Later in the night, back at doctor Andrew's office, his impromptu meeting was still in place. Doctor Andrea Carabalí, a physical therapist who had her office right next to Andrew's, had only been free from her patients around an hour before now. Brad, the Janitor, had been there since around 4 in the afternoon, since Andrew had been asking really weird questions.
"Look, I know you have the best interest in mind and that you are a grown man responsible for your actions, but you are getting way too close to the kid" Doctor Carabalí added, reading some of the notebooks.
"I'm not getting close to him, he's my patient, and I have to make him better"
"Maybe doctor Carabalí is right; you're kind of obsessed with him, doc." Madeline added, to the side, as she tried to organize the mess of newspapers prints and cut-outs that fell from one of the notebooks.
"He's a Psychiatrist, isn't he s'posed to do that?"
"Look Brad, a doctor must keep boundaries, especially someone like Andrew," Doctor Carabalí stated, "you will get too close, and then you'll be biased about him. Didn't you say he wasn't taking anything you prescribed him?"
"The kid's not taking his medication? Doctor!" Madeline cried out, almost accusing him, and almost dropping the newspapers again.
"He's fine! Besides, that's confidential and you know it Carabalí."
"It stopped being confidential when you told me."
"She's got you there Doc"
Now three against one, Doctor Andrew saw himself cornered. They were right, he had grown attached to Camilo, mostly out of fascination, but also in a fatherly way, and that was inacceptable for a professional. He, however, had to make sure that Camilo wasn't going to do something delusional that would end his life, so he had called everybody to look at the notes left behind.
Doctor Carabalí came from Colombia, so they both had a similar backstory and she knew spanish, which is more important? Both of them, he thought, but mostly the language part. Brad was there to talk about the basement and ended up looking at the map as well, he had heard rumors of some of the places in the map, but they were 2 or 3. Madeline was there to assist in anything the doctors may have missed, and she was also taking notes from the narration of the notebooks.
"Look, I like telling people that we Colombians are tough as we come, that we go ahead no matter what, but that's just the top of things, not everyone is the same, and while this kid is amazing for being in control of his life with all this in his head, he needs help, not an enabler"
"I'm trying to help! What should I do then? Tie him up and lock him in an asylum?"
"You're the one that should know, I just deal with broken bodies, you deal with broken minds"
"she's got you there again doc, I'm no medic, but I think a kid that makes all this crap up is in a serious mess, what I'd like to ask him is why he thought the basement would have something to do. There's nothing down there, and it's a closed place, nothing's gonna get lost"
"He said that, that things would get lost there, and later said he knew where to go to get back to his book world" Andrew traced absentmindedly on a paper, connecting the places pointed by Camilo on the map, it made no recognizable figure, not a circle, not a square, it was basically a scribble "he makes no sense, he's stubborn, he's delusional. I give up, he's going to kill himself and he won't listen to any doctor, not even his previous doctors."
"What about a friend?"
"What? All his friends are imaginary"
"No, no, no, I mean a real one, one here that knows him, which he knows"
"I would have to ask his mother then"
"Hey doctor? Brad probably means you. As in, you should talk to him, outside."
"I won't, it's not professional."
"Well…" Doctor Carabalí lifted her eyes from the last notebook, "you know? It could help both of you, if you talk to him and then refer him to another doctor, and then keep being just friends, y'know, to keep it professional?"
"Keep professional by being unprofessional."
"Look, you can keep believing that you're not obsessed with him and let him go wherever he's going, do whatever he'll do, or you can get to know him, realize why you're so obsessed and send him to someone who'll take real action and help."
"I'll… I'll think about it; can we keep reading this? It's late and we got only one left"
"There's not much in it, though the writing is weird, is he right or left-handed?"
"I don't know, I think left handed, he's got an issue with his right hand"
"Oooh I see. Either way, this one is mostly realization of things, so far, he's written 'it's been three or four days since I came and the time is constant so it's not an illusion, I've passed out a couple of times, I guess from stress and exhaustion' and goes on explaining why, 'I haven't eaten yet, this 24-hour days are messing me out, in about 3 or so hours it's gonna be a day and a half-'"
"A day and a half? How can he go on writing for four days in a row? And without eating!"
"Calm down brad, how long did his mother say he stayed in his room?"
"The file says he didn't come out for 2 days, but she said it was longer, and she heard the bathroom water running, so he may not have eaten, but at least he stayed hydrated"
"So, who do we believe? Is this notebook from the last day or the third as he claims? He also never wrote how many hours were there in what's-its-name"
"Mafesto?"
