Chapter 30:
Jasiri P.O.V.
After the arguments that we have witnessed over the weekend with Simba and Nala, and the unknown stuff going on with Timon and Bunga, I am just glad that it's the weekend so we can avoid the drama.
To help take our minds off of the drama, Edwin and I decided to go out for a jog, but instead of Lincoln Park, we first met at the Clark and Division Red Line stop and we soon jogged along the Lakefront Trail. It was relaxing to have the wind from the lake blow onto our faces. And there were not many problems jogging since I was in my human form, so I didn't have the additional weight of my tail.
After about an hour or two and jogging in a circle for a little bit, we finally decided to sit on a bench that we saw while we were in Addams Memorial Park near Ohio Street Beach.
"Man, that was exhausting, what did you think Jas?" Edwin asked me.
"Yeah Edwin, I've got to say that was pretty tiring, I guess it was also pretty tiring trying not to run into people when jogging by the Navy Pier and Olive Park area." I replied.
Yeah, I didn't expect so many people to be there. It kind of reminded me of yesterday when people gathered to hear Simba and Nala argue then split up." Edwin said. That made me think back to the argument the two of us witnessed, resulting in Nala and Simba splitting up.
"Oh yeah, and Simba looked absolutely panicked when the tourists started taking their phones out. Got a feeling that part of him was humiliated that day. Though I still can't believe how much the 'royal couple' hid things from each other, particularly Simba hiding stuff from Nala. I also couldn't believe how much he was hiding from everyone else, could there be more that he is hiding?" Jasiri said.
"Maybe. Lack of communication, hiding things from each other and being unable to have an honest conversation without arguing, that basically sounds like how my parents got divorced. That and also because my mom was a closeted lesbian before she came out a few years after the divorce. So based on my experience I think it might be best for the couple to split up if their history was that tumultuous. For example, after their divorce, my parents seem much happier, like my mom currently has a new girlfriend, though she never really tells me much about her other than she works in finances and that her name is Nelle. And my dad met and got remarried to another woman in Florida named Melissa." Edwin said while recounting the aftermath of his parents' divorce over eight years ago.
"Yeah perhaps you're right, those two need to be apart, based on what we heard, it seems that the relationship got toxic over the years." I replied.
We just continued to sit at the bench for half an hour, enjoying our time together as we enjoy the breeze coming from the lake next to us, along with the sunlight outside and the two of us being close to each other, with our hands interlocked and one of our arms around the other's shoulders.
After a while, I almost fell asleep, I heard a slight ring near me, I then saw Edwin check his phone. I was a little curious about what was going on.
"Something wrong Edwin?" I asked.
"Oh nothing much, just received a text from Beshte I don't think it's anythi- Uh oh!" Edwin said in a sudden change in tone while looking at his phone.
"Wait, what do you mean by 'uh oh'?" I asked.
"Well Beshte was perusing online and it turns out that at least one of the tourists present at the time of Simba and Nala's fight recorded the whole thing and yeah, the video is on YouTube now. Beshte just sent me the link." Edwin replied.
This gave me a bit of a shock because I didn't realize that this would be online quickly.
"Wait?! What?! A video of that is online already?! I didn't think it would be online that quickly, but then again there are a bunch of videos of people arguing so I guess I shouldn't be that surprised about it." I replied.
So I decided to look at Edwin's phone to look at the video. He pressed the link that Beshte sent him, and it went to a YouTube page that had the title "Insane Couple at Field Museum Arguing and Splitting Up in Front of Everyone". We pressed play, and after the thirteen second ad about this new gaming app, we got to the video. It was basically exactly what we saw and heard of Simba and Nala's argument, though I did hear a bit of the camera person's reactions and commentary on the situation. We also saw that along with Simba and Nala, Kiara and Kovu were also in the video as shocked bystanders. And the most surprising part was that Edwin and I were also in the video as bystanders, though part of my left leg and shoulder was obscured for like 10 seconds. It is kind of interesting to see this from another person's perspective.
We know that this cameraperson did not know anything about hybrids or our situation because we heard them say stuff such as: Wait, what is all this talk about lions? Why Is there mention of kings, Pride Lands and 'mating rights'? And what the hell is a Lion Guard?
Essentially at the end of the video, they basically said "Man, what are those two on? I'm not sure if it's drugs or alcohol, but they must be under the influence of something." Even though we knew that the cameraperson knew nothing about our past, it was kind of amusing that they thought that Simba and Nala were under the influence of something.
"And according to YouTube, this video has nearly 10,000 views already." Edwin said while continuing to look at his phone screen.
"Wait, 10,000 random people have already seen this video?! Damn, sometimes I still can't believe how fast information travels on the internet." I said.
"Yeah, I still remember when I first started learning how to use a computer. I was about five years old and it was the mid 1990s, I think around 1996. Boy, look how far things in computer technology have advanced since then still impresses me." Edwin said.
