Voices, Task 1

Splash! I jump into the cool sapphire pool, feeling all the troubles of my day just wash away. Nothing matters when I’m encased in the crisp blue waters. I’d been going to St. Stevens cold springs since I was 6, and 10 years later I still aimed to go there at least once a week. To me, there was no better feeling than jumping into the seemingly infinite waters, so cold it hits your body harder than Muhammad Ali. I didn’t think today would be any different. You don’t think that one simple event can change your whole life, do you? Well. I never did anyway. “No’, was Alice’s response when I asked her to come swimming with me. ‘No?’ I repeated. ‘Just like that?’

‘Mhmm.’ She smiled ‘You know usually I’d love to, Ellie! But tonight I have plans- but have fun without me!’ Oh well who cares? I’m here now and having much needed me time! I pulled myself up onto a rock my whole body shivering. I lay down and closed my eyes, letting out a peaceful sigh. Nothing mattered. Everything here was irrelevant, inconsequential. It was just me, the trees and the therapeutic whispers of the spring.

I open my eyes. As I look up, I see nothing but the night sky looming over me. I must’ve slept for hours! Mum and dad would be worried, so hurriedly I pull myself up from the rock and attempt to get back on the pathway. Then it happens. My hands . The rock, saturated inspring water. My bare feet. A stumble. A scream. A crack. Silence.

I wake up in a cold white room which would probably smell of disinfectant and rubber, if I didn’t have a mask over my nose and mouth. It hurts. I’m not sure what, but all of me aches. Then I hear it, a kind of muffled sound, as if I had an earful of water. Maybe I did. Imperceptible and hushed, but still unmistakeably , a voice.

I slept for most of that day, I was too weak to do much else. Sometime when it was dark outside, a nurse with a name tag which read ‘Betsey’, brought me a plate of food. I thanked her, and as she walked off I’m sure I heard her laugh and say ‘enjoy your dogfood!’ but it was in that fuzzy way again. I put that down to still being disoriented, and dragged my apathetic body up a few centimeters so my back rested comfortably on the propped up pillow. Taking the plastic fork, I delved into something reconstituted from the stomach of a cow. As hungry as I was, I couldn’t justify the idea of eating something that looked like it belonged in a clogged up toilet bowl!

The next few days passed in a blur, probably due to the amount of strong painkillers they’d put me on. I vaguely remember blood tests and brain scans, walking the wards of the hospital listlessly, just looking for something to do. Each time I walked up and down the Barker Ward, I could hear lots of voices. Voices of concerned mothers, worried doctors and frightened patients. But when I looked around, nobody was speaking. Finally on Friday, they told me I was well enough to go home. I was well rested and feeling better than ever when I got to leave the hospital. My head didn’t hurt anymore and my once weakened body had regained most of its strength. The only problem was what was going on inside my head. The voices. I guess I could just put it down to sleep deprivation but right now I felt as If I’d slept for 10 years! I couldn’t sleep more if I tried! Mum and dad greeted me with a shower of kisses and tears which, for once, I really appreciated.

In the car on the way home, I could hear dad cursing the drivers. When I looked at mum, who is usually the first to yell at him for his abrasive swearing, she just sat in the seat next to him, looking out the window smiling, completely oblivious.

‘Hey ,dad!’

‘Yes?’

‘I really don’t think you should call that woman that, just because she’s driving a bit slow…’

‘What?’ Mum questioned. ‘Steve, what did you call that woman?’

‘Nothing.’ Dad lied. ‘Nothing! Did you hear me say anything?’

‘Well…no.’ Mum bit her lip. ‘You shouldn’t be making stuff up like that, Ellie!’ She spoke to me as if I was 5 years old. And I responded in a similar manner! ‘But Muuuuuuum! I didn’t make it up, I swear!’ And then I heard dad chuckle.

As soon as I got home, I ran up to my bedroom and picked up my phone. I punched in the number for Alice and after 3 rings she picked up.

‘Ellie’

‘Hi Alice, it’s me!’

‘Oh my god! So you’re alright then?’

‘Yes. Well, no not really. It’s just…can you come over to mine?’

Within 5 minutes the doorbell rings and we greet each other with a much needed hug.

‘So,’ she asks, ‘Whats the problem?’

Once we’re safely concealed in my room I tell her. ‘I hear voices.’ She gives exactly the reaction I was expecting, not the one I’d hoped for. She laughed then when she saw I was far from joking, she looked at me worriedly. ‘Oh. So, like voices that…tell you to do stuff?’

‘No. Not like that. It’s just sometimes,’ I exhaled ‘I think I can kind of hear what people are thinking.’ After 5 minutes of laughing at me further, she puts me to the test. ‘Okay. Next time you hear some kind of voice just tell me, okay?’

About two minutes later I hear her voice, in that hushed tone. ‘God, I really hope my best friend hasn’t turned into a freak!’ I laugh and repeat the phase that I’ve just heard. She looks at me like I’m crazy, then puts a perfectly manicured hand up to her mouth. I presume by the fearful way she was looking at me, that she believed me.

‘Do you have any idea what this means?’ she asks me.

I don’t reply. She smiles, a perplexing smile and begins to think of the possibilities, which I of course can hear perfectly…