"No, that's the capital; he said his house was there, the world was called something ending in 'kal'"
"Oh, oh, Yintakal, that was it right?"
"I guess, this is so weird, I don't even know if I read that with a Spanish pronunciation or in English. Let's just keep going ok?"
"If we're done then we can just go home now, it's getting late"
"Wait, he's writing about magic, 'it's running out on its own, and I can't seem to recover the lost' … cromk?"
"Let's call it like the movies, okay? I'm not learning new words for this; I'll assume he's talking about mana or stuff"
"It doesn't appear again, let's leave it at that 'I can still feel some magic in this world, I guess they are portals, they feel like sucking energy, I have to make a rune so I can keep feeling them in the odd case I can't recharge it eating or meditating' is this why he said he's not taking his medication?"
"He hadn't said anything about portals until today, but he said the meds made him numb to them, he couldn't 'feel' them" Andrew gesticulated when he said feel, like he was trying to hypnotize the secretary "shortly before he told me he tried to kill a god"
"The one from the drawing, right?"
"Yeah, he said his name was Mene-something"
"Ahem!" Doctor Carabalí cleared her throat so everyone would pay attention "He goes on. 'there are many tiny portals, many of them would fit things like soccer balls, but otherwise they're not that big of a deal, there are, however, a few that are big enough to fit people, and one that, if it were on land, would be incredibly dangerous, I'm guessing a couple of dreadnoughts could fit there at the same time, but it feels, clogged, somehow' blah, blah, blah, they're far away, people can't see them, blah, blah, blah… 'there's four that feel like a searing place… if there's no magic on the other side I'd be screwed if I go through it… possibly all go to the same place… others feel wet, and the last ones feel cold, polar cold, but survivable. The best option I have is still overseas, kind of, I'd have to go to America and see if it's still open when I get there'… he goes on and on, it's remarkable"
Doctor Carabalí flipped the pages, skimming over them idly until she gets to the few last pages everyone just starts stretching in their seats, they had been at it for a few hours now and they were getting sleepy
"Finally, some explaining: 'at the start of this notebook I finally realized that my right hand is back. It feels weird having it again, I'd grown used to the prosthetic that Okin made, my writing is a bit shaky and the sense of having it back is something I don't like, I lost my hand for being stupid and that was my reminder, but these are just ramblings of an old man, I'll have to make my body remember how to fight. Even if I'm years away of returning'"
"He's probably not very used to 'fighting' if he practices roller-skating"
"When did he say that? He told me he was practicing karate" Andrew piped in, surprised at Madeline.
"You both don't really know your patient"
"He's keeping stuff to himself y'know? Sometimes people do that."
"Whatever, we're too tired for this. And the three of you work tomorrow, so I shouldn't be keeping you up so late"
"What?"
"You start your leave tomorrow?"
"Yeah, but I'll stay in town, in case you need me. Madeline, you can go too, I'll pick everything up"
"Thanks doc, see you in two weeks"
"Well, it's been fun, bye"
Everyone got up from their chairs and left the waiting room; Andrew picked the cups and put them on a tray, absorbed in thoughts. Shortly after he heard a noise and turned around. Doctor Carabalí was there, helping with the notebooks, but he knew that she would have something to say. Why do women always want the last word? He thought.
"It's because you're so stubborn" she said coldly, without looking at him, ordering the papers that were scattered on the tiny coffee table "and stop snorting every time you think a woman disturbs you, it's childish"
"I don't do that. And you're just going to insist on me seeing my patient out of work"
"Good, I don't have to repeat myself"
"I don't want to do it, it's unprofessional, you know it, and officially I'm on vacation, so I don't have to do it, or listen to you"
"Suure" Andrea stopped what she was doing and stared at him "because you usually spend the first 5 hours after your shift ends and your vacation begins reading the delusional ramblings of your last patient for the day"
"It really bugs me when you say stuff like that, you know?"
"Look, you both need this, he's in deep crap if he goes on with this and you'll be responsible for not making sure your patient takes his medication. So, tomorrow, you'll call his mother and tell her you will not be seeing him as a patient anymore"
"I'm not-"
"And you're gonna tell her that you want to say goodbye, if possible, over dinner and then you both will act like grownups and talk, even if I have to be there myself"
"What makes you think they'll listen?"
"Because you Americans think too different from Colombians, we talk! We solve problems talking and acting on them! You all seem to think 'hey, your brain's chemicals are messed up, take these pills and keep doing everything exactly the same, you'll see how it changes'"
"It's not like that"
"Yes, it is. So, you're gonna grow a pair and talk to him. You said it yourself, he didn't finish talking today, he's reaching out, and you dismissed him."
