too, to me, it looked like -and still does- the bone was sticking out. But apparently it's just ligament damage. She has to go back in ten days. I can honestly tell you, it did not look like ligament damage. I have some pictures to show you, but that's going to have to be left for tomorrow. I've kinda forgotten to bring my camera up and I can't be bothered to anymore. It's getting to be too late in the night.
So here's chapter 8 of Do You Remember Me? Things are starting to move forward now. He's finding out more about himself. Hope you enjoy.
Chapter 8
I’m anxious. Nervous. I need a joint. I’ve gone for nearly three days without one now and it’s really eating me out. I don’t know what to do with myself anymore. I’m also anxious about going home.
The word itself it really foreign. I’m not sure if I should call it home, I’ve never been there before. I spent all night wondering how things would go when I arrived there. They would be coming to pick me up soon. I didn’t know the time. They didn’t keep a clock in here.
“Danny?” It was the nurse again. I learnt her name was Alicia. She hadn’t long come out of med school. She liked working here. She said she liked the thought that she was doing her bit in saving people. People like me. “Your family is here to pick you up.”
“Thanks.” I said. “Thanks for staying with me, when my parents left last night. It helped a lot.” She smiled. Alicia had stayed with me for some of the night, after her shift had finished. She could tell when she was leaving me for the night, that apparently I looked skittish, and thought I could use someone to talk to. Someone who I’d never known in my other life.
I told her everything. About the pot. John. How I was feeling. She listened. She offered me advice. She told me about some bad patches in her life. For instance, she too had gotten into drugs when she was younger. She’d nearly got her family killed because of her obsession. That was her reason for becoming a nurse. She wanted to help people, to help play her part in the world. She said that even though it wasn’t a big, global difference, it was a small difference. A difference she could handle. She didn’t like publicity.
The Smiths walked in, a smile plastered on their faces. I couldn’t tell whether they were fake or not, I hadn’t know them for long enough.
“Hey.” I said, getting up off the bed. I wasn’t dressed, I was still in the hospital gown. The only clothes I had here was the ripped ones that I’d come into Ovid wearing. Alicia said she’d chucked them. Apparently they weren’t even fixable.
“Hey, we got you some clothes. They were your favourite.” Maggie said to me. Alicia had told me it was okay not to call them by ‘mom’ and ‘dad’ at first, mainly because it would take some getting used to.
I looked at the clothes, it was a simple white t-shirt, and blue jeans. A pair of white Chuck Taylor’s too. I liked them. I hadn’t seen the rest of my clothes to judge them my favourite, but things could change. Maggie handed me clean underwear and shower and bathroom stuff and sent me on my way.
Alicia watched as Danny slowly trudged down the hall to the patient bathroom, before slipping into the room he stayed in. She needed to talk to his parents.
“Hello, my name’s Alicia, the nurse that’s been taking care of Danny.” She said, extending her hand to greet them.
“Thank you. I hope he hasn’t been too much trouble.” Maggie smiled. She sounded like she was talking about her boy as if he were ten years younger than what he was.
“It was no problem at all. I have a few things I’d like to say though.” Alicia replied.
“Sure, go ahead.” Maggie said apprehensively.
“I think Danny would appreciate from seeing a therapist. He’s got a lot more going on inside that head of his than you’d think. He’s confused, he doesn’t know who he is and talking it out to a professional might help him.” Alicia said in a business type voice.
“Really?” Maggie couldn’t find any other words to say to the young nurse in front of her.
“Yeah, I think he’s too anxious about talking to you yet. I think he’d appreciate talking to a stranger. Someone he hadn’t met in his previous life.”
“Right. We’ll look into it.” Maggie replied. “Thank you.”
“It’s no trouble. I hope everything works out for you in the end.”
“I hope so, too.”
The journey home was probably the worst thing I had ever experienced. Even the car ride with that lunatic George was easier to handle than this. It didn’t help that Jamie kept shooting me these strange glances whenever the chance arose.
“So, Danny, did you enjoy your night at the hospital?” Jim was trying to make conversation too, I could see his worried eyes looking at me from the rear-view mirror.
