-:- My Autistic Brother -:-
Author: deunan4eva
Summary: At his young age, Nate River was mis-diagnosed. Bored, Mihael Keehl wants nothing to do with the boy who screams and bangs his head on the wall. But slowly, through a poetry journal Roger forces him to keep, Mello begins to see that Near may need more help then he lets on…
BeforeNote:
HEYA PEOPLES! about time i updated so here we go! this took me aaaages to write seeing as i didn't know where to go with it at first and i've had heaps of assignments and homework trucked onto me *dies drowning in paperwork* but NEVER FEAR! I AM HERE! bringing you the UPDATE (yes, you heard me right!) the UPDATE of My Autistic Brother. Chapter 25, here we come - thank you all for be so patient and willing to let me take my sweet time to get this up, because it is so massively appreaciated. ^_^
- Mercy
…
Oh, yeah – I think I'll have to mention that I am NOT using a 1997 calendar to figure out all the dates – the dates I'm using for Mello's journal entries are taken from an old 2002 calendar I had lying around when I first decided to put dates of the journal entries into the story. Just a lil' fun bit of trivia for ya.
Mello's Journal Entry #25
6/27/97 (June 27th, 1997)
-:-
Three days later, I was, as promised, home from hospital and resting up in the library of the Wammy's House; catching up on missed schoolwork. Apparently my classes hadn't been doing anything too interesting, so I wasn't missing out on too much. The doctors kept me back an extra day after I fell over the moment I stood up the day after Dr Lenkov had read me that story, just to make sure I was all right.
I've been home about two days now. I saw Johanna yesterday – she wasn't due to come and see Matt until tomorrow but she said she wanted to come and make sure I was okay. We talked about stuff, she helped me out with a couple of the harder questions in my homework, and then she went to see Celicia. I hadn't seen Celicia in maybe…two weeks? I think I've lost track; it's got to be at least three weeks since Ada's death and Beyond's disappearance now. But still. Matt told me that Johanna and Celicia had been spending a lot of time together – they'd been talking a lot and sitting close to each other. Matt thought it was a little strange, but when I asked Johanna about it yesterday she said that Celicia didn't want to stay here at Wammy's anymore – it was hard for her to stay in the place she'd once called home but now felt like she was staying in a place that could only ever remind her of her two friends that had left her. So Johanna had been arranging with Roger to have Celicia transferred to a boarding house somewhere closer to London, where Celicia could make a new family and friends, move on and leave her childhood years behind. Roger had apparently agreed – so had Celicia, and Celicia was going to be moving out in a few days.
Thinking of people moving out – Percy also went yesterday, to some sort of detention centre for under-aged kids, and Lachlan was moving in to another sort of boarding home, kinda like Celicia, today. L had made announcements about it a couple of days ago over a voice speaker in Roger's laptop, lots of the kids gathered around to hear what he was going to say. I think they were all secretly relieved that Percy and Lachlan were going, but no one showed it – I didn't see either of them there when L made the announcement, and I was counting the moments until the overweight bully who called himself Percy was gone. Lachlan I'd never interacted with before, only seen him and kept well away.
That…that kinda changed today.
I packed up my folder with all my homework in it, put it in my lap and started to wheel myself out of the library. Oh…I think this is probably the time to mention that I have been put in a wheelchair for the next week or so, just until I can stand and walk on my own for five minutes straight. The doctors said that by taking the weight off my legs and the strain off my chest with the exercise, I'm less likely to aggravate (meaning to irritate or make worse) my wound.
Anyway…
I was half-way across the empty quadrangle when someone grabbed my wheelchairs handlebars from behind, almost pulling me over.
'Hey!' I cried in surprise, yanking myself around to face who had grabbed me. My arms have been very sore from all of the wheeling myself around when the other kids aren't offering to do it during recess and lunchtimes. But you'll never guess who I spun around to see towering over me – what to hazard a guess? Yup – it was Lachlan.
'Hey yourself,' he said, squinting down at me through the bright afternoon sun. 'You got a second?'
I was anything but willing to spend more time with anyone related to Percy – especially considering my last Percy-related experience. But since I couldn't walk five steps without stumbling and falling, and I couldn't wheel myself away from Lachlan very fast, I didn't have much choice, did I?
'Uh…' I said, still debating how far I could crawl away over the pavement before he caught up. 'Sure.'
