Dr. Charlie Harrison's Story

"I can't carry a piano or guitar around conveniently and I prefer the music the flute makes." She couldn't see why he was so interested, and she furrowed her eyebrows as she tried to figure out why. After a while, she just put it off as he was bored and felt satisfied with that response. "I can play for you sometime if you want," another slight pause, "what is bothering you?" She asked as she looked straight into his eyes with a curious expression; she scoffed to herself at the thought of how ironic it would be if he needed help just like the other patients here. She didn't realize that she was staring at him intently.

"Well, your staring a bit." Charlie answered as he looked back at her, starting to feel a bit uneasy. "Other than that, nothing." He said with a smile. "And why? Do you want to play for me?" He said with a smile. Then, thinking that they might be here a while, he went over and lend on a wall. He pushed his sleeves back up and started tracing one of his tattoos with his finger. Still smiling to himself.

"Sorry." Mai said, feeling her face heat up as she quickly looked away from his face. "I can play for you in my office if you want. We can use that time to answer any questions you might have as well." She noticed just how often he smiled and she began to wonder if they were genuine or not. "Your smiles, are they all sincere?" She asked after a while as she glanced down to his tattoos and gave a slight smile. She closed her eyes and began to visualize the tattoos in her mind; they intrigued her because there was just something about them.

Charlie gave a slight smile. "Of course my smiles are sincere. Why wouldn't they be?" He said as he stood up off the wall. Shrugging putting his hands in his pockets. Coming to stand in front of Mai. He smiled, waiting for a respond. "And I'd love to hear you play." He added with a smile. It was a bit tough being the happy guy here, in a place like this. But he didn't care.

Mai sighed as she decided that she did not want to waste time anymore; he was starting to get on her nerves and she had enough play time. She grabbed his wrist a bit too roughly as she lead them back to her office and sat down on top of her desk. "Enough stalling, time to answer any questions you have before you get off to work." She told him as she indulged in her bad habit of closing her eyes and letting her mind wander off, she crossed her arms and began to wonder if he really meant what he told her about his smiles. When he did not respond fast enough for her liking, she opened up one of her eyes and added, "You can ask about anything, I guess- doesn't have to be work-related; although, that would be nice." In the awkward silence, she opened up both of her eyes and just stared at him, she did not know that she gave him a slight smile.

Charlie, looking a little confused, said "No, I have no questions." He then looked around the room. When he saw nothing interesting, he started thumping his thumbs. When he saw Mai give a slight smile, he had a very confused look on his face. "Why are you smiling?" He asked. I guess I did have a question after all. He thought to himself and gave a slight smile and a small chuckle. "So why are you smiling?" He asked again, switching back to his serious face with a small chuckle and crossed his arms.

Mai raised an eyebrow as she put on an almost neutral expression. Why was she smiling? As far as she was concerned, she had nothing to be able to smile about; since she did not know the answer off-hand-even if she did know, she would refuse to acknowledge it- , all she did was get off of the desk and lean closely to him. "Guess," She told him as soon as she took a few steps back with a mocking smile on her face. "You don't have a question about Hell or the way things work here?" A fake sincerity rang in her voice now as she brushed her hair back a bit.

Charlie thought a moment. "I give up on guessing." He said in a defeated tone. "And no. I have no questions." He said with a slight smile. "Wait, yeah. What's this 'Hell' I keep hearing about. You told me that to some people this place is just that to some." He didn't have a smile on his face no more. He had a very curious look. He wanted to know what that catch was.

"This 'Hell' is the term patients use to describe the room where we administer treatments." Mai told him as she went over to him and leaned closely-almost to the point where they were touching- and gave him a fake smile. She hoped that he was satisfied with that answer, as she smiled a real smile to herself. Things were going to change around here, she thought, and she wanted to see what would happen.