Chapter Six
Rage
Richard slept well that night. His workout certainly tired him out and he had his first good night's sleep in a long time. When he finally woke up for good, he finds his eyes to be all crusty. He hates it when his eyes get like this. It's a dead giveaway that he's been crying and he doesn't cry in front of anybody.
He quickly rubs his eyes and spots something on his forearm. He looks more closely at it and realizes the rainbow from last night has still not gone away. So his mind wasn't playing tricks on him last night. But how did that get there? He tries to rub it off but the rainbow is part of his skin. Somehow he did that. Somehow he made that rainbow appear on his skin because he wanted to look at a different colour other than orange. Could he really make images appear on his skin? Bed sheets rustle next to him. He pulls his sleeves down and covers the rainbow. He'll figure something out later.
After breakfast, Richard and Eli make their way to the laundry room. Bags of laundry fill the room, signifying a long work day ahead of them. They start quickly to get out of the room earlier instead of later. There are several washing machines and dryers so several loads can be done at once but the longest part that will take is folding the laundry and putting them back into neat piles. The Warden likes his prison neat and tidy. Richard learned that.
First they empty all the laundry bags into the washing machines until they are all full. Richard measures the detergent and dumps the grainy soap onto each load. Eli walks past and turns the machine on and closes the lid. Now they have to wait until the washing cycle is done to start the drying cycle.
Richard is distracted. He continues to stare at his arm where he knows the rainbow will be there and will never ever leave. It appeared yes but he doesn't know how and he doesn't know how to get rid of it. It scares him. Seablite is changing him quickly and not for the better.
"Richard," Eli calls out again.
Richard turns his head. "What?"
"You might want to the move the detergent away from the edge of the table." Richard looks at the detergent box and sees that is dangerously close to the edge. A spilt box of detergent wouldn't be a very good thing. He shoves the box onto the middle of the table and rubs his arm.
"Is there something bothering you?" Eli asks. "You seem… out of it."
"I don't know," he whispers and looks around to see if any guard is around to hear what he is about to tell Eli. "Can you keep a secret?" Eli nods and takes a few steps closer. "I really need to trust you on this," Richard says quietly. "You can't tell anyone about it."
"What about Peter?"
"I'll tell Peter when I'm sure I want to tell him." Richard takes in a deep breath and pushes back his sleeve to expose the small rainbow on his forearm.
"Whoa you got a tattoo?" Eli says excitedly. "No offence but if I were to get a tattoo, I would probably get something a little more manly than a rainbow.
"It's not a tattoo," Richard says. "I don't know what it is. I was up late last night when it happened. I thought it was just my mind playing tricks on me but then it stayed. It won't come off."
"You mean it just appeared, like out of the blue?"
Richard nods and strokes the rainbow. "I don't know how it happened. I guess I was just sick of looking at the colour orange all the time and wanted something different. Look, I don't know how it appeared. It just did and now I can't get rid of it."
"Can you make other things appear?" Eli asks, without tearing his gaze away from the small rainbow.
"I don't know, Eli. I just don't know. And you can't tell anyone about this. I don't want it to get out."
"Why not?"
Richard shrugs. "I just don't want everyone to look at me like I'm some sort of freak. I have to talk to Doc first before I tell anyone else. If anyone can heal me, he can."
Eli nods and takes a few steps back. "Your secret's safe with me."
Richard nods. "Thanks."
They work the rest of the time in silence. Eli sneaks glances at Richard every once in a while, like he is looking at him through a microscope. That makes Richard's mood less and less optimistic about this condition.
Richard returns to his cell later in the afternoon. The cell is empty when he enters it. He steps into the bathroom and rolls up his sleeve. He traces the rainbow with his finger tips. He sticks his hand under the water tap and turns the water on hot. He uses a bit of soap and begins to scrub furiously at the rainbow. He only made his arm red and irritated. He turns off the water of the water and dries his arm. He pulls down his sleeve and tugs at it so it won't slip up later and expose the rainbow.
Richard keeps to himself the rest of the day. He'd rather keep to himself and think about his predicament. This is all just a short term illness. He'll talk to Doc after dinner and everything will be fine. He's just over reacting a bit. Everything is going to be fine.
His mood doesn't improve by dinner. Peter and Eli notice but don't say anything about it though. He collects his dinner tray and begins to walk towards his table. He bumps shoulders with one of the other inmates.
"Watch where you're going, kid," the inmate growls. Richard pushes past and sits down at his table. He looks over at the inmate he bumped and sees that the inmate is one of the older ones, perhaps even a little older than Richard a little bigger than him too. Best not to get into a fight with him.
He meets Eli's gaze for a moment. Eli flicks his eyes in Peter's direction. Richard shakes his head slightly. He knows what Eli wants to do. He wants to tell Peter about Richard's secret but he isn't ready yet to let his condition become public. He wants to keep it on the down low for now.
