011

"You did come here with a smile," Rina said, grinning as she passed to Joey a plate of toasted bread with peanut butter spread. Joey, reaching out his right hand to take it did not smile nor did he frown, he just felt strange.

"I so didn't smile." He took the toast and ate it - seemingly hungry, or more properly to be said as starving, indeed.

"Yes you did, I saw you. It must've been hard to find my home." She smiled. "You also didn't say you were hungry, just thirsty."

He continued eating without saying a reply as she kept on smiling at him. He had earlier had 2 glasses of water before he ate the toast. Joey had put his backpack on the floor by his left foot, of which under it lay a beautiful red carpet that protected the marble floor from the dining table. All he got in the backpack was all he had to live with while being away from university for the moment. It was a pretty one-storey terrace house with 4 bedrooms and 3 bathrooms. She lived there with her other two siblings, an older brother and a younger sister. Her brother, Aman now was no longer living in the house as he had moved out to work in another state - she had no idea what he was currently working as. As for her sister, Aishah, being sixteen years old, she was put in a residential school in Yorkshire, full boarding, much to her disliking. They were not exactly wealthy people, but seemingly they were living comfortably in that home.

"You also need to wash up," Rina complained again, looking at his messy looks.

"I'm fine, thanks, I did wash up already today. I'm staying at a motel nearby, ok? I'm not that sloppy." He snorted, taking another sip of water with his left hand, not letting go of the toast at his right hand.

Rina laughed again. "Just teasing you. Come visit me here often for the moment, yup?"

Having eaten half of the toasted bread, Joey put it on the plate and looked at Rina. "How's things, then?"

Then he was already going into the topic of why he was even there at her home in the first place. It was a last minute plan, out of rush. Screw classes, lectures or anyone in East Sussex, he told no one. Left everyone without a word. He turned off his cell phone in case any of them decided to contact him as he did not want to be reached. He wanted to come to Rina's home alone, undisturbed, and help her. Until he did, he would not return or go let them meddle in between his business.

Rina looked down, her expression turned solemn. "My mom's called her lawyer and taken the first step, as I feared she would."

The conversation itself had got serious now. "I thought your dad disagreed with this?"

"He did, at first he really argued about it with her," her voice now sounded teary and unclear. "They both began arguing. It sounded so bad from inside of my room where I was, so close I could hear almost everything. There was a sound of something broken down..."

Before he came here, he already had the information that Rina's parents might have a divorce, which he got from Rina's emergency midnight call herself. Somehow it made him feel called to go over there to help her out, with it being a family matter, even with him having no plans at all or simply being, well, a simpleton. He just wanted to be there and help her out.

Joey was listening and looking at her so closely that he did not move one bit. He realised that she was starting to cry talking about what happened the night her parents decided for sure that they were going to have a divorce, and he did not know what to do to console her.

"...there was a moment of silence. A long one. It was after that that they knocked on my door and came in together and told me that they were going to separate from each other, and that's it. It was late, they thought I didn't hear a thing!"

"Rina," he spoke out as gently as he could. He took a deep breath and reached out for her hand.

Things back at home aren't too good for me to say anything nice to her here...

"Don't worry... thank you for being here." With her right hand, she held his left hand tight back.

I don't really know...


------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The news she just heard seemed like the best news she just had since the past decade. Brian and Sarah could only smile for their classmate.

"Going home is excellent!" Nisa said with excitement. She took her clothes from the nurse with her biggest grin yet and went to the toilet, just near to her bed.

"Ah, gladly, this time you'd better not come back here, back on the hospital bed!" Sarah made her remark, yet again, like she had always been, almost like a caring sister. She acted that way almost to everybody.

Once out of sight, Brian spoke, "She still needs to be watched out for."

Sarah sat down on the hospital bedside with a worried face. "I know that. Even before all this, her attitude's been worrying."

"Joe's been missing too, for one thing." He leaned toward the back, straightening his body up as he was seated on the chair. "He hasn't been back for days now and he hasn't told me anything."

