Chapter Three
"Carey seems… very happy," I commented to Ned late that night, when we were both in our beds. "What exactly is wrong with him?"
"He still wants to be a child," Ned explained. "When he was very little, his parents didn't think he was tall enough for his age. So they tied his arms to a tree and his legs to a car and drove it a few feet away. They wanted to stretch him out. But Carey didn't like being so tall, so he tried to be small by acting younger."
"Oh my God…" was all I could say. No wonder Carey was so tall. I couldn't understand how some parents could be so cruel. "And what about you?" I asked. Ned seemed perfectly normal.
He gave a small smile. "I'm a pathological liar."
The next day, I had my first meeting with the psychiatrist. It was a woman this time, with chin-length blond hair, and her name was Dr. Bell.
"Well, Annie, how are we feeling today?" she asked, forcing a fake-nice smile.
"I don't understand why I'm here," I said simply.
She glanced down on the clipboard in her hands. "Well, according to this… you see a panther?"
"So?" I shouted. "What's wrong with that? I've had my panther with me since I was three. You can't get rid of him! He protects me."
"Annie, the panther is not real. It is merely a mirage… a hallucination, maybe. Did you take a lot of drugs before coming here?"
"No!" I screamed. "I'm normal! My panther doesn't hurt anyone. What's the big deal?"
She glanced down at the sheets in her clipboard again. "It also says here that you were very quiet… and that you're always looking for adventure pertaining to… the supernatural."
"I'm just trying to find the truth," I said defensively. Dr. Bell scribbled something down on the paper and I groaned. "I shouldn't be here. Everyone here is crazy!"
Dr. Bell looked up at me skeptically. "Do you want to go home?"
I sighed. "Same problem." After a few more questions, Dr. Bell sent me off and recommended that I go to the TV room, since everyone hung out there. I sat at the couch in the far corner, chewing gum and minding my own business, when I saw Fi come into the room.
Oh God… please don't come my way… please don't come my way… I watched in horror as her eyes settled in on me and she walked in my direction. She pulled a chair over in front of me and sat on it backwards, resting her arms on top of the back. "Mind if I have a stick?"
"Uh… sure," I replied, reaching frantically in my pocket for more gum. Fi popped it in her mouth and stared at me, grinning, as though she was trying to taunt me.
"So," she said, "why are you here?"
"Um… I… I see a panther."
"That's nice," Fi said distractedly, before running to the opposite side of the room since someone was calling her name. I let out a sigh of relief. Fi actually didn't seem quite so frightening today. Maybe I could even learn to be her friend.