I am extremely frustrated with this piece. I meant it to be artistic, and thought-provoking, but I don't think I succeeded. It wasn't as smooth as my writing usually is - I ran out of ideas, I thought it hard to pay attention while reading, and I wasn't into it. Maybe it's just not one of my good days. Please tell me what you think and what I could do to improve it. And by the way, if anyone points it out, I know that unneat is not a word. My character does not care about this fact.
I couldn't look away from Ginny's greasy hair. Greasy hair always bothered me - I liked to look as neat as possible. Neatness is key. Neatness is key.
Ginny smacked her lips when she ate. I didn't like that, either. I could see her yellow teeth and all her smashed food. Table manners are key. Yes, they're key.
"J-Joy why y-y-you d-don't eat your f-f-f-food?" Ginny asked me with her improper English. I made a face.
"You shouldn't chew with your mouth open, Ginny. Table manners are key," I told her primly.
She pouted and went back to chewing.
"Joy, are we being nice today?" Our attendant asked me, coming up to our table.
I scowled. "Neatness is key. I don't know why you won't teach Ginny that. I don't want to sit with her anymore." I smoothed my white blouse to show her how neat I was.
The attendant smiled. "Yes, neatness is key. I'm sure your mother would be proud that you're telling us that. Maybe if you nicely showed Ginny how to eat with her mouth closed, she'd try harder."
I sighed and flapped a dismissive hand at her. "Ginny can't learn anything. Go away. Absence is key."
The attendant frowned. "Joy, be kind, now."
I lifted my chin proudly in answer. "I'm finished. I want to go outside."
"We can go outside," the attendant allowed. "But wait until Ginny has finished. Then we can all go together."
I turned, pursing my lips dangerously. "I want to go outside now. And I don't want to go with Ginny." I stood to show her this.
The woman's eyebrow lifted. I hated it when she did that.
"Sit down, Joy. We'll go outside soon." I glared at Ginny. This was her fault. If she wasn't so slow and so unneat then we could go outside now. I clenched my fists and turned back to the attendant.
"I'm going outside," I announced. Several of the patients looked up at me. Many of them were drooling in a truly revolting manner. Drooling is not key. Not key at all.
"Sit down, Joy, or I'll call George," the woman threatened.
George was the man that came and made you do what you didn't want to do. It infuriated me further that she would speak to me this way.
"Move aside!" I hissed. She didn't move.
"George?" she called.
I darted past her, and the others started squealing with excitement. George was right behind me in a moment, pinning my arms down. I screeched and bucked. He tightened his arms in answer.
"Sit down, Joy," he said calmly. I kicked his shin in reply, and he grunted.
"You can go to your room, then, if you're going to act this way," the attendant told me. I spat at her. She sighed and nodded to George.
He took him arms away from around my middle and transferred his grip to around my arm. He began to walk me to my room. I resisted by yanking at my arm. When that didn't work I slunk to the floor, cringing at the prospect of touching any particle of dirt that might have been there.
He just hauled me back up. "If you cooperate you may get out earlier," he informed me. "So please walk."
It occurred to me that I might get to go outside as soon as I was let out again, so I listened to him. I wasn't unhappy to be locked in my room again - at least I got to get away from that awful Ginny.
George escorted me through my door, and then back out, never taking his eyes off of me. I smiled sweetly. Politeness is key. Politeness is key.
He didn't react, and locked the door behind him.
I simply patted my blouse, straightened my skirt, and lay down on my neat bed to sleep.
I was awoken later by someone knocking and entering my room.
"You have a visit from your mother and brother," the woman said. I hadn't seen this one before. I ached to give her my brush; her hair was a rat's nest.
So I did. I held my clean brush out to her, smiling brightly. She didn't take it. She just frowned at me.
I was led to the usual visiting room. It was a neat room, and my most favorite one in the whole building. It had two very nice white couches, and a fish tank next to the far wall. There was also a TV - Mother would sometimes let me watch Disney channel, if we had nothing else to talk about and it was too soon for her to leave.
Mother and Trevor were sitting on one of the couches, waiting for me. I laughed with delight when I saw them.
"Trevor! You look so messy! Neatness is key, right Mother?"
Mother smiled, but it seemed to me a tired smile. Trevor just shrugged, his long hair in his eyes. I sat down next to him, throwing my arms around him in a tight hug.
"Trevor, why don't you hug me back?" I demanded. I waited. A few seconds later I felt his arms ever-so-lightly come around me, then immediately drop.
I leaned back and smiled some more at them both. "May I come home today?" I asked them hopefully.