"We gotta find him." She looked at Brian, really concerned. "Nisa could really lose her mind."

Brian stopped to think at that. "He's got a girl already, you know?"

"Yeah..."

Sarah remembered how much her close friend cared about Joey. There were some things she knew about the both of them, they had been close for quite a time and at the moment, he never had any girlfriend yet. All three of them were studying at the same institution in Malaysia, of which Nisa and Joey both got there on scholarship while she got there privately.

However things seemed to have changed when their journey was about to come to an end there and when they were about to fly to the United Kingdom. Before she knew it, she found out from Nisa that he already had a new girlfriend. She knew no other details than that.

Don't blame. Let it all pass, all right Sarah? We'll all have fun there in Sussex, Sarah remembered Nisa once told her.

"...she just, worries bout him," Sarah told Brian.

He looked down and sighed. "Yup," he said while nodding his head. "He's still my buddy. I depend on him to wake me up at needy times."

As always, Brian would tell Joey to wake him up in the late night hours for him to continue doing his unfinished assignments, with Joey often being awake the whole night without sleeping, not until it was almost morning (which was the cause of him getting sleepy in classes and lectures).

"Your work's always unfinished these days, it seems," Sarah said, cynically.

Brian just smiled at that. "Yeah... but, he's running away, somehow," Brian stated, sounding devastated. "Have to say, kinda miss the guy."

The door of the toilet re-opened and Nisa appeared with her appearance seen last Saturday at the restaurant. "All set, sorry if it took so long."

Both of them got up, ready to leave.

"No problem with it. Off we go... let's get dinner," Sarah said happily. "This is my treat," she said, looking at Nisa. Brian raised his eyebrows.

"I get nothing for coming here, huh?"

"You're all healthy." She ignored him. "Let's go."

Nisa chuckled, "Whoops, sorry bout that. But I did miss my lunch with her that other day."

"Fine, whatever."

He followed the girls going out from the ward and closed the door behind him, and Nisa checked herself out.


---------------------------------------------------------------------------------


Messy, why do I look all messy?

The elevator doors opened. Pen walked out of it, somehow assured that something significant had already happened and he had missed it. He was now on Level 4, the level where Jennifer McKaustin was warded at. He slowly looked for his way, trying to find her room - he had been there so many times already.

As he opened the door, he saw Ethan standing by Jennifer and Jennifer's mother sitting by her, holding her hand. Jennifer is among her mother's 5 children, with her being the youngest daughter (4th child). Still, Jennifer had told him once that her mother was not close to her much, she was much closer to her father, who died five years ago.

Seeing her mother there, was a surprise, and was the first time there for him. He knew her as he had met her before.

Mrs McKaustin only looked upon Pen's face once he opened the door and showed his face there. Ethan seemed dumbfounded.

"What's your name again? Florida? Washington?" Mrs McKaustin glanced at Ethan, confused. "Some name of an American state."

Pen laughed. "Funny.. joke, ma'am." He walked in and closed the door. "Pennsylvania. Just remember me as Pen. I'm a Canadian, though."

Both Ethan and Mrs McKaustin laughed.

"Well I've always thought that's unique," she exclaimed.

Pen glared at Ethan. "You're not working today?"

"Well..." the fiance of Jennifer seemingly stuttered. "I got an emergency call from here." Ethan was still dressed formally with his office attire.

I knew I had a weird feeling...

"Pen, Jennifer woke up about an hour ago or so," Jennifer's mother explained, looking full of hope in her eyes.

"We're now waiting for the doctor to come, then only I can go back to work," Ethan continued.

Pen approached the bed to look closer at Jennifer. "How is she now, then?"

"She's fine... she's asleep, and will get up again anytime soon to talk to us," Mrs McKaustin said confidently. "But Pen, don't you have any class today?"

Huh?

010

What a beautiful laughter on such a pretty face...

"Van, that's terrible," she said as she looked at the photograph together with Pen, after they both received the posted photo album from their friend. It was unique to say that Jennifer was the only person who called him by the name of Van.

At hearing what Jennifer just said, Pen frowned. "Terrible?"