Silence fell in the room, of course, she was right, Andrew rushed things without tact and Camilo possibly got away saddened, feeling alone and hurt by the person that had listened to every little thing he had said, the one that was supposed to be there and help him, and this stung on his chest, because he liked this kid, even after everything that the notes said on him he was still going forwards to his impossible dream of going to an imaginary place.
"I-" the phone rang, cutting him short, Andrew looked at the watch, it was now close to ten in the night and the service in the clinic was until 8 o'clock. Normally, the phone would ring alone in the night, so he left it, waiting for the voicemail so he could keep talking.
"Good evening, I'm Sandra Porras, mother of the patient Camilo Porras—"
"Miss Porras, good evening!" Andrew practically threw himself to the phone once he heard his patient name, preparing himself for the worst "yes, no, we close at 8 but today I was finishing some paperwork, your call would have been answered tomorrow, did something happen?"
"I'll leave you to that Andrew, and remember, talk to him" Andrea left the room, leaving a neatly folded map and a small pile of notes in the table, no longer in the previous disarray they had been.
"Doctor?"
"I'm here"
"I didn't mean to interrupt, but I wanted to leave a message for you to hear tomorrow, listen, Camilo will leave to his home place, and I would like it if you could spare some time so he can talk to you before that"
"What do you mean? Is he going to harm himself? Where is he? I'll send an ambulance right now"
"Oh no, please don't worry about that, he is going to travel and that's it. You still don't believe him, but he's saying the truth."
"You believe him? All this about a different world?"
"I'm his mother: I know he is scared, and scarred, but there is truth in his story, I saw him suffering while he talked to me. He feels his tale, in a way a mother feels the tales of the time her children talked for the first time. Please, just listen to him."
"… I, I'm, I will refer him to another doctor, starting tomorrow, but I will talk to him, if he is willing, where do you live?
"Oh, he said he'll leave around 4 in the afternoon, but he'll leave home before dawn, he will be at… you know the place they call the deer drop?"
"Yes, the waterfall in the natural trail that goes through the forest. I'll see him there, but it's late, you really think he will be there until 4?"
"Yeah, he must make sure he won't die in the crossing, so he will be doing test runs before he goes."
"I will go then, but I will not encourage him. If he does something weird, I will send him to an institution." Andrew waited for a response but only heard silence; he hung up and left the room, setting an alarm on his cell phone.
"I can't wake up before the sun on the first day of my vacation" Andrew grunted in front of the bathroom mirror, he'd fallen asleep on the toilet when he sat down and lost 45 minutes without noticing, but now he was late and there was nothing he could do about it, so he proceeded to get ready with the sun creeping out through the window.
He finally left home at 7 in the morning. He had had every possible interruption imaginable in the process, was now in a traffic jam about 2 miles before his exit towards the trail, where he would have to walk about 30 minutes to get to the deer drop. He had to believe in Camilo's mother; otherwise he would be really late and wouldn't be able to stop Camilo from doing something rash.
"At least I'm getting a little exercise from this, this was less steep last time"
If the ranger was right, he should be close by, after all, he was hearing the waterfall but he didn't see Camilo anywhere
"Where could he be?"
Andrew walked a bit more, he approached slowly towards the waterfall and saw a little knot tied in a stick buried in the edge of the fall, he tugged it slightly and felt no weight, he then turned around and kept looking for Camilo.
Andrew spent a while standing beside the waterfall looking for movement in the area but didn't see anyone, although he saw what was left of a campfire in front of a tree close-by, he put his hand above the ashes but didn't feel heat, it was probably made by an old traveler, he got up again and heard noises between the trees on the road he took before, curious, he crouched and moved closer trying to make as little noise as possible.
There it was, an adult doe. She was beautiful, it seemed she had just come out from a river since her fur was wet and had a lot of leaves stuck in it. Andrew had never been so close to a living one before, although he had hunted them a few times before.
The deer looked uninterested in him, she was looking behind her and to her sides, as if something was chasing her, "a hunter maybe, we don't have anything that eats them anyway". He thought, after all, there wouldn't be a road that crossed through the middle of a cougar hunting area, it wouldn't be safe. Then the deer ran through the thick of the bushes, startled by something that he didn't see, he got up and kept looking for it, but it was far away, so he turned around to keep looking for Camilo.