He stands to returns his tray. The larger inmate stands as well and purposely bumps into Richard. The inmate is probably a little bored with prison life and is looking for some trouble and excitement. Richard just wants to avoid everyone. He doesn't want the stares anymore. He wants to be left alone but today is not a good day.
"Watch where you're going, boy," the inmate says and gives Richard a shove.
"Get out of my way then," Richard hisses and sidesteps around the inmate to return his tray.
"Are you going to tell me what to do?" the inmate says and turns Richard around to face him.
"I said get out of my way." He shoves the inmate back with force and begins to make his way to the stairs.
"Do you think that I'm going to take that from you? You're just a prison rat just like me. What makes you so better than me?"
Richard shrugs. "My intelligence perhaps? You come off very ape like." Richard knows that wasn't a smart thing to say but he couldn't help it.
Next thing he knows is that the inmate is gripping the front of his prison jumper in one hand and lands his fist on his jaw. Richard's head snaps to the side. The blow was hard and fast. He didn't have any time to prepare himself. Richard has fought at school before so he's no stranger to fights. He punches the inmate in the stomach and inmate releases him.
The fight escalades from there. Richard and the inmate circle each other. The guards haven't interfered yet. They exchange punch for punch for a few minutes. The other inmates are cheering on the fight. It's the most excitement they've had in a long time. Then the fight takes a bitter turn. Rage consumes him. The inmate taunts him with words and constantly insults Richard's parents, just to get him rallied up. He tells Richard that his daddy was a no good drunk and that his mommy slept around with other men when his daddy was gone. Richard goes a little too far and punches the inmate on the nose, cracking it with one swift punch.
As he gains control of his senses, he realizes that the inmates are all staring at him, straight at him in total silence. He looks down at himself to see what they are staring at. He looks down at his hands first and sees that his skin is red, blood red. He pushes up his sleeves and sees the redness spread all over his body. Then the red disappears quickly as soon as the rage is gone. His skin returns to the normal pale colour he always has.
"You there!" a guard shouts and runs over to the cafeteria. Richard knows he's talking to him. "Stay there!" Richard obeys the command and stays where he is. The guard grips Richard's arm and starts to haul him towards the hole. He doesn't struggle or try to plead his case. It's better than having everyone staring at him.
The guard shoves him into the small room and locks the door securely after him. Richard looks around the room. It's probably eight feet by eight feet big. The bed is a rubber mat on the floor with a scratchy looking blanket and thin pillow. A toilet with a sink attached is set off to the side. There is no window, nothing to look out or in. A slot is located at the bottom of the steel door which is probably for his meals to slide through.
He slides down against the wall and sits down on the rubber matt. He brings his knees up to his chest and surrounds them with his arms so he has a place to rest his head on. He's tired of this. He's tired of Seablite, tired of being alone, tired of this life he's living. There is no point in living it anymore. And now to make matters even worse he has a condition that changes his skin. He doesn't want to go on like this.
He looks down at his forearm where the rainbow should be and finds that it's gone. "Nice time to have left," he says. "Make me look like some sort of freak out there." With his sour mood, returns the rainbow, seemingly mocking him. He rolls his eyes. "Thanks for keeping me company," he responds sarcastically.
As he continues to stare at the rainbow, he might as well make good use of his time and figure out what this whole 'changing colour' condition thing he is capable of. He starts by trying to make the rainbow disappear. It's harder than it sounds. He has to concentrate really hard and finally the rainbow disappears, slowly but it goes away, leaving his skin normal once again.
Next task is to make the rainbow reappear. He focuses on one patch of skin for a long time until the colours seep into his skin and curve to form that familiar shape. He doesn't smile. It's not something to be proud of. This is a disease. He has to be healed of it. He doesn't want to remain this freak. First he has to figure out how to control it. When he knows how to control it, he can talk to Doc about it and Doc will be able to heal him very quickly and everything will go back to normal. No more stares, no more secrets. Life will once again be normal, as normal as it has ever been in Seablite.
Then the lights shut off. He stands and fumbles for a light switch but doesn't find any. The lights in the hole are on a timer. They turn on and off automatically and he has no idea when they'll turn on again. Panic seizes him for the first time since he arrived. The dark is too dark. It's suffocating him, closing in around him. He trips on the rubber matt and falls down. He pulls himself into a corner and tries to steady his breathing. He's scared. He feels alone and helpless. He can't breathe.
Then a glimmer of light appears. It's so odd and alien. He looks around for the light but discovers it's coming from his body. He rolls up both sleeves and finds that his arms are glowing in the dark, providing enough light to fill the room and disperse the shadows. He calms down, thankful for this gift, whatever it is. There's one good thing for this gift. He doesn't have to spend the night in the dark.
He settles down on the rubber mat and pulls the blanket over his shoulders. The light dims a little bit as he settles down for the long night ahead. Maybe this gift isn't so bad after all.