HALLUCINATIONS

“You have no parents Alex! Only we are the ones, to whom you can consider as a guardian. So if you don’t want me to get mad at you, just never ever say that you have parents. You have to admit that god has not blessed you with parent’s love. You have only me and that woman standing over there, your aunt Lucy. Now just get the HELL out of here”, yelled Uncle Walt at Alex. Alex, a 9 year old boy heard to every single word, said by his uncle as he was determined to prepare a draft of these unholy words emitted for him by Uncle Walt, and to present it in front of his dad. He loved both, his uncle and aunt. Aunt Lucy was kind in each part of her body and she always displayed this very kindness to her nephew. While on the other hand, Uncle Walt had a bipolar type of nature towards Alex. Sometimes, he would be kinder than even his wife but each time Alex would say anything about his parents, he would go mad. His uncle was the manager at THE MASTER’s, a very famous restaurant just a few lanes off the main market. Aunt Lucy was a chef in that very restaurant, so most of the day time of Alex was spent alone at home. Alex had not ever gone to school for he was ill, and that illness was even unknown to him. But during the day, his parents were used come and meet him. So he was a sort of happy. 

His father had lent out that house to his brother (Uncle Walt), who just considered that he had no siblings. But Alex was too small to understand things like that. He would enjoy his time spent with his father, mother and even with his uncle and aunt. He was smart enough to suck out the marrow of fun out of anyone. “O! Don’t be so mad at him. Come Alex, I will take you to your room. But first deposit the plate you have in your hand into the sink”, guided her aunt. Alex followed the instructions given by his aunt. Alex lived in the first floor. While on the way to his room, she said in a faint tone, “Who told you that you have parents?” Recognizing that the talk between them has entered the boundaries of his own mind, which had a huge section labeled-‘PARENTS’. He said, “Aunty, nobody has told me.” Like any other day, this time he didn’t stop here and continued further saying, “I meet them daily, after you two go to work.” Lucy was a little shocked and replied him, “Hey sweetheart. Just learn it that you don’t have any parents. Ok. Goodnight.” Lucy left him at the door to his room. But Alex as always followed her, in order to hear the highlights of the conversation between his uncle and aunt. The two couple had no progeny, so Alex was the only living child in that lonely house and his presence made the house laugh with joy. He heard his uncle saying, “What shall we do now? This way he will lose all the faith in us.” Then he heard his uncle coming towards his aunt, who was standing just behind the wall that hid little Alex. So he returned back to his room making sure that no sound is being emitted by him. He usually didn’t take all these talks seriously as they had become common to him. So the next thing he did was to climb up his bed, covering his body with the blanket, having a print of ‘Mickey mouse’ on it. He wanted to enter the world of creativity, and face some of the traces of his imagination in his dreams as well as the day after. 