"Yeah, I think I was actually born in 1996, or 1995 but I am not exactly sure, we did not keep track of time in numerical years back in the Outlands." I am still amazed to think that even though we are the same age genetically, physiologically and on paper, he is actually older than me.
"Oh yeah, I forgot! Hyenas don't age at the same rate humans do, or at least before your injection but now you do. But have you figured out why after your injection, you got transformed to human age of seven back then?" Edwin asked.
"I still don't know, it baffles me to this day. I still can't believe that I am 28 years old now! You humans age much slower than hyenas. If I were still a hyena, I would have most likely been dead by now. I also heard of humans going as long as 100 years old. That's literally impossible for a hyena back where I was from because the highest I've known a hyena to live to is 25." I replied.
"Yeah, it sounds pretty interesting and complex. And wait, when you said that your birthday was May 4 is that….." Edwin said.
"To be honest, that was something that I made up because after I first transformed, we were sent to a records office to have birth certificates, identification documents and other stuff made and before that, I just randomly picked out May 4 from a calendar my guide had at her place. To be honest, I actually don't know when my actual birthday is because, again, we didn't record numerical dates. All I remembered was that I was born somewhere between the end of Wet Season and the beginning of Dry season, and Chausiku, my guide at the time, said the month of May best corresponded with that." I replied.
"Interesting, and it's kind of funny that you picked a day that is close to my birthday, since mine is April 28. So it looks like we were both born in the spring." Edwin said.
"Yeah, I guess so. It's impressive that even when we originated from two completely different worlds, we somehow found each other." I said, staring into his eyes while he stared back into mine. Both of us started to smile at each other.
"Yeah, it's impressive. But I'm glad that we were able to find each other." Edwin said.
We just continued to spend time and talked with each other on the bench for a little bit and then we started to walk towards the Ohio Street Beach. We went to the beach, took our shoes off and just waded our feet in the shallow lake water and continued to walk around the area for a little bit…. I even playfully splashed Edwin with a little bit of water, and he splashed a little water back. Overall it was a wonderful day despite finding Simba and Nala on YouTube.
When Monday came, it was a typical work day, in which I continued to finish prepping and making observations on the Pikaia specimen that I had started to work on last week. It is interesting that even part of a specimen of a species from the Middle Cambrian era. I'm still amazed something from over 500 million years ago was able to survive because when I was in the Outlands, any time period before like 100 or 200 years ago would have been incomprehensible since nothing was recorded outside of some oral stories of how hyenas supposedly arrived in the Pride Lands-Outlands area. My experience in preparing specimens such as this confirms that the story of living organisms and life on Earth is much more complex than the stories I was told as a pup.
Tomorrow is the day in which our new interns for the Fall and Winter come. We only have around three interns each from different universities and colleges within Chicago. Though there are less interns compared to what we had in the summer, I think we will still be able to be productive with our work, plus there'll be less yelling from Makuu.
It was routine throughout the rest of my work day, and then when my day finished, I took the Red Line for a few stops to go to my therapist's office. I got off the Lake Red Line stop and I walked a few blocks and entered a beige concrete building through the automatic sliding doors, walking into a lobby and then towards the elevators where I hit the "up" button and in two minutes the elevator finally arrived. Once I got in, I pressed on the button indicating the 5th floor. This is a routine that is basically implanted in my mind at this point. I've basically been seeing her almost every other week, sometimes more on particularly bad times. We communicated with each other frequently for over a year.
As the elevator got to the fifth floor, and walked through the doors, I walked down a hallway to the left and on the second door to my right, was a glass door with "Chicago Area Counseling Services -New East Side" written on it. I opened the door and entered the waiting room area.
This lobby is one that I am very familiar with, which includes the front desk to my left, which had a beige slab on the surface, with a pattern of wall tile stones which came in assortments of white beige and brown. And to the right are several green chairs which are between small brown tables that contain a bunch of brochures. In that area is also a shelf filled with an assortment of used magazines and books. There was also a small area in the far right corner with a small table with some paper, crayons and a few puzzles, which is particularly for children of people with scheduled appointments, but not children who have appointments because I think the child counseling services offices are across the hall.
I approached the front desk where I found a familiar woman typing on the desk's computer. Her name is Seraiah and she typically worked the front desk of these offices. She looked up to me and gave me a light smile.
"Hi Jasiri, it's nice to see you again! How've you been lately?" Seraiah said in a cheerful tone.
"I'm doing well, thank you. How about you?" I asked.
"I'm fine, about as fine as I could on a Monday." She replied, which provoked a laugh from both of us.
"So I guess you are here for another appointment?" Seraiah asked.
"Yeah, I have my usual appointment with Joyce at 5:45." I asked, after which Seraiah started to type and browse at her computer.