Trevor looked at the wall and Mother shook her head. "No, darling. You still lose your temper, don't you?"
My brow lowered. "No." She was referring to the time I got angry at my Father and ran at him with a knife. He wouldn't let me go to Harriet's house, and I wanted to go so badly. But that was a long time ago. I wouldn't do it again, unless he made me.
Mother sighed. "Joy, I heard you got in trouble again today."
I sniffed. "They wouldn't let me go outside. I had to sit across from that hideous Ginny. It's so hard to eat with her around," I confided.
Trevor shifted the position he was sitting in, and Mother looked at her nails. Her nails were so neat. We used to get them painted together. We don't anymore. Why not?
"Can I come out for one day?" I asked her.
She again shook her head. I grew angry. "You are a mean, awful person! I hate you!" I screamed. Trevor and Mother both jumped up from the couch, and an attendant ran into the room. I clutched at my hair.
"Joy, what's the matter?" The woman asked me.
I glared at her. "Go away. I'm visiting."
Mother raised a shaking hand to pat her hair. Trevor swallowed repeatedly and just stared at me.
"I think we need to cut our visit short today," Mother said.
"No!" I wailed, throwing myself at her. She squeaked and ran from the room, her high heels clattering against the tile floor and Trevor running after her.
Hurt, I watched them. I stood in silence for a long, long time. A tear escaped my eye. I didn't wipe it away - it would leave a messy wet mark on my cheek, and I didn't want that.
Finally the attendant cleared her throat. "We can go outside if you like. Joy? Do you want to go outside?" she asked when I didn't say anything.
For a moment I didn't reply. Then I nodded and walked in front of her down the long hall.
Outside in this place was an tiny, walled-in park. The fence was merely wood, but it was tall. If anyone were to try and escape it would be impossible because there was someone watching all the time. There was grass, a large tree, a sidewalk circling the entire area, and two benches. I immediately wen to sit under the tree.
To my anger there was someone already sitting in my spot. He looked up at me, towering over him, and scrambled to his feet. He shuffled away and I contentedly sat down.
The attendant sat down on one of the benches to make sure I did nothing bad. I ignored her and lifted my head to gaze up at the canopy of leaves above me. The sun attempted to break through them, but the most it could do to me was create little patterns on my arms, from it's rays that slipped past my numerous green guards.
A patient nearby was humming, tearing the grass out of its bed, and this distracted me.
She began singing. "A spot of jam, a lick of bread, it was enough to wake the dead!"
"Be quiet, please," I said coldly. The old woman looked at me, and tears formed in her eyes.
"Enough to wake the dead," she told me mournfully.
"Silence is key," I snapped. Silence is key. Silence is key.
More time passed. I was happy to just sit and do nothing, as long as I wasn't bothered. And especially if Ginny wasn't there to stutter at me messily.
After a while I heard movement above me. I glanced up, and discovered that a bird had made a nest on one of the branches. I stood to study it.
The blue bird, a Bluejay I realized, frightened by my presence, lifted from the branch and flew away. It left its two unhatched eggs, and, to my delight, one small baby bird.
It was almost bald. It didn't seem to see me. It just left its beak open at me and made tiny squeaking sounds. It appeared so sad, that I, without hesitation, lifted it in my hands.
It was so slight that I was afraid I'd break it. It just lay there on my palm, and I crooned at it.
"You are cute. Cuteness is key."
It didn't reply. It just continued its series of sad sounds. It fell against my palm after trying to rise.
"You poor thing," I whispered. "You are trapped. Almost as trapped as me." It could go nowhere, it could do nothing. It was surrounded by still, boring, unhatched eggs.
A noble idea planted itself in my mind. Cuddling the Bluejay close, I ran to the fence. The attendant didn't make a sound of protest, and I glanced back. She was, for the moment, preoccupied with two patients who were slapping each other.
"Be free, you pretty thing," I murmured to it, and with all my might, I threw it up and over the fence. Surprisingly, it cleared the top, and went over the other side. I clapped my hands with glee.
"Oh, Joy!" The attendant ran over. "What did you do?"
I smiled at her. "I freed the Bluejay. Now it can do whatever it wants."
The attendant shook her head, her skin seeming to sag. "It's probably dead, Joy. That bird was a baby, still dependent on its mother. It could not fly, either. When it hit the ground it most likely immediately died."
This did not distress me. "I freed it," I repeated. "It now answers to nothing and no one. Freedom is key."
I turned around and went back to sit underneath my tree.