The blanket covering Alex had begun to shake. Alex knew that his father had come to wake him up. He knew that it won’t be his Uncle and Aunt because they usually leave for work before he is back to his senses. After ignoring the cries made by his father for a long time, he suddenly stood up making an unorganized face, in order to frighten his father. His father also made the same face, like the one made by Alex. Then both of them laughed like anything. “Hi dad. You know what dad, yesterday uncle Walt again scolded me, when I spoke of you and mom. He even spoke that ‘H’ word”, said Alex. “Oh! What are you talking son. I would certainly scold him. But forget them. You know, that I am extremely busy after evening, so the only time I can take out is in the morning. So is the case with your mom. Now that I’m here, I would like to spend time with you and not to enter into a conversation regarding your uncle”, responded John. Alex smiled to his father and asked, “Where is mom?” As he completed his question, a woman entered the room, addressing, “To the master of this house and the master of my heart, I present the morning breakfast.” “Hey champ. Ready to have some toast. But first go and wash out the dust and germs dancing on your hands.” Alex jumped off the bed and went towards his washroom. He had just left the room, when he overheard some conversations going inside the room. His father was saying, “I think so that he is still having hallucinations.” A fear of getting caught was covering Alex, so he traced out the path which leads him to the washroom. While coming back somewhere behind his brain, an echo, with increasing amplitude was heard. It repeated itself in a never ending loop, until Alex insisted on it. The echo was of the word, ‘Hallucinations’, which he heard towards the end of his parent’s conversation. “Now what is this, Hallucinations?” murmured Alex. There was a feeling that this question should not be asked to his father, because it might spoil his mood, and he would never do that. Neither will he ask his uncle, because he usually ends up in becoming serious, when such a question is being asked by him. For some time, he abandoned the idea of even looking up the meaning of this term, because he wanted to enjoy each and every moment spent with his parents. He went straight and sat in between his parents. His parents asked him to have the toast himself because they wanted him to be an all-rounder, right from the beginning. But yes they keenly watched his actions, the way he ate that slice of bread, the way the vegetables fell on him and then, the way he would laughed, seeing his parents, as if asking for pardon as he had spoiled his shirt. They would spend the day, hearing to his innocent talks. But as the clock hand makes an obtuse angle in the clockwise direction, .i.e. the time surpasses the limit within which the enterprise of the parents meeting their little child was possible, the parents would surely bid goodbye to their angel, promising of their soon arrival. Alex’s mother departed saying, “If you’ll have any problem, just contact the neighbor aunty. OK. Bye.” Alex had many secrets, neither his parents, nor his uncle and aunt knew, what happened at the house, in between the time of their absence. One of his very good friends, Joe would come to his house, bringing along with him all his toys and his friend Ben. Ben was the son of a renowned psychiatrist. It was only a few days before that they (Alex and Ben) had met each other, but a strong bond of friendship had already formed between them. This meeting was concealed to everyone. Not even their parents knew of this ‘friend triangle’. The rule of this meeting was to talk of anything, one would like to share but all these conversations were confidential. Besides, they even maintained a diary, the diary containing all their information, with their phone numbers. And because the meetings were always held in Alex’s house, the diary was also possessed by him. But before they came, everyday knocks at the door Mrs. Wilkes, his neighbor. She brings with her the lunch for Alex. Usually it had a majority of Asian dishes, which were the favourites of Alex. As far as he remembers, the first time she brought it, he just had it, enjoying every bit of it, not concerned of who had asked her to give it to him. He felt that it wasn’t his worry, he was to just have the food and thank god. The lady would always ask if he was alright and to update her of any moderation in anything relating to him, which affected him unfavourably. This made him feel that his parents would have been the one to ask her for the favour. And then he would not go any further into the woods to seek for the source of river, with which he was used to feed himself and attain his basic necessities. Then, the ones who would enter his home were two boys, of his very age- Joe and Ben. By that time, Alex was ready. He had eaten the lunch, washed the utensils and just stood by the door to welcome his guests.

 Alex soon felt a knock at his door. He went straight, welcomed his friends, signaled them to sit and continued, “I’ve already thought the topic of the day-Hallucinations. Is anyone aware of this term?” Joe, with his looks only confirmed Alex that he was nowhere near that term. But Ben, giving away a smile said, “Well, it seems, I am. Hallucinations is not the term actually, it is Schizophrenia. It is normally observed in late adolescence or early adulthood. Many cases of Hallucinations come daily to my father daily. It is when you see people which are in actual not present. Sometimes these can be as sweet as honey but sometimes or in some cases, they can be as frightening as a ghost. Sometimes, they can be your best friend or gravest enemy. Schizophrenia is the mental disorder and hallucination is one its symptom. But where did you hear it?” Alex was shocked. Why were his parents saying that he ‘still hallucinates’ when he told them about Uncle Walt. He was lost in his own world. When Ben jerked him, and asked again, “Where did you hear this term?” He replied that while moving through the channels in order to reach THE CARTOON NETWORK, he heard in one of the channels. He didn’t share the thing that was in his mind. He wanted to chase this matter himself, and not to include any of his mates. 