"What are you doing here?" said a voice above his head, making him jump backwards, and getting his hands up in a hurry "wow! Wow, calm down Mr. Jumpy, It's me, doc, Camilo"
"Camilo? You're hunting?"
"I'm practicing" Camilo jumped down from the tree with surprising ease, he seemed to have done it a few times before "What are you doing here? You said you usually don't walk in the forest… or, you know, anywhere at all"
"Well… I'm… am, eh… I'm on vacation; I thought this was a good idea, I'm out of breath but it feels good" Andrew covered for himself with a weak laugh, but Camilo seemed unconvinced "anyway, what are you practicing?"
"Archery" Camilo stepped towards the place the deer had been and picked up an arrow with an enormous ball in the head, it had a few leaves attached to it that fell when he picked it up "I feel bad that the deer was my unwilling bullseye today, but I tried not to hurt it"
"It's more along the lines of tormenting it"
"And that's why I said I feel bad" Camilo removed the head of the arrow and put it in his right hand with his bow, the hand had a glove that covered all but two fingers "listen, Andrew" he said while looking upward toward the sun, "it should be like 11, would you like to join me for lunch? I can fish or find some rabbits in an hour"
"Don't hurt the rabbits, please" Andrew waved his hand in front of him, he didn't like hunting, though he'd done it with his father when he was younger "I don't really like meat, either way," Of course he liked it, he just didn't like the death of his lunch right in front of him, "what are you doing here? When did you start archery lessons?"
"Ah right, sorry about that, I haven't been honest, I don't practice karate, or skating, and technically I'm not with an archery team or something"
"You were an archer… um, there?"
Silence, it seemed as if the animals were also avoiding the tension rising between them, Andrew felt awkward, he wasn't using his usual words, nor were they in a room sitting while looking at papers, it was more personal and it made Andrew uncomfortable.
Camilo started walking, waiting for Andrew to follow him, neither said anything while they walked, Camilo played with the arrow in his hand in silence, dropping it a couple of times until they reached the ashes of the campfire, Camilo stopped Andrew and started climbing the tree, jumping down with a bag, and sitting down.
"I was some kind of an archer" Camilo moved around the ashes, uncovering a couple of coals that were still hot, he put some branches on top of it and started blowing "I had to hunt for a few years so we could eat"
"Why do you say 'some kind of'?"
"I wasn't officially trained, and since we were short on hands, money, and hungry, I had to learn pretty much on my own" the fire was starting to grow a bit, and Camilo ripped a couple of grass leaves to throw in it, as well as a little drop of a liquid he had on his bag "it's gonna smell bad, sorry"
"No problem, was it while you lived with uhm… what's his name?"
"Ah! Right, you know about Elkoala" Camilo started blowing onto the fire with a smile on his face, Andrew thought that he did good by showing he heard him the day before "but no, it's actually after a lot of time, and crap, tons and tons of crap" he looked toward the fire, silent for a while "Sorry, I spent a little too much time with some people and their way of talking kind of rubbed on me, I've tried but it's hard to change the way you talk for a lot of time"
"It's nothing Camilo, I have no problem with that, some people do, but it's your way of talking so it's not a big deal"
"Thanks, come, let's talk while I fish, the fire should burn a while and send bugs off" Camilo seemed awkward, but he was actually doing a good job in this space, he didn't have a technique, but he had his way of getting the job done "Want to know about Elkoala? Or do I keep going with the hunting?"
"No, keep telling me whatever you think goes first, it won't make much sense if I don't know what happened before"
"And Go!" Camilo threw the hook and sat in the same movement, without losing balance for a second "hum… Elkoala, I didn't tell you what he was right?"
"It was in your notes, I think, I had a hard time with the spanish"
"Oh right, I drew him, right. Anyways, he's from a race called "The Meanings" I think, it's a word that has to do with meaning, and they are mostly ugly as shit. Like, there's a reason I drew him with his helmet, but they are also really strong, and powerful" Camilo shook slightly his rod, as if to attract fish.
"Wait, what do you mean strong and powerful? Isn't that the same?"
"Depends, really"
"On what?"
"On what can you do. Humans can be strong, but not powerful in that world, not really, there, means that you, as a human, can be a great soldier, or merc, or hunter, but you don't really have 'power' since there's been like 5 humans admitted to the ancient library. It comes down just to 'can you do magic or not' "
"Magic. You also wrote about that, could you do magic?"
"That's the million dollar question isn't it?" Camilo winked at Andrew trying to make him laugh "but that's gonna be a secret, I told you he set me to the side and blew up half the people that was fighting him, he actually did that. I don't really remember that one time, but he did it a couple more of times while I lived with him"
"You lived with this guy? You wrote a couple of really creative things to do in his orifices, why?"