'Cool.' I had never heard Lachlan talk so little – any other times I'd heard him, he was laughing, jeering, making cracks at people behind their backs and laughing with his boof-head friends. He spun me back around and took hold of the handlebars of the wheelchair, and wheeled me out of the sunshine. I felt vulnerable, knowing that he was capable to doing anything behind my back, and yet here he was, wheeling me along like a kind friend. I wasn't about to start trusting him, though.
'So,' he said once we were under the cover of the veranda roofing. 'You're the kid Percy roughed up, huh? Heh – bugger did a real number on you, didn't he?'
I wasn't really sure what he meant by that, so I didn't say anything. Lachlan sighed heavily, and I could feel him scooting along behind me. He whistled a tune to the air, and I twisted around to see him looking off across the oval, as if he didn't have a care in the world. My stitches pulled uncomfortably, so I turned back and sat properly.
'But now he's gone, I'm going too,' Lachlan said, fairly straightforwardly. 'I gotta say – kid was always a handful, that one. Ever since our folks died. Then when Rach' passed on. Percy's never been the same.'
Something in his tone sparked my interest. Who was "Rach"? So I asked, and I heard him chuckle softly.
'She was my little sister. Percy's big sis. She had cancer. Got a brain scar that never healed – she was in a coma for like, three years. Percy never understood back then. He'd always ask why she wasn't waking up and sayin' hello to him anymore. I told it was cuz she was always tired cuz of the meds she was on. Then she stopped responding to the meds. The doctors said she was "dead in the water" so t'speak.'
I let this sink in. What if Lachlan wasn't just naturally mean like Percy? What if they were both really upset that their sister had died?
'How did she…how did she die?' I mumbled, immediately regretting asking. Lachlan said nothing for a bit.
'The doctors yanked her plug. Took her off life support and let her die,' he said finally, and we stopped under the shade of a large oak tree. We were creepily close to the bell tower, where Ada had not-so-long ago hung himself to escape his own misery. Lachlan scrubbed the back of his hand across his eyes, and for a moment I thought he was going to cry, but his eyes were dry when he glared over at the bell tower. Then he spoke again, quieter this time. 'I held her hand. She told me to take care of Perc' while she was gone. Guess I buggered that one up royally, didn't I?'
I didn't know if he was actually asking me, so I stayed quiet again. We were out in the front quadrangle, and Lachlan swung me towards the senior wing dorms building.
'Gotta get me stuff,' he shrugged when I looked up at him. 'I got fifteen minutes left here before that guy I'm gonna be moving in with comes to pick me up.'
We walked – and wheeled – in silence for a while. I didn't know why Lachlan was here, what he was doing or where he was going by telling me about his sister. Although it seemed like lots of people were losing the ones they loved. Dr Lenkov, Lachlan, even Near to an extent (I'm kinda guessing that he knows what was on that tape, about his parents. I have yet to look at it, though – today was the only time I've had to myself. The rest of the time I've been fussed over by the orphanage staff, crowded by the other kids and piled up with a few bits of missed homework. And I haven't really had time to talk to Matt, yet, either – I've only seen him a couple of times, and he's been acting kinda off…). But anyway – we got to Lachlan's dorm, but we didn't go in. There were several duffel bags sitting outside the door, and he hefted two up in hand and the third up in the other.
'Is that all your stuff?' I don't quite know why, but I was compelled to ask. I know none of the kids here came with lots of stuff – most of us came with the clothes we were wearing and a toothbrush or teddy bear. I'd come with nothing but the clothes I had been wearing that day the police had found me. And an old scrunched up tissue in my pocket. Lachlan nodded, looking down at the luggage in his hands.
'Yup. I threw out masses of stuff, though – Roger said that I wouldn't need any of my old school work or anything – just my personal items and my school grade results, for wherever I go next.'
Wherever I go next. Those words hung in my heads like a moth trapped in cobwebs. Like Lachlan was just another dead autumn leaf breaking away from the aging tree and being carried away on the wind, just like that. Something occurred to me.
'But…why don't you try to stay?'
'Can't,' he shrugged. I frowned.
'Why not? It never stopped you from picking on the younger kids – or Ada. Or Beyond.'
Lachlan's face seemed to seize up, freeze over, and his eyes narrowed – and in that moment I was scared. Then, he just sighed.
'Coz Ada was a right pain in the arse. He took my place with his better knowledge of the world, shunted me back in the line. Course, that didn't stop Beyond from staying in second place.'
