As it had been before, her full attention went to each word Alex said, how she said them, all the while putting together the experience in her own imagination. She could see Alex, maybe watching everybody talking about her in the passive voice: 'Some experience with the condition,' 'this is abnormal,' other words that probably hid the truth that Alex undoubtedly knew. The idea of others trying to bend the language in any way they could just to avoid saying what they really felt. Was that what it was like? Experimental procedure. Sterile tubes, sterile florescent lights, heart monitor beeping. What would one feel like? Procedure. Did they treat Alex like she had a tumor or something? Alex spoke and Alice imagined that she knew why the subject was so sensitive until she got to the end of the story.
“It changed me in other ways too. As in I dind’t always look like this. Before this. I-I-I was. I wasn’t exactly a girl… if you know what I mean."
It took all of two seconds for Alice to realize what Alex meant. Alex once saw a world through the eyes of a boy. He was a son under the sterile lighting of the 'normal' others desired for him. Alice figured that she understood the story, remembering what Alex had said the night before and realized what it meant: Alex's parents, who desired any trace of the supernatural wiped away probably would not cope with what happened. To them, she assumed, it was about coping, never understanding. In her lengthy, thoughtful pause, Alice never left the gaze from the girl across from the table nor moved her hands from their grasp.
"All've a sudden y'were, though, and y'could hear 'xactly what they thought about it." Alice could think her way out of a labyrinth in this room, she felt, but what could she say to show, without error, that she comprehended the circumstances Alex had surely experienced. "I'm sorry t'hear. It's probably been pretty difficult since then," she said, still light.
“It changed me in other ways too. As in I dind’t always look like this. Before this. I-I-I was. I wasn’t exactly a girl… if you know what I mean."
It took all of two seconds for Alice to realize what Alex meant. Alex once saw a world through the eyes of a boy. He was a son under the sterile lighting of the 'normal' others desired for him. Alice figured that she understood the story, remembering what Alex had said the night before and realized what it meant: Alex's parents, who desired any trace of the supernatural wiped away probably would not cope with what happened. To them, she assumed, it was about coping, never understanding. In her lengthy, thoughtful pause, Alice never left the gaze from the girl across from the table nor moved her hands from their grasp.
"All've a sudden y'were, though, and y'could hear 'xactly what they thought about it." Alice could think her way out of a labyrinth in this room, she felt, but what could she say to show, without error, that she comprehended the circumstances Alex had surely experienced. "I'm sorry t'hear. It's probably been pretty difficult since then," she said, still light.