When Dr. Stanford joins Tom in his room for their afternoon session – this location has worked well so far and she still isn’t sure whether moving things to her office would help or hinder their progress – he is doodling some plants in one of the provided notebooks.

“Those are really good,” she comments. As a rule of thumb, she tends to always praise a patient’s work, especially artistic, but in this case, it does look pretty decent.

“They’re okay,” he replies. “Ed is amazing at naturalist drawing. Maya can do really cute flower paintings. Me, I’m just… It’s like everything, I took a vague interest in drawing, tried it out, gave it up, and that’s actually the absolute best you’ll get out of me. You know what they say: Jack of all trades, master of none.”

“You sound really harsh one yourself. You’re only nineteen years old, you do not need to be the best at anything by now.”

“Or ever.”

“Or ever,” she agrees. “Thomas, before we resume your tale, I would like to discuss today’s lunch with you.”

Thomas sighs and pushes away the drawing. He turns to face the therapist but doesn’t make direct eye contact. “It was nice to see them. Thank you.”

She did not expect him to express gratitude and it throws her off for a second or two. But that is a good thing, it will definitely help in the long term. “You’re welcome. Would you like to have your meals with them every day?”

“What do I have to do in return?”

She shrugs. “Not everything has to be a bargain.”

“No one does anything for nothing.”

“Then how about you just continue your story.”

She can see on his face instantly that he felt patronized by her answer and that it wasn’t the smartest move on her part. So she just moves on. “A lot of things happened at lunch.”

“Really?”

“Thomas, let’s not pretend either of us is more stupid than we actually are.”

“Fine,” he sighs.

“Would you care to explain any of it?”

“I don’t think there is anything to explain.”

“Just humor me. You three seem to be pretty close.”

“Sixteen months away will do that to people.”

“True. Was that enough time to learn a new language? Or to create one, maybe?”

“According to the Internet, you can learn a language in a week, so I suppose it would be enough time.”

“Does that language have a name?”

“Nope.”

“What did you talk about?”

“I can’t remember.”

This boy is extremely frustrating. “Fine. Then do you remember what Maya was doing after lunch? With the water.”

“Sometimes, we create habits that reassure us and it’s hard to let go.”

“You didn’t seem happy that she wasn’t letting go, though.”

He tuts, and it’s interesting to note what he is laid back about and what annoys him. “Because it’s useless and disrespectful.”

“Disrespectful?”

“It’s dangerous to take the meaning out of meaningful things.”

“It can be healthy when you want to leave the past behind. Unless, of course, there was any truth to Edwin’s words.” Thomas doesn’t answer anything so Dr. Stanford pushes: “Do you want to go back?”

“There could be a lot of reasons to want to go back.”

“Such as what?”

“To finish something that needs closure. To get the others. To not have to be stuck in this place. Or even to go further back and never have been there in the first place.”

Okay, that answer was interesting. “I know you feel stuck here, but this is not forever. This is a step between where you were and where you are going back to. But this is also a place where you can get closure on whatever feels unfinished or heavy. I can help you with that. You just need to let me. Going further back, however, will not be possible. Whatever happened to you over these few months is a part of you now and you will have to learn how to cope with that. But it doesn’t have to be a bad thing; it can make you grow and become a strength. As for the others… We can go get them, Tom. You just need to tell us where they are.”

He looks at her and his eyes are intense. For a silly moment, she almost believes that he is about to cave, that he will tell her the one thing that seemed the most pressing matter at the moment. Finding the other children. But then he simply corrects her: “Thomas.”

“I’m sorry?”

“It’s Thomas, not Tom.”

“I’m sorry. Thomas. Where are the other children?”

“I’m not sure.”

“I think you’re lying.”

“And I promise you that if I could take you to them, right now, I would. But I can’t.”

“Why not?”

“I don’t know the way.”

“You could tell us more about where you were.”

“I am.”

“Your story? Edwin doesn’t seem to give it much value.”

“Yeah, well, Edwin hasn’t heard it, has he?”

“No, I suppose he has not. Are you saying he would confirm the story if he did?”

“Why would anyone confirm a hypothetical story?”

Thomas has always been described by everyone she talked to as someone full of light, who could make friends easily, and who people tended to enjoy the company. Perhaps he is still that boy, perhaps she will be able to see that when he stops seeing her as the enemy, but as things stand now, Dr. Stanford tends to think that the boy is cold, challenging, full of himself, and a little annoying. She wouldn’t say she dislikes him, she couldn’t do her job if she disliked her patients or held their traumas against them, but this is definitely not the boy people have described. This is yet another sign that something happened to them over those few months.

“Alright, then. One more question. What happened with the door.”

“The door?”

“Yes, when the door opened, you all had a pretty visceral reaction to it.”

Thomas’ jaw clenches for a second. “That wasn’t a pleasant sound.”

“I think there is more to it than that.”

“Like what?”

“You tell me.” He stays silent and she caves first. “Fine. Perhaps there will be answers in that story of yours down the line. Shall we start that again? You said something was about to happen.”

“Yep. Something important.”

“Alright,” she says, switching on her recorder. “I’m all ears.”