Camille is in the subway going to Manhattan with both Avrila and Apelarto. She notices something she never knew about her children before. Apelarto and Avrila both have a white glow around their bodies as she is sitting in between them on the D train going in to Manhattan. After Camille and her 2 children arrive and walk up the stairs to get to the psychologist’s office nearby, a woman stops her dead in her tracks. The woman stairs at Avrila first giving a glaring dark stare. The woman says only 1 word to Avrila and the young girl just runs behind Camille holding her adopted mother between the legs. The woman approaches Avrila as Camille tells the woman to stop scaring her children. The woman couldn’t help to say “Your children are gifted I say, very gifted.”
Camille didn’t understand why the woman told her that at first. She gets to the front door to be buzzed in to the psychologist’s office when Avrila seems to be having a meltdown. Instead of what looked like a meltdown turned out to be a trance she fell in to. Young Avrila started screaming in pain blurting out “Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh” and trying to cope with her senses. The psychologist ran out the door trying to find out what’s going on outside. When the psychologist walks outside the psychologist sees Avrila lying on the ground motionless. Camille begins to cry not knowing what to do and her son Apelarto just stands there silent.
The psychologist introduces himself. “My name is Mark and you must be Camille who talked about her 2 children. He looked down at Apelarto saying, “Hi young fellow.” Then he looks at Avrila lying on the ground and he says “Well, I guess we have to pick this one up and bring in ourselves.”
Camille shakes incessantly saying to Mark “Yes, I am Camille and these are my 2 children, my son, Apelarto and my adopted daughter Avrila. I know I don’t have much money and probably wasting your time. So, I’d better get going now to deal with these children by myself.”
Mark says “How crazy would that be madam? Let’s go in and we will figure out a way for small payments.”
Camille walks in with her son Apelarto as Mark carries Avrila inside. They all sit in Mark’s office and reintroduces himself to Camille and her 2 children so his children refer to him as Dr. Weiss or Dr. Mark.
Dr. Weiss begins to notice Avrila staring in to space and Apelarto is staring directly at Mark’s face. Camille begins the session by telling Dr. Mark how her son Apelarto never talks, stares all the time at every one, and sits in his room drawing people with many colors around them like a rainbow. She then tells Dr. Mark how Avrila has very similar actions, but tends to freak out a lot during the day with these meltdowns. She adds further that at night Avrila insists of leaving the light on in her room as she goes to bed. She never speaks to any one. Camille adds more by saying her and her husband don’t know what more to do about their children’s problems.
Dr. Mark begins the session by trying to connect with his clients Avrila and Apelarto. His first statemtent is “I’ll give you my minimum billing amount for both children. Next he says “And I want to see them separately for 1 hour each.”
Camille hesitates, but Dr. Mark insists this will be better for the 2 of them. He gives a reference person to Camille for her son Apelarto. He says “I want you to call my friend John who can also help your son. He knows much about children who draw a lot. Please give him a call. He meets in Parks, but not in his office. I will concentrate on seeing your daughter Avrila twice a week. I want to understand why she is afraid.”
Camille thinks about her feelings of spending money to help her children, but he says we will talk about that later, she feels better.
Camille spent the rest of the session in the waiting room as Dr. Mark spent time trying to connect with her children. 30 minutes later, Dr. Mark leaves his office to the waiting room where Camille sees her children standing in the doorway. She saw a smile on Apelarto’s face for the first time while Avrila just stood there the same way as usual. Apelarto had a pad in his arms that Dr. Mark gave him to use for drawing.
Camille asked Dr. Mark “How did it go?”
Dr. Mark said “It went well, but I’d like to see them again in 3 days.”
He gave her a card with the appointment time for 3 days from now and said “Have a good day!”
Camille becomes furious insisting on what the session was about. Dr. Mark brings her in to his office with the door open saying “I suspect your son Apelarto can sense other people’s feelings and I can help him to better understand how to use that to his advantage. He loves to draw so I gave him a pad to draw things for our sessions and with my friend John. Avrila is very scared child and will require a lot of attention focusing in on her fears. It is unusual for me to tell you this, but she connects with an so-called imaginary friend named Ralph. I can’t really tell who Ralph is and if he is even real. I just know this Ralph was in session with us today and her friend was in constant communication with your daughter.
Camille walks out of the office with her children not understanding what is going on especially since Avrila still looks the same in silence. They get home a little later and Camille notices Avrila talking to herself in the room. She overhears Avrila talking out loud by herself and hears her saying “Hi Ralph. What can I do for you today? Want to play scrabble again or hide n seek? Oh, I see Ralph you are scared. Why? Is it your dad again? or Are you thinking of your death? When did you die again Ralph? Oh yeah, right, in 1902.” Camille walks away from the door crying as her husband walks over to her giving her a hug. Camille slowly says to her husband Rafael, “I think she can talk to ghosts.” And Camille starts weeping and drowning in tears on her husband’s shoulder. Apelarto is drawing two people on his pad hugging with a bright light blue coloring around them.
(Hope you like the second part of the story so far!! Posting the second part soon as well as other posts…)
OUT, J