All That Remains: Day 15

Word Total: 90,085

Year to Date: 180,125

Summary of Events:

Chloë was transferred to a hospital in Brussels, where she ended up being visited by a former teammate of Tristan's whom she'd really not wanted to see because of the mixed feelings he caused within her. Will, meanwhile, was released from hospital into the care of his mother and stepfather in the Netherlands, which allowed Enka to return to Croatia to continue her medical studies. Unfortunately, Will's mother had invited the nearby family over to visit, despite the fact that Will just wanted to be alone, and when he went off to his room, she tried to cajole him out…

Excerpt of the Day:

Mama sighed. “You’re not inclined to think positively about anything, are you?”

“You’re the third different person I’ve asked,” Will said. “How is someone who has had such an overwhelmingly negative life experience, such as myself, and is in the throes of a particularly negative experience at the present, supposed to feel positive!?”

“You draw on your good memories,” Mama replied.

“But you just told me I wasn’t supposed to dwell on the past!” Will exclaimed.

“Not the negative past,” Mama countered. “But you can dwell on the positive past.”

“Did you not hear me just say I’ve had an overwhelmingly negative life experience?” Will demanded. “Overwhelmingly negative means the vast majority of experiences which I’ve had in my life were not positive. Like, seventy five percent of my life, minimum has been negative and unhappy. I don’t have a lot of positive stuff to think about. It’s going to get repetitive really quickly if I try to think on just the positive stuff that’s happened in my life, and nobody enjoys repetition.”
“I’m sure that’s not true,” Mama said. “If you’d try to think about the positive memories you’d find there’s more of them than you think.”

“Not likely,” Will said. “Besides, the majority of my positive memories are corrupted by negative ones.”

“What exactly is that supposed to mean?” Mama asked.

“They were positive at the time, but they’ve now become negative,” Will replied.

“How can that happen?” Mama asked.

“The people I made them with died,” Will replied. “I have positive memories of time spent with Papa, but where is he? Buried under two metres of dirt at Turnhout. I have positive memories of time spent with Ad. He’s in the same place. I have positive memories of time spent with Azim. He’s geographically closer, but in the same state as the other two. I have positive memories of time spent with Tristan. He’s buried in Corsica. I have positive memories of time spent with Sefu. His family’s burying him in Kenya.”

“At least you made good memories with them,” Mama said.

“Seriously?” Will snapped. “At least I made good memories?”

“Yes,” Mama said. “It shows you have the capacity to experience positive things, and to even regard them as positive; at least for a time.”

Will wasn’t really sure what Mama was getting at, but he wanted her to leave him alone. It wasn’t like he could kill himself at the moment. Mama had the pain medication he’d been prescribed, which meant he couldn’t overdose, if the quantity he’d been given in his prescription was even enough to kill him. There wasn’t really any other way he could think of that he might be able to kill himself in a bedroom while wheelchair-bound.

“I know your life has been touched by tragedy and sorrow Will,” Mama said. “But life isn’t all bad. There are good things to see and enjoy in life. You just need to see it and enjoy it.”

Although he wanted to demand how he was supposed to do that, Will said nothing; he was tired of arguing with Mama and just wanted her to go away.

Pronunciation:

Turnhout: turnhowt

Next Post: 28 February