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Crazy
Location: right behind you...
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not a lot, but a few pages here. I had o take a break for a day or two; i sstarted trying so hard that i not only pailed to deliver, i started dwelling on failure. so i took a break. now i want to write again.
(uhhhhh fill in here)
In the month of May, 1970 Cliff Yates was born to a fair off family. He had one sister. They were never rich, but they never had to go hungry. Sometimes they went easy on activities due to lack of funds, but they were not hungry and they were never unsheltered.
Cliff enjoyed his life as a child and teenager. His parents, Nate and Olivia Yale, were very much in love and raised their son and daughter well.
Yet, as life is, something happened. Their lives changed.
Cheyenne Yale was a sister and friend to Cliff. Cheyenne was only two and a half years older than Cliff. She was the typical good sister and they became quite close.
Then boom; tragedy. Cheyenne had been riding a bike when a truck came out of no where and hit her, severing one arm and smashing the other, and the collision shattered her spine.
She was in ICU for seventeen weeks and came home a quadropalegic, and had a tracheotomy so she’d not drown when congested. Cliff was only six years old and could suction his sister out if she needed it.
To make fairly long story short, the Yale family kind of went downhill.
A week or two after Cheyenne came home she couldn’t get some of the medical help she needed. It was perfectly acceptable for the government to pay to place her in a nursing home no matter the price; but home care? Nah. Cliff has his theories on why… but that’s for later.
As time went bye Mr. and Mrs. Yale worked two and sometimes three jobs. The amount of effort they put in drug them down pretty quickly and it left Cliff to take care of her while they were away. Oh, he was only seven or so when the parents had to use him to help out, but the boy was extremely mature for his age and he had many telephone numbers to call in case of emergency.
Once, at age eight, some people showed up acting enraged that an eight year old to take care of helpless ten year old was obscene. A few days later, after a massive tug-of-war child services let the issue drop.
Cliff had to give testimonials on how well he and Cheyenne were cared for and he told the peers exactly what he thought of it all. He proved one big fact: Don’t fuck with kids when they are desperate.
Cliff looked somewhat blankly at a few of the adults when he heard a woman in her mid forties named Lindsay Lan, say “Look at him now, staring into space. He can’t take care of himself, much less Cheyenne! Cliff! Cliff! Boy I’m talk-“ Cliff cut her off.
“I heard you perfectly well but I was listening. When I’m listening I block everything not important out of my head.”
With an enraged eye, the woman scolded him “Unimportant am I?”
“All of you are igsignificant. I have a sister in dire need of proper care, I have no time or want to listen to old men and women try to make themselves feel good by feeding off of other people’s sorrows.”
The people on the case became quite ill at this. Oddly, though, the mediator of the whole mock trial was listening intently. “Mr. Keys, this child is being unbearably rude.” Spoke a man in his early fifties who dressed about as sharply as a corpse.
“Cliff, I don’t have any wish to scold you son, but please be civil.” Spoke the judge. And it is “Your highness, not “Sir Keys”. The judge turned his sharp eyes on the man who spoke earlier.
“Do we have an agreement?” the judge asked. Everyone mumbled agreeance.
“Maybe you could tell u what you are listening to so intently, son.” Spoke the judge in the odd mixture of both soothing and suggestion.
“I’m sorry, Mr. Keys. I got upset.” Stated Cliff, honestly.
“I’ve had ruder adults son, it is okay. Now explain.”
“When Cheyenne was younger, last year, she could not speak loudly. She slurred, too. I, and my parents, have trained ourselves to hear her. You learn and never forget.”
“But she is being cared for now, so listen to us, Cliff.” Said Mrs. Lan.
Cliff shook. For a moment everything thought him to be either giggling or crying, but it happeed so quickly that no one had chance to ask or even realize. “My sister exists in your care. She is a machine with the correct wiring to let her live. In my care she is alive. That is not living!” he shouted.
Mrs. Lan went to scold the kid again when Judge Keys stepped in and told gestured her to sit and he asked Cliff if he’d like a break.
Cliff shook his head and stated the sooner this is over, the sooner he could relax: with his sister. Cliff apologiezed.