Then there were other talks regarding their dreams, the various things they were willing to watch in the television that day and finally a horror story was to be recited by any one of them. Alex was not much participating. Ben many times asked if he was alright. Then he thought and said, “Well friends. Last Sunday I saw a movie. The Sixth Sense. Has anyone seen it? Alex, you should see it. It’s all about a child having Hallucinations. But at the present moment, I feel that you are not well and we should leave you now. The time is also almost over, so now Joe and I would like to bid you goodbye.” Ben and Joe left, but they left in that house, a child who had now become depressed. His mind was tossing like the coin over and over again, and every time it fell with the side- ‘Hallucinations’. He went straight to his room, and just thought of what his parents had said. The long arm of the clock had ticked to complete 6 full rotations after 12 noon. And then, the bell rang. “It would be Mrs. Wilkes.” He hurried down and opened the door. He said, “I am extremely sorry madam, I forgot to return you the utensils. I am getting it right away.” “Oh! No worry. But are you all right, I was getting tensed by thinking of you”, said his neighbor. He shouted from the corner of the room, saying, “Yes madam. For sure. Thank you for such a delicious lunch.” He then, handed her all the utensils, as clean as if newly bought by someone. “O child! Why do you always clean them”, taunted Mrs. Wilkes. She turned behind to leave when he stopped her and asked, “Madam, can I ask you. Who has told you to provide me with such a beautiful lunch?” Mrs. Wilkes gave him smile and said, “Someone, who is most near to your heart. Someone, who concerns about you the most. Now you only guess, who it is. Goodbye.” “The one nearest to me is my parents. Does that really mean that I have no uncle or aunt? Now that’s the reason, dad doesn’t talk about uncle. And that Uncle Walt, who is not in real, wants to take my parents apart from me. Then the words spoken by his uncle last night flashed in his mind and he began to murmur them, ‘What shall we do now? This way he will lose all the faith in us.’ Now I will expose you tomorrow. Just wait”, he thought. It was quarter to 7:00 pm. His uncle and aunt would reach at any moment. So he first locked the door from inside, like always because they had a spare key. “How can one’s imagination be so high that he can see and even feel someone who is not there”, thought Alex. Imagine, you wake one morning, then there comes a stranger to your house, asking for something, you ask your relative to help you out. You began to converse with your relative. Then, the stranger asks, to whom are you talking, there’s no one standing there. How would you feel? Someone, with whom you have spent the best days of your life, is no one but a consequence of your disorder. Many of you would like to continue with your disorder, only a little are there, who are able to attain the strength to face their illness. Alex was one of them. At such a tender age, he was ready to part with someone, with who he had lived the majority of his life- his uncle and aunt. As soon as he locked the door, he flipped into the pages of his personal diary-the one having the details of the ‘friend triangle’. He phoned Ben. A bold voice introduced himself, “Hello I am Dr. Chris D’Cruz.” Alex replied, “Hello sir. I am a friend of Ben. My name is Alex. Lately, I’ve come to know that I am having hallucinations. So can you please come here and have a look as it would be a little difficult for me to come there. I’m sure that you’ll understand.” “Ok child. But please tell me your address”, said Ben’s father. “Oh sir! Don’t fear of address. Ask your son, he’ll update you. Thank You Sir”, finished Alex and cancelled the means to any further conversation. He then went straight to his room, covered himself with blanket and pretended of sleeping. Then he heard the main door opening and his aunt began to call him, when she found him nowhere in the ground floor. She entered his room, gave him a tight hug and asked if he was alright. Alex replied, “I am not feeling well, I am having a pukish feeling. Aunt, can you take holiday from the work tomorrow. I don’t feel like staying home alone. Can you please also convince uncle too? “Oh! Surely dear”, said that woman. She went downstairs and talked to her husband. Then she came upstairs again, to tell him that they will be at home the day after. “Aunt, I don’t feel like having dinner. Good Night”, said Alex. “Ok. Good Night”, replied his aunt. Oh! So many sacrifices are to be made to attain something. Alex sacrificed his dinner because he was determined to face his illness and to pull, the entire plant along with the roots, which maintained this relationship. The next day, he woke up earlier than any other day. It seems that hunger had waked him up. Isn’t it a better alarm? But no thoughts of hunger were parallel to him. He waited for his parents to come. His uncle and aunt woke up. They entered the living room where they found Alex sitting, looking at the door. He greeted them ‘Good Morning’. A little later, the main door opened and came in his parents. His uncle and aunt did not respond to their arrival and then, Alex happily said, “Look uncle. As I had said, here are my parents.” His uncle and aunt looked where his fingers were pointing and gave an expression like-“Oh shit! Now what will happen?” At this, his father quickly said, “To whom are you talking dear. There is no one standing there.” “I knew it”, thought Alex and said (pretended), “What are you saying dad. He is my uncle and she is my aunt. I play with them, laugh with, live with them and also eat with them. They are standing over there.” His uncle and aunt were so surprised that they could barely speak anything. Then the door bell rang. Alex went and opened the door. “Hello. I’ve been called here. I am Chris D’Cruz, a psychiatrist. Are you Alex?”Questioned Ben’s father.  “Yes sir. Please come in. Yes sir, I am Alex. I had phoned you. Yes I am the one having Hallucinations. I overheard my parents speaking yesterday that I have this strange mental disorder. Over there are my uncle and aunt, standing beside the kitchen door. My parents said that they can’t see them. See over there. Can you see them?”asked Alex. He was proud for he felt that he was too smart to end up in conclusions by himself.“Umm… There is a man wearing a brown pant and a blue shirt. There is woman wearing a blue coloured gown. Two people are standing there. Yes I can see them”, replied Dr. Chris. Alex was so surprised that his jaws fell open and his eyes spread out, it seemed that they would pop out at any moment. Then he said to his parents, “Mom, dad he is saying that he can see uncle and aunt. Aren’t they my hallucinations? I …..” He was further saying something when he was interrupted by Dr. Chris. He said, “Hey boy. Now first of all tell me, to whom are talking right now? There is no one standing over there.”