"Your face in this photo." She looked at him, smiling. Pen's grinning face looked like he had food stuffed in his mouth that he had not swallowed but still tried to be covered up by showing his full capped teeth as he smiled, of which, he was not even eating anything at the time the picture was taken.

"How could you say that?? I look handsome in here! Like the most handsome guy ever seen in a photo! And you, you're like an angel with your beautiful smile... though, you're dressed in black."

Jennifer laughed. "Okay, my face looks good, not yours." She shook her head with a smile. "Honestly, keep admitting that you're handsome..." Again, she laughed.

Looking at her laughing, Pen grinned wide. Love your laughter... "Well, it can't be helped, since I AM like the cutest guy alive."

She raised her eyebrows as she took a few steps backward, away from Pen who was the one holding the photo album now. "Give me a break already..." She began walking away. "Gotta run from your obnoxious attitude. I'm hungry anyway."

Pen was sorta drifting in his own world, not realising what Jennifer just said. He kept thinking about her smile and smiling to himself as he kept looking at the picture of the two of them, taken in a cafe near to Sussex University.

"...Van? I'm going to eat..." Jennifer took a look at him before leaving his house, when he did not respond to her but only smiled all by himself. She smiled, although she felt weird about him. "I thought you're gonna eat lunch with me like you said you would. See you, then."

Ahh... you're beautiful. "Funny black dress though, what you wore in this photo." Pen looked away from the picture to say something more to her, only to find that she was no longer in his sight, and the door of his big house was open.

"Later!" Jennifer said out loud from outside, walking away.

Eh? When did she leave?

He closed the album and put it on the couch near where he was standing. Then he ran out - wanting to chase her and go where she was going, first saying goodbye to his maid who was far away in the kitchen. It was what he had always been doing before leaving the house - where his parents and his three younger brothers live in (plus his younger brother's dog named Maxi). He might not look like he was loaded, but he definitely came from a wealthy family.

"Hey wait up there! I'm coming with ya!"

Suddenly he felt a painful hit at his stomach - waking him up from sleep.

"You're asking me to wait now? Are you really coming this time?" Matsumoto asked him just as he opened his big hazel eyes to look at the one standing by his bed. He got hit by Matsumoto, yet again. As always, calling out his name never worked to wake him up, so it had to be hitting him or shaking his leg or things like that, to get him out of his slumberland.

Oh damn. Matt instead.

"I'm not going... don't touch me." He yawned as he turned his body over to the left, away from Matsumoto. "Need sleep..."

Matsumoto sighed. "Fine." He left Pen's room with his door left open, as he was in a hurry and he was late to go to class. Usually it was the two of them going together, as they both had the same schedule, either by his motorbike or Pen's car, but this time he had to go alone. It was not the first time, though. Pen had skipped classes more often than any of his friends ever did. It was something that his housemates had all come to be accustomed to.

Pulling his dark blue blanket to cover his whole body underneath it, Pen whined to himself. He was cursing Matsumoto deep in his heart for waking him up from what he thought was a "wonderful dream".

Let the dream continue, please! I wanna see her again.

"..awake.. awaken... she's awakened," a young blond girl's voice spoke to him as he stood still anxiously.

"Conscious. She's conscious, my friend," said another guy he recognised from his lecture hall, or so, he thought.

"....waking up! She's waking up!" He could hear that voice clearly ahead of him, sounding all so excited. Matsumoto was standing by the side of the bed with the the doctor, nurses and of course, Ethan, who was looking too hopeful to say anything - only getting closer to the bed hoping she would wake up soon.

From where he was standing, Pen knew something big was going to happen. Something he thought was hopeless to ever happen after such a long time.

Jen...

Not realising it, he was beginning to have water in his eyes. Seeing the excitement by Matsumoto ahead of him, he ran over to them - he could not wait to see Jennifer wake up. But just as he was going over toward them, all of them turned around to look at him with serious expressions on their faces - slowly, started to vanish into thin air before he could get to them.

