CHAPTER FIVE

The music, pop rock, has been blaring for the last half-hour. Woken by it, she is listening to the lyrics idly.

"All day…staring at the ceiling making… friends with shadows on my wall,  all night… hearing voices telling me that I should get some sleep… because tomorrow might be good for something ---"

She stares at the candy striper's radio. The teenager cleaning the bathroom takes no notice of her, humming along as she scrubs the counter.

"Hold on… Feeling like I'm headed for a… breakdown---And I don't know why---"

Adele clears her throat pointedly and drums her fingers on the bed rail. You can turn it off now, kid---

The chorus clinches it.

"But I'm not crazy, I'm just a little unwell, I know... right now you can't tell, But stay awhile and maybe then you'll see… A different side of me, I'm not crazy, I'm just a little impaired---"

The candy striper looks over her shoulder at the noise. When the patient arches an eyebrow at the radio, it is hastily turned to country.

"You're still the One I run to…the One that I belong to…You're still the One I want for life…You're still the One that I love, the only One I dream of…"

Is the broadcaster's union playing games with me or something?

Shania Twain is interrupted by the door opening. Dr. Warner walks in. (Oh, joy.) "Well! Good morning, Adele," she smiles thinly. "How are you today? Ashley, dear, you know any music must be kept low." Ashley, obedient little community server that she is, turns it so that it's barely audible. Well, it seems Dr. Warner has a purpose after all.

 "Never been better," she says. The slight upward tilt of her lips doesn't reach her icy eyes.

 "That's very nice," the doctor says, looking like she's going to pat Trinity on the head—(Please God no). She claps her hands together and rubs them instead. "Well, guess what?"

Her patient stares at her.

After a brief pause – (What, were you expecting me to say something?) – Dr. Warner continues, disheartened. "Well, here's what; today is going to be a little different from the other days, Adele. Because---" she flourishes the skeletal fingers at the doorway "---you have a visitor! And an outing! Doesn't that sound like fun?"

 Trinity turns the tiny eye-twitch into a polite, short smile. "Mom. This is a…surprise."

"Hello, dear! Yes, isn't it?" her mother says anxiously, stepping into the room. "I know I've usually been visiting in the afternoons, but today is going to be special, sweetie. The doctor here has given me permission to take you out for a little bit…I brought you some new clothes, dear, I kind of guessed at your sizes now, you still look as skinny as ever so that shouldn't be a problem. And maybe we can get your hair trimmed a little bit, since it is probably a bit of a bother…"

"Sounds great," her daughter says. She catches the bag her mother tosses on the bed, her thin white arm darting out quick enough to snag it by its handle. Trinity's mouth turns up again at the surprised expression on Dr. Warner's face, then sinks as she starts frantically writing on her clipboard.

Her mother steps over, navy blue tennis shoes squeaking on the white ceramic floor. Tentatively, she takes the bag from Adele, and spreads a pair of sweatpants,a white T-shirt, and a pink (Since when do I wear anything pink?) sweater on the bed.

"We'll leave you a minute to get changed," smiles Dr. Warner as she steps smoothly away, followed by her mother.

---

Well, I must say I never thought I'd be here again.

Trinity stares around the hairstylist's place. Unwillingly, memories come to her.

She remembers sitting in a plastic-covered chair as a twelve-year-old, her mother's perm setting, drinking Coke and feeling slightly depressed. All around her, middle-aged women had congregated. The smell of nail polish remover covered everything. They chatted. They read People, and afterwards, they went out to their minivans and drove home, emotions high or low depending on how well their stylist had done.

She was on the verge of exploding when it had come to her then that this possibly couldn't be all there was. Life was not high school, graduation, college, get married, and have your hair curled every six months by the same people every time. It simply couldn't be. There was something more than this, and she was determined to find it.

And so she remembers Morpheus, and her first time face to face with him.

"The simple truth, Trinity, is that this is not all there is. All your life you have been searching for more, and now," he paused, "you have found it. The truth is that the whole world as you know it is only the beginning."

"What is the Matrix?" Asked as eagerly as she had ever been. Prove me right, Morpheus, she had thought.

"The Matrix is the world that you have known. And tonight, you are going to leave this world with all of its simulation, its artifice. If you choose, tonight you shall see true reality."

And of course she had chosen the red pill.

Now she stands in the doorway, looking back on a scene she thought she had left years ago. Nothing changed. She still feels like running out the door and finding someone who knows something more.