"Let me see here…...Oh yes, appointment with Dr. Joyce Kronauge at 5:45, you can just have a seat back there, I think she will be finished with her next patient in a couple of minutes." She replied.
"Okay, thank you!" I said.
I just went to one of the seats next to one of the tables containing brochures. I just sat down and just scrolled through my phone for a few minutes. While I waited, I mostly just scrolled through my email, checked my Instagram and some other apps. I waited for like nine minutes before I heard a door open next to the desk, and saw a woman with blonde hair in a bun leave the office and then another woman came out, but this one I knew….it was Joyce, my therapist. She was about 5'8, had a blue sweater with a white blouse and black pants, she had reddish-brown hair in a ponytail, had hazel eyes and wore blue framed glasses.
"Hi Jasiri, it's great to see you again. You can just follow me as usual." Joyce said with a warm tone gesturing to me to follow her.
I followed her down the hallway in which the offices were located. It was a beige hallway with a few pictures on the wall and we then went through a brown door and next to it was a sign that said Dr Joyce B Kronauge, Psychologist.
We then walked into the room, which is one I've been to many times before. In the left corner, there was her desk with a PC computer, along with her personal laptop charging on the table next to it in a black laptop case. She also had some pictures hanging on her walls along her degrees. Her office walls were mint green-colored and there was a large window in the middle of the wall. In the room, there was also a brown faux leather chair which Joyce usually sat in during her appointments, a dark brown wooden coffee table with a box of tissues and a long blue couch that had a few throw pillows on it. I went to sit on the couch that I sat on many times to begin our sessions as Joyce sat in her chair.
"Hi Jasiri, I hope you are doing well?" She asked.
"I'm doing well thank you, how about you? How is Claire and the kids?" I asked.
"I'm doing well, and so is the rest of my family. Claire is just going through her wedding planning business as usual. Emmanuel is going to start second grade next Tuesday and Martyna will be starting first grade." She replied.
"That's great to hear." I said.
"So last time I talked with you, you said you were in a new relationship with that guy Edwin, how is that going?" She asked.
"Yeah, with Edwin, the researcher from the genetics lab at the museum. So far it's going great, we've been dating for a little over two weeks already and he's easily the sweetest guy I've ever dated. He's also incredibly smart, curious and generous." I said recalling
"That's good to hear. So just out of curiosity, what would you like to talk about today?" Joyce asked me.
"Well even though things are going great with Edwin so far, but sometimes I've noticed that he asks a lot of questions regarding my life in the Outlands and as a full hyena. Although I understand why he might be curious about it because before a month and a half ago, he did not know hybrids even exist, but still it can be exhausting answering all the questions he asks me sometimes. There are some cases in which I want to take a break from answering questions because I've been doing it since I first entered the human world. Also, even when I've moved on from most of the grief and the nightmares from the time of the drought, but occasionally the memories still come up from time to time and there are just times I just want to break from all that. It's nothing against Edwin, I really like him and he's a good boyfriend, I just want to find a way to tell him to take a break with questions sometimes." I told her.
"Well although it is normal for Edwin to be curious, I agree that there should be boundaries made when it comes to asking questions. Even when Edwin does not appear to have harmful intentions, the last thing we want is for any of those memories to come back, since you told me during our last few sessions that you are still recovering a little bit from the memories about the psychological, verbal and physical abuse you suffered at the hands of your ex Kion. Has there ever been an instance that Edwin asked you about your experiences with Kion at all?" Joyce asked me.
"Not really, he never really asked about anything specific about the time I dated Kion, which I appreciate because he seems to respect my privacy in that manner because he knows that is a traumatic matter that I would rather not discuss. He only asked questions relating to his curiosity of how he got to the person he was now, because he had heard about the way Kion used to be before the Tree of Life coup and the drought. By the way, nobody knows the answer to that question. Compared to the Kion stuff, the drought is easier to talk about since that happened over two decades ago and the stuff with Kion happened as recently as a little over a year ago, so that stuff is fresher in my mind I guess." I said to Joyce, after which she began to write something on her notepad.
"Yeah that makes sense, I think the best thing to do is that if you are afraid that a question he may ask you might unintentionally bring back a traumatizing memory, you can just tell him that you would rather not answer that question since it may trigger a bad memory for you." She told me.
"Yeah, that is my first instinct, I guess I was just concerned that I might either seem secretive or dishonest to him. Also in previous sessions you emphasized the importance of honesty between me and the relationships in my life." I said.