"Dude, I'm on it."
"I know, but you're kind of making me want to know"
"Years of storytelling can really help you learn how to make people want a bit more, even if I wasn't the best at it. Elkoala pushed me aside because he saw I was a human, and humans are weak, and useless, blah, blah, blah. He then talked to me, and then I learned that they speak spanish, but have a different writing"
"Writing?"
"I'm on it man!" Camilo looked at Andrew with a huge smile on his face "you're fun when you get impatient. He extended his hand and traced a couple of symbols in the air, and the people behind him spread out and started killing people in that place. He talked to me, like he knew me, or wanted to" Camilo loses his smile for a second, he sighs and starts talking again "I was so confused"
"Look, if you don't want to talk about it I will understand"
"It's okay, it's just… looking back everything is so obvious and it makes me angry because everything would've been easier, you know?"
"It's still understandable if you don't want to talk about it"
"Long story short," Camilo continued, ignoring that comment, "he told me I could live with them, maybe help a bit and he'd keep me safe" Camilo seemed to be lost in his thoughts "That dick said I'd be 'safe', safe! Can you believe him? Of course you can, you don't know him. He was nice at first, and if I hadn't been human, he'd probably still be nice now"
Andrew kept silent, looking at Camilo, he seemed smaller now, compared to how he seemed when he was jumping from the trees, Camilo pulled on his rod, taking a small fish from it, and threw it again into the water.
"You're learning. I was human; I was curious and asked something I shouldn't have. It was like 4 weeks or a week, the hour change had me weirded out for a lot of time. But it was like the fourth attack they made, 'some rebels' he said 'they're against the Empire politics' but it was weird, this time I saw them, one of the guys left his weapon and I brought it to him, the rebels, the dangerous monsters… ok, ok, from our point of view they may be monsters, but we'll get to that later. Those dangerous monsters were villagers; they were defending themselves with hoes"
"So… you were on the wrong side of the fight?"
"Well… it isn't as black and white as that. I was on the best side for me, if I were on that village, I would have ended up dead. They left it pretty much as a plain, no building left standing, maybe a basement survived but otherwise there was nothing much."
"And you asked about it. Why did they kill those people, right?"
"Almost"
"It wasn't as polite as that, right?"
"Right. It was rude, rude enough for him to make me float and break my arm. That was the first time I saw that, there was nothing, and I was still on the air, feeling a hand on my arm" Camilo lifts his left arm and points to a place slightly below the wrist, and moves his hand as if it was broken "I passed out"
"From a broken bone? Camilo, I broke my shin and yeah, it hurts like hell, but it's not to pass out"
"Wow, we have a tough guy here!" Camilo clapped in front of him, mocking him "no but really, you're cool, that was my first broken bone, and the situation kind of helped. After that came like 3? I don't know… the first few years were hard to count, with the different hours, the months and all that were weird. Like 10 years later I had a reference but, it didn't help much."
"I remember from your books, you wrote that it'd been almost a day and half in your world, but here were 4 or 6 days"
"That was also a time mess, you grow accustomed to that"
"Before you go on, how many hours did the day have, and the months."
"Well… the days had about 37 hours, poorly counted by me, but it was my closest approximation, and it's 17 months of 25 days, and 2 months that are a week each. About 3 or 4 years went by, they all started treating me like a slave, forcing me to work, lift everything in the camp, all that, and I had like 2 meals a day, edible if I was lucky. They were leftovers from the previous days. And that dick kept beating me when he wanted, just to tell me later that it was my fault. That if I didn't screw up his orders he didn't have to beat me into a pulp."
"He had you working with a broken arm?" Andrew still didn't know if it was real, it seemed that way, since Camilo was visibly affected by his tale, but it was still unbelievable "and kept beating you after that? You had to leave that place"
"Where? Imagine you're dropped off in the middle of nowhere, in a barn in China. You don't know anyone but the people treating you like shit, and no idea if you can even come back"
Camilo got his second fish and threw the hook again, he was tense, and he was sweating despite being so close to the water
"The world's scary when you have no one.. And at the beginning it actually seemed like he cared, at first he healed me with his magic; my broken arm got fixed in a day and kept hurting like a month, but every time seemed like he avoided breaking anything to not heal me, I was bruised, but I could work. That's what they needed."
"Look. Let's stop for now okay?" Andrew took Camilo from the hand and lifted him up "I'm not hungry so those fish should be enough for you right? Come on."