But is that someone even there?

Was I really driven insane by wanting a way out so badly? Or is this just a game?

"Ms. Dubois?"

She snaps around to find a hairstylist dressed in black smiling fixedly at her. She gets the impression that she's been being prompted for a few minutes now. "Yes?"

"Ms. Dubois, they're ready for you now. Go to Alexis at the back. She'll get you started--- No, Ms. Dubois, Alexis is the redhead with the towel. On your left, farther, farther---."

I think my entire day is going to consist of being prodded by chirpy people.

A shampooing later, she is sitting in the familiar plastic chair. "So, what are we thinking today?" says Alexis.

"Maybe just a little off the ends…it's such pretty hair, don't you think? So shiny and soft," says her mother. "Could you just shape it up a little---"

But her daughter interrupts her. "Cut it all off."

"What? Adele, do you really think…But you look so nice with long hair! And it's taken forever!" Mabel pleads.

"Mom, it's too much trouble. Just get it off, I don't care how you do it," she says.

"Are you sure? We could do a nice style, good for blowdrying. A little shaping around the face, you know, very attractive." Alexis pops her gum.

"I want it short, but long enough to pin back. And part it on the side," Adele insists. "But that's it. I don't care what it looks like, really."

Her mother sighs. "Well. If you're sure. Isn't that a lot like the style you had before?"

"Yes…I liked that one a lot," she says. We had a lot of fun together.

And if I still look the same, then I can pretend that I might have a way out.

8888

Well, that was short, but LONG FOR ME, dammit. Next chapter includes brunch and an urgent telephone call to a landlady who used to have help taking out her garbage (HINT HINT). It won't be up until a week from Wednesday, since I'm going to be imprisoned at YMCA family camp (Were there ever any words that evoked more teenager horror? I don't think so), but look for it then. Now! Out-shouting!

Wendie: Well, here it is, and quite quick after you reviewed, too, which is definitely unlike me. Writing it was like pulling someone else's teeth--- fun, but kind of hard unless you really dig in and concentrate! (watches reviewers go EEEWWW) Thanks loads.

LiMiYa: Not for sure, Li, not for sure….you can draw conclusions, but that was just a dream, not what was really happening. It's a possible scenario. Yes, she is really depressed. All that cheers her up is planting mashed potatoes in Dr. Warner's easy chair. Heh heh heh. PS--I got sick off of watermelon once, and as a result our family has much more watermelon left over than it did before. Want some?

Bagpipes 5k: I like the way you referred to it, Adele's life being the hospital one and Trinity's being the ass-kicking kung-fu one….perhaps I shall use that? Cool. Here is the belated chapter. I hope you all have the strength left to review… Yes! An Alice in Wonderland allusion!I love your name, by the way.

Kitsune-chan:  The omnipotent author, luv. And Neo is always freaked out, he just doesn't show it, I'm sure of it. Wow, that movie does sound rather like my story…NEVER SAW IT!!! NEVER EVER EVER!!! (flashes back to Secret Window)

12 Monkeys authors: Yew stole mah story….

Nithke: Are you kidding? I would never! I'm just a lazy author who sleeps around in her chenille bathrobe all day! Honest!

sleeping awake: Crazy Neo fantasies take the best of us, awake. I myself had a dream where I was snogging Keanu Reeves and kept calling him "Neo". He'd get really pissed off….it was satisfying AND funny. Heh. Hmm…I have an inkling that I'm gonna put her through a lot before the ending (and it DOES end) so she may in fact not get though this okay. (Trinity: Goddamn it! Just give me my boyfriend back already! Me: Sorry, he's dating myself, FluffyLemonn, and sleeping awake. That's why you're in an asylum anyway. (sound of pistol being cocked))

Destiny Chaser: Trippy…wooo! Thank you THANK YOU for making the "levels of perception" comment--- it's what the story's about, really. That and my brother's Trinity bondage fantasies----No, no, just kidding. Intrigue! Another good word! Whee! What do you think of this chappie?

Cinn: What is "real"? How do you define "real"? If by real you mean what Trinity can see and touch (and is not a dream in her Adele life) then yes, Chapter One was "real". Very much so.

Aaahh!! Am turning into Laurence Fishburne! Stop it stop it stop it….

Strange is good.

I AM NO MAN.

A lot of guys think I'm a guy….

(ending random movie quotes NOW)

-The Cryptic Author