"Yes that's true, honesty is an important component to every healthy relationship, but if going to the specifics about certain memories might be too much for you, then you can avoid telling him the specifics that may trigger certain memories and only talk about them when you are ready to talk about it. Though you can still tell him general stuff about the experiences. But if hiding the memories may create an emotional obstacle or will cause more stress due to hiding the information, then I would highly recommend that you tell him about those experiences since you said that in several cases, talking to people about your experiences has actually helped you, acting as an emotional release. Overall I would recommend trying to divert away from discussing particularly traumatic memories with Edwin, but I think it's still good to talk with those close to you about your experiences, including Edwin. If you don't feel that you are ready to talk about certain details, then wait until you are ready and I'm sure Edwin will understand if he is the caring boyfriend you describe him to be." Joyce said.
"Yeah, you're probably right, I'm sure Edwin will understand, he's a very patient person and he's been good to me so far. Thank you for your advice on my dilemma." I said while turning towards Joyce.
"No problem Jasiri, my job is to help you. Also speaking of sharing your experiences, are you still writing stuff in your journal?" Joyce asked.
Ever since I learned how to write, I've written in and kept journals for me to write about the experiences about my past in the Outlands, my experiences in the human world and even expressing the emotions I've felt on certain days. In some of those journals, I've written about some of the most experiences of my life both before and after my entry in the human world.
"Oh yes, I'm still journaling, I find it helpful when I want to express my emotions to something in my life when I don't feel like expressing them verbally." I told her.
"Yeah, that's good. How has work been going for you?" She asked.
"So far it is going well, my boss Makuu has not yelled at anyone for almost a month, so that's a new record and we are working on some interesting projects, though the museum CEO's ego has inflated to new and insensitive high. I guess he had some issues even before he and his wife, now-ex-wife, split up." I told her.
"Oh, so the guy who was the former king of the Pride Lands split up with his wife. Interesting...I think you told me something about him cheating on his wife a while back, so I wouldn't be that surprised that the couple would end up divorcing each other." She said.
"Yeah that's true, but still I did not expect it to go down the path it did. It's kind of funny to think that back in the Pride Lands the royal family appeared to be this picturesque, and perfect poster family that the other residents and family were supposed to follow, and it sometimes shocked me that they were hiding all these secrets from all of us. With Simba's arrogant behavior and multiple affairs, Nala hides the extent of their marital problems from us and you already know about Kion. But I also feel bad for Nala because a lot of pressure was placed on her to maintain this unfair status quo and she is genuinely one of the nicest lions I've ever met. Plus I feel bad for their first born daughter Kiara because she does not seem to know anything about the drama the rest of the family is going through and she's basically been left out of the blue most of her life." I told her.
"Yeah, that must be a difficult situation for this Kiara, being the one person in her immediate family that does not know the whole story about their family." She said.
"Yeah, it must have been tough when she finally learned the facts about her family's hidden secrets over the years. I hope she is able to get through those conflicted feelings." I said.
"Okay, to change the topic back to your well-being, I was wondering if there have been any recent incidents in the nightmares that you have been experiencing since the first time you were living in human society?" Joyce asked me.
"Well compared to when I first was in the human world, my nightmares have definitely decreased in frequency because now I mostly have nightmares only every two weeks compared to every night when I first became a hybrid. Though I still have the occasional flashbacks from either the drought or my abuse from my previous relationship with Kion, but overall I'm making progress on it and I am less emotionally impacted by these flashbacks on a daily basis than before." I said.
"That's good to hear that your nightmares and flashbacks seem to be getting more manageable. As long as you keep journaling and talking to people about your experiences when you are ready to talk about them, you should be making more progress on making these nightmares and flashbacks much more manageable." Joyce said.
"Thank you Joyce, I will do my best to complete these processes." I told her.
"We continued to talk a little bit about things going on in our lives until she started to look at the time on the digital clock on her wall.
"Oh….looks like our time is nearly up. I hope you have found our appointment helpful for you today." She said as I started to get up from the couch I was sitting on.
"Oh yeah you've been very helpful, thank you. Also thanks for your advice on the Edwin question thing, I think it could potentially further improve our relationship so that we can further build our sense of trust among one another." I told her as I grabbed my bag.
"No problem, just talk to me whenever you feel you need it." She said as she went to her desk to put away her notepad.
"I will, I hope you have a good evening." I said.
"You too, I will see you at our next appointment." Joyce said as I walked out.
"I will." I replied.
I calmly walked out of her office and headed back to the elevator to head out the building to head back home.
A few hours after I returned home, had dinner and transformed into my anthro hyena form, I just sat and watched the show I am now streaming, talking with Edwin on the phone just about random stuff that happened at work today. Though I wished that Edwin was here with me, he had a genetic research conference that night that he had to go to with his research team and it ran late and some of it took place during some of my work day and the entirety of my appointment with Joyce. So the best that we can do is talk and text with each other on the phone, though I did prefer that he was with me right now but I guess that today was just a case of bad timing and time conflicts that we can't control sometimes; the important thing is to manage things you can control.