“I have never been so rudel-“
“Mrs. Lan,” Judge Keys said angrily, “He is stressed out. He is trying to be rude, do not interrupt us again.”
Mrs. Lan looked like a weird fish out of water, moving her mouth wordlessly back and forth as if pulling in massive amounts of oxygen.
“May I continue, Mr. Keys?” asked Cliff.
“By all means, son.”
“The boys had his say, Mr. Keys!“ started Mrs. Lan.
“Get out. Now. You are suspended off of this case and you will not come back to this building in less than a month. If you do show back up I will have your ass handed to you on a plate, Mrs. Lan.” The Judge looked like fury incarnate, but he looked at Cliff and said “apologiez for the language, son.”
Cliff smiled and said “I hear worse all the time.”
The judge nodded. “and I remind you all my office is judge, not Mr. unless I like them. Cliff can call me Mr. the rest will title me honorably or share Mrs. Lan’s fate.”
Everyone went quiet.
“Explain again, Cliff. Um, try to be more.. delicate to the other people’s feelings, son.”
“Yes sir.” Spoke Cliff. The judge beamed. Cliff felt kind of guilty, he was manipulating everyone. . . but why sweat over survival? Cliff was surviving.
“I take care of her properly. By ‘properly’, I mean that I take care of her with love, not mechanical movements. I know nurses and aides and doctors cannot take the time to give her extra attention or to let her know someone cares.”
“The thing is, she is not a machine. When they ‘care’ for her, she is moved like a puppet, they ignore her cries and frustrations, the let her go too long without her medications and I’ve had to change her diapers three times because one of the aides were too busy talking!”
For what seemed like thirty lifetimes of being strong and playing the grown up, Cliff starting weeping uncontrollably. He could not stop.
The judge and other folk around the room frowned and stared off as if seeing a strange ghost; nothing scary. . . just uncomfortable.
“We will take a break now. Be back here in two hours.” Stated judge Keys.
They all departed, Cliff leaving last, when Mr. Keys stopped him. “Cliff, you are brave and are doing a good job. However, you do need to try to be less passionate when speaking.”
“I was taught to be honest, sir.”
“I know, son, and you’re doing a great job. I wish I had the power to more, but I honestly am trying my best.”
“I know, sir.”
“Now you will see what the law is about these days.” Mr. keys stated and stopped short. Cliff went to comment on such a peculiar statement when Mr. Keys once again started speaking. “I took this job as just that, a job. A liberty to use my wisdom to help those who need help.”
“Unfortunately, people have been slow but surely pissing away all forms of public decency and conduct and worse of all: freedom. It is not why I took this job, to be a babysitter for adults who think way too damned much of themselves. I took the job to try to help society.”
Again, Mr. Keys stopped talking and then resumed a few moments later. “I have learned that I too am a sheep. The problem, though is none of the shepherds love the flock. They have mixed with the wolves. They no longer dance with the devil, they fuck him.”
“Not all is lost of course. There are lots of good people in the world, never forget that. Ever. Its just that too many people now have power; a necessary evil long ago. Now days society should hold the power to govern themselves, to rule their own lives. However, its not the case. People rather be sheep. They’d rather be led.”
An extreme sadness enveloped the judge.
“So, this is why I gave you so much leeway today. I fear I’ve put myself into some jeporady. Mrs. Lan was called out by me, and it was my right, but every great action carries weight. I guarantee she’ll take word to offcials that I abused my right.”
“But you said it was your right, sir.”
“And it is, it was, but I still will have to speak up about it if I she pushes it. If she pushes I should be able to keep from getting in too deep, but I am simply trying to be realistic.”
“In theory, what I did was right. In reality, I’ll be damned. That is why I have you here now. I have someone for you to meet tomorrow. He goes by the name “Vigil”. He will help you and your family out.”
“Whe-“
“I’ll tell you where to meet him later. I want you to understand all I’m putting down on the line. Not because of your conscious, but one day it may lead you to help another. Alright?”
“Alright”, Cliff said but his eyes screamed a ‘huh?’.
The judge laughed. “I forget your only seven. Alright now, be on your way.”
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