Pen opened his eyes wide and threw his blanket far away from his bed. Thinking back, he had not waken up so peacefully from weird dreams like he did this time (such as yelling things, etc). He had a strange, different feeling today. Remembering the detail of his dream, he felt like something had already happened at the hospital with Jennifer. He knew he had to be there.

He changed his clothes and reached for the car keys. At that, he left the apartment and left for the hospital without wasting much more time.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Hi there!"

Nisa was stunned from reading a magazine, not realising that someone entered her ward, who suddenly said hi to her. It was 3 pm on a Tuesday afternoon, and she had been better than before. She was speaking more words than the previous days she was there, and her weak body was getting healthier.

"Didn't mean to surprise you," Brian said. "I'm here with Sarah. She went to the toilet. She'll be here in a while." He sat down, barely smiling. "We just finished class. How are ya now?"

She stared at him, speechless. That was the first time Brian came over to her ward, and the second time she ever met him. Getting nervous at that, and also because her hair was still open and not covered, looking messy, she put the magazine over her head and simply smiled.

I don't think you're okay... he thought, knowing what had happened so far with her as explained briefly by Sarah a few days earlier.

"Em.." She took the magazine from top of her head and put it on her lap - it looked weird and still, it was not like it could hide her long, thick, messy hair. "Sorry bout that."

"You didn't do anything. Just relax for the moment."

"Maybe." She tried to sit up straight. "But you know something? I can smell smoke from you."

Brian was kinda surprised at that remark, but not too much. It was just that he did not expect that to come from someone like her.

"Yea? I just took a smoke before I came here," he replied stiffly. "Just another shitty day in class, really."

Nisa just nodded her head. "If you can believe me, I really understand that feeling."

He looked at her, confused. Strange way to put it, I'd say.

"If you would allow it, can you give me one of your cigars?" she asked.

That question really put him in a big surprise. "Say what??"

"It's strange but, I can pay you for it... once I have my purse back."

He leaned closer to her. "Lady, for one thing, you don't smoke. Second, this is a hospital and you're in it so no smoking here. Third, I don't charge people for cigars-"

The door was opened and Sarah showed up. "Hey guys!"

The two looked over at her for a second before looking at each other again. Brian was with his usual no smiley face. "... and fourth, Sarah should be furious if I gave it to you. You'd know that a whole lot better," he said almost in whispered voice. Nisa did not respond to that but just kept quiet.

Nuts. Why would she ever wanna try that? She's not that kind of girl who likes such thing.

Sarah stood by the bedside, all sweaty and almost out of breath. "Did I miss any hot topic or anything?"

"You kidding? I don't know what we've been talking about, really," Brian said, pretending to laugh. Nisa turned her attention to Sarah, wanting to ask something.

"Have you been able to contact Joey?"

Sarah was puzzled on how to answer that question as she did not know where he was. Joey had been unreachable ever since the day Nisa last saw him outside the restaurant with a backpack across the street, and apparently nobody seemed to know where he had been to and for whatever reason that he went away.

Looking at her silence, Nisa already knew the answer to her question. "Can't believe this. What's happening?"

"Nisa, look here," Sarah sat by the bedside, "I'm sure we'll know something soon."

"I don't know..."

"We'll keep praying, ok?"

Sarah leaned closer to her and hugged her as to give her support, while Nisa was beginning to cry, yet again.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"I'm here with you."

Joey smiled (without knowing he was doing so). There he stood in front of her, after looking for her for two days, getting lost up here and there trying to find where she lives. There he was, tired and sleepy yet he felt glad now that he had found her.

She got out from her house, running to get to him. "You found me!"

"Finally. Like, so damn hard."

"Great! I haven't seen you in a long time. Miss you."

He stared at her for a while... and walked off ahead to her house on his own.

"Aren't you gonna say you miss me back?"

"No. I'm thirsty. Your parents aren't home, right?"

Rina followed him from the back. "No... hey, wait!"

009

"Mr McCain, I thought you said that she's your friend..."

Pen looked at the nurse with guilt. "Well, she is..." Then he looked over at Nisa, with himself still trying to find the words to say.