“Am I supposed to enjoy a stay in the hospital?” I was being sarcastic, of course. A part of me hoped it was what the old Danny was like. I wanted them to loosen up, like they weren’t bringing home a stranger. I am still their son, even if I don’t remember them. Even if I do have trouble calling them my parents. I wanted to impress them.
Jim smiled. I’d done something right, I hope.
I was the last person to walk into the house. It was a nice size house. It was a red brick home, with large windows on both stories. A black door adorned the middle of the first story, there were two steps to climb before you reached the door. The inside, was surprisingly large. The front door led to the living room, with the kitchen behind it. The living room was painted a soft cream colour, with a large cream sofa at the back wall with a television at the front wall, by one of the two large windows.
“Let me show you to your room, Danny.” Jamie said. I nodded and followed her. I knew why she wanted to do it. I wasn’t stupid. The looks she’d been giving me were clearly ‘I want to talk to you’ looks. Even though I had no memories, I could tell when someone wanted to tell me something.
My room was fairly normal. It had a bed in the centre, maps covering the wall, posters from bands I’d probably liked. A computer sitting on a desk in one corner of the room, next to a dresser and a wardrobe, both coloured in dark brown. There was a large window, pointing out to the street at one side of my room. I could see most of the town from my window. It was nice to look at. The walls in my room, from what I could see, were a soft baby blue. It was a nice colour, relaxing.
“Danny, I need to tell you something, and I need you to listen carefully.” Jamie said.
“Okay.” I replied, looking at her.
“Promise me you’ll listen and give it thought even if you don’t believe it at first.” She seemed in a hurry.
“I promise.” What was up with her, she checked every corner of my room, made sure the window was locked and came back to stand in front of me.
“You’re a magician.” I laughed. A hysterical kind of laughter. They thought I was off my head. People obviously hadn’t seen this woman. “Danny, please, you promised you’d listen.” I stopped laughing. “You’re a magician, and a shapeshifter. It’s part of the package. I think. You got your powers about two years ago. Well, I shouldn’t say got them. You’ve had them since birth, but they only came up around when you were fourteen. You have to believe me. Mom and Dad don’t know about it.”
“Hang on, this is a bit quick. If I’ve had them since I was born, how don’t Maggie and Jim know about it?”
“Because it’s something strange with you magicians, you get control of your powers at fourteen. Your special though. Every other magician needs a staff, a ring, something to be able to use magic efficiently. You didn’t.” She had another look around the room. “You were the target of many magicians because you were different, you fought back. You’ve become some sort of icon to the people here. You used your shapeshifting powers to look like someone else, so no one would know. I found out, I caught you changing. You told your friends Hayley and Jesse, you were scared and you didn’t know what to do. They’ve helped you master your powers.”
“You’re one nut job, has anyone told you that?”
“Danny, please. Just think about it, okay?”
“I’m not sure it requires much thinking about. You need to have your head checked.”
“You promised.”|
“I didn’t know what I was promising to. It doesn’t count.”
“Then you shouldn’t have promised.” She had me out obviously. She was one serious nutter.
“I’ll think about it.” I said that to amuse her. There was definitely no reason to think about it. I knew the answer. She was crazy.
“Thank you.” She replied. She looked hesitantly at me. “Don’t tell Mom and Dad.” She added.
“Sure.” I replied. I felt no need to tell them. There was nothing to tell anyway.
We walked down the stairs in silence. Jamie had suggested we went down to watch TV and see what was on. She called it ‘surfing the box’. Not that I knew what that meant. Turning it on, the news channel was the first thing that came on. Jamie froze.
“Mom.” She called. “Dad.”
“What’s wrong, sweetie?” She asked, walking into the room, she froze herself. What was wrong?
Then I looked at the title of the news.
‘Daniel Smith found.’ I didn’t know why this was such a bad thing, but obviously my family wanted to keep it a secret a little longer as they all stood there in their silence.
This definitely marks the longest chapter of the story so far, taking up four pages. I don't think it's the longest written though. There's a lot of gaps and dialogue in this one. Though the other chapters weren't spectacularly long themselves. I aim to make the chapters longer as they go along, though when I'm redrafting and adding stuff and deleting things that could change.
Oh well, enough of writing. It's time I started shutting down the computer. I'm actually back in school tomorrow, though hopefully for the last day.
Night!
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