I was confused – Lachlan was once an A? What was his name before…? As if reading my thoughts, Lachlan continued.
'My name back then was Alaethēa,' he said, and I didn't recognize the name at all. 'It means "the truth" in Greek. L truly thought I was going to succeed him. Then that spoiled brat came along and proved himself better than me. Took B from me.'
I blinked in surprise – Beyond and Lachlan…friends? It was…it was incomprehensible. Unreal. Unlikely to say the least. Lachlan saw my surprise.
'Yeah, strange, huh? I picked on Ada because he was weak. Tried to show him that if you were weak, you weren't going to survive. B took his side though, the backstabbing copycat that he was. We used to stick together, you know? Because everyone thought we were an odd pairing, Alaethēa and Bastain. Then when I was replaced, B changed his name, because Ada was supposed to be "Above" so B changed to "Beyond".'
My mind was reeling with all this new information – how could this be? It was…unreal. I mean, Lachlan could have been lying and I could be getting suckered into it, and suddenly I wondered why Lachlan was even bothering to tell me.
'So…why are you telling me this now?' I asked, and Lachlan shrugged, something he seemed ridiculously good at.
'Coz I saw you getting caught up in the whole Ada-Beyond-Celicia situation, and I knew it was bothering you, kid. I'm not like Percy – I'm a tough guy and a bit of a bully but I'm not a creep who beats up and stabs younger kids. I saw what was going on and tried to make Percy stop. He thought I was favouring you. I told him it was more complicated than that but he didn't believe me – so he wanted the attention. But with everything with Beyond and Ada going down, I realized you were caught up in the middle of it all. It didn't seem fair to leave you hanging not knowing the whole truth.'
I took it all in, not daring to dismiss the possibility that he was actually telling me the truth. Lachlan seemed to deflate slightly after the explanation, and checked his watch.
'I'd better get moving, kid. Sorry – you'll have to wheel yourself out.'
'That's okay,' I said, and I turned myself around and began to roll myself down the hallway. My arms had been rested while Lachlan had been wheeling me around, but now they were beginning to ache again, remembering the work they had to do. I'll be glad when I'm allowed to walk on my own again.
We walked/wheeled in silence until we got back out to the front courtyard, where a car was already waiting. A middle-aged man stood there watching us while he leant on the doorframe of the open car door, and nodded to Lachlan, who nodded back. He stopped, and turned to me. Before he left, I wanted to ask something.
'So…how did you become Lachlan? Wasn't there some other name you wanted?' I asked, and he chuckled, not meeting my eyes.
'If I'm honest, I wanted anything other than to be put back halfway down the alphabet to the L list. I didn't know what to call myself. I lost every friend that respected me, apart from a certain few who hung around to make me feel more miserable than I already was. Then, maybe four weeks later – B came and knocked on my door. He wasn't wearing his contacts or sunnies or anything – and he just said that I needed a name, so he wouldn't have to keep calling me 'scumbag' anytime he wanted my attention.'
'He said that?' I asked, thinking that wasn't at all what the Beyond I remembered was like. And, considering they were both younger back then when Ada had come, it didn't sound like something a young Beyond would say, either. Lachlan confirmed my suspicions and laughed.
'No – but he might as well have. I told I didn't have a name yet, so he suggested one. Last nice the guy did for the world was give me a name to live by. He said "Lachlan" sounded good because it meant "warlike", and he knew I had a tendency to be a bit of a bully at times.' He said. 'Guess that I owe him one.'
Lachlan looked towards the car again, where the man was waiting for him. 'Guess I better go,' he said, kicking at the pavement with his scuffed trainers. I nodded.
He looked up at me one last time.
'You keep yourself outa trouble, 'kay, squirt?' he asked, and I was somehow relieved that he wasn't calling me "Squeak" like Percy used to.
Used to. Never again – not anymore. I swallowed and nodded.
'Okay.'
'Bye, Mello.'
'Bye Lachlan.'
Then, Lachlan turned and walked away, packed his luggage into the boot of the mans car, got in the passenger seat, and was driven away.
And he was gone forever, leaving me with the truth – like his old name had said. .
- Mello
AfterNote: RIGHTY-OH! again, thanks for being so patient in wait for this update - i rattled myself today to get it finished because i thought i really should get it up before my 16th birthday tomorrow...otherwise i'd be feeling guilty for a week about not updating...^_^ PEACE OUT Y'ALL!
the Soon-to-be-16,
- Mercy