"Then how could it be you don't know her name?"

As the young nurse kept talking to Pen, Nisa looked on at the two of them, seeming like at blur. She had not spoken a word since the nurses took her to that room - a small room typical for a doctor to be in, where they ask questions to patients of what was wrong etc. Outside the room, there is a waiting area that seemed to be well taken care of, and this area is specifically for the troubled minds... the nurses had taken her to the psychiatric unit of the hospital. After the nurses' tough effort of dragging her there, Nisa calmed herself down, stopped struggling and yelling - suddenly they saw her on bended knees on the floor there. She was looking around the psychiatric unit, where there were quite a number of people around waiting to see their respective doctors who treat them, and so she suddenly stopped rebelling. After all the struggling, her head-covering had become messed up, making her look untidy, unlike the way she looked like normally (neat and tidy, that is).

It was then she caught everyone's attention there, with one of the psychiatrists running toward her just as he exited his personal room in the psychiatric unit. Apparently, he recognised her.

"Her name is Nurul Nisa Mohammad Yusuf, and she's my patient in this hospital. I've been handling her case since about a year ago," said Dr O'Neil to Pen, the psychiatrist who earlier rushed over to get to Nisa after she knelt down on the floor. "Seems like she doesn't have any ID with her right now. And, you said her name was Melissa?"

Rubbing his forehead, Pen was the one who became blurred then. He was not sure what to say. "I was almost sure that was her name, though."

Imaginary Nisa whispered into Nisa's ears as she watched everyone in there talking to one another. "He must know a lot of people in his life. I mean, our name isn't really that difficult to remember right? Nisa is the simple nickname - not hard right?"

The nurse who was speaking to Pen sooner told Dr O'Neil about Pen who just met his patient and did not really remember her name, as what Pen told her. The doctor just nodded and told her that she could leave the room, saying that he could handle things from there.

"See ya..." Pen muttered as the nurse left the room, closing the door behind her while Pen looked on. Later he realized that the doctor was looking at him. "Say, Dr O'Neil..."

Dr O'Neil told him to hold on with his inquiries, as he went on to see how Nisa was doing. She had been too quiet, unlike before, she would at least speak out several words. "Miss Nisa," he asked gently to Nisa who was seated at the side of his desk, near to him at that moment, while Pen sat in front of him. "How are you now? Everything ok?"

The only thing he got back in return was her silent stare at him, barely showing any expression on her still face. Still, she seemed to be wanting to say something but was yet unable to speak it out.

Patting Nisa on the back, Imaginary Nisa told her to speak up. "I know you want to say something. Come on Nisa, come on now!"

Shut up already... I ain't gonna say anything... Nisa imagined herself telling the Imaginary Nisa to just quieten up and sit still somewhere without making her feel any worse. I don't know him much. But he's involved now. Yet all this has already happened...

Getting back to the rather curious Pen, Dr O'Neil told him that she could be in some kind of shock, maybe caused by extreme fear or anxiety. "Can you tell me, what do you know?"

Nisa turned her attention from the doctor to Pen, refusing to give out any response to any questions asked, but she could still follow and understand what was going on.

"Say, that was what I wanted to ask... I don't know anything... now only I know that she's been a patient in Sussex County." He glanced over to Nisa, surprised to see her looking at him. "... she's... staring at me..."

"DUH," Imaginary Nisa snorted. "What's his problem? Baka."

Nothing... I am the problem.

She blinked several times to hear him say so, turning away her attention back to the doctor. Dr O'Neil smiled at both of them. "It's okay."

Focusing his brains to think of any information that he could provide to the doctor, Pen tried to explain more details. "She was worried about something, too worried actually. We bumped into each other and she was already so worried as if it hurt me even though it's no biggie. Then she didn't reply to my questions, I don't know if she even understood me. And, she did cry out for someone... Joey, if that's helpful in any way." Dr O'Neil took record of the things he just said by writing them in the yellow file on his desk. It made him more curious of what was going on with Nisa as he watched him write in the file, as there seemed to be a lot of other things contained within the file. "If it's okay, may I know what's wrong with her? That she became your patient?"

Nisa's eyes widened at the question - her only response to her surprised feeling inside. No - he's not gonna know... he don't know me and neither do I know him...

The doctor put his pen down and stopped writing, later closing the yellow file and putting it away. "I'm sorry, but that's confidential. But what I can tell you is... help to take care of her, as it seemed like she just went through her worst fear, according to what I've seen so far from her. Do accompany her. At a moment like this, she cannot be left out alone."

"Hah... glad you say so, doc!" Imaginary Nisa yelled out loud. She turned to Nisa and wrapped her arms around her shoulders. "You're being cared for, my friend. You'll be okay."

Okay? Nisa was in doubt. I don't know if I like that word anymore...

"Oh... I see..." Pen looked at her again, being expressionless still.

"I have to keep her here for the moment though, she's still not in a good shape for me to feel worry-free to let her out. Can you call her closest friends here? That'd really help."

"Sure, done that already. I'll wait for them to get here."

"Nisa, hear that?" The imaginary version of herself stood up out of surprise. "Who did he call?"

He called? Who? He did that? Suddenly, there was the urge to cry again. I barely know this fella and here he had to do all this...

Imaginary Nisa knelt down on the floor to talk to her. "I know what you're thinking. You're not a trouble, you gotta know that."

Closing her eyes shut, Nisa lay out a few drops of warm tears. "Sorry... Pencil," a female voice broke out in the atmosphere. It was Nisa - finally speaking, at that moment to Pen. Dr O'Neil was surprised for a second, and so was Pen. The bald doctor got up to check Nisa again, with a more concerned look in his eyes now. "Miss Nisa, what's wrong?" He gave Pen a serious-looking glance.

Pen got more puzzled now. "Missy, seriously," he got himself closer to talk to her face-to-face while she was seated (and being checked by Dr O'Neil), "nothing to worry about."

"Mr McCain, not too close please," the doctor advised him. He told Nisa to breathe in and out for him to check her heart-beating rate with his stethoscope, which she did, much to Pen's surprise that added up to his anxiousness. Sitting back at his seat to follow Dr O'Neil's order, he looked at her with many questions in his head.

"Can you tell me why you're crying, Miss Nisa?" the doctor asked her gently.

"Neesa... anything I can do for you?" he muttered out to her from where he was sitting at, nervously. As Nisa blinked her eyes softly at his question, she had a smile on her pale face when she turned around and muttered back to him, "Dai-jou...bu."

That was when Pen and Dr O'Neil both saw her losing her faint smile and fainted, falling out from her seat, almost onto the floor before Dr O'Neil managed to hold her back.

Pen went frantic. "God!"

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sarah sat silently by the bed where her close friend, Nisa lay in. Nisa was sleeping comfortably there, being taken to a ward of her own at the request of both Sarah and Pen for her to feel safer and more at ease. It came with an extra cost - apparently willing to be paid by Pen (and him alone) voluntarily. Sarah arrived not long after Nisa's passing out, looking way worried about her when she saw her unconscious. They had to get her to a ward and check up what could be wrong with her. It was necessary to change her clothes and take off her head-covering.

There she lay without covering her long black hair on the hospital bed, dressed up in hospital clothes.

Dead pale face. Messed up hair after not taking off her tudung in over a day, ever since she ran away from me. Tudung referred to her head-covering, of which Muslims wear to cover their hair. Sarah, too, wears it other than Nisa.

"It seems like she fainted 'cause she had not eaten for a few days," Dr O'Neil's words were ringing in her ears. In a way, she felt partly guilty for it, as she was supposed to eat together with her before she suddenly ran away from the restaurant they were at before. Nisa left too fast, leaving her purse at the restaurant and had not gone back to her house ever since she ran. That made it impossible to contact her or even know where she had been. It got her housemates wondering, and worried, too.

She got herself closer to the bed to hold her friend's hand. Pen was there too, just standing against the wall near to the hospital bed, tired and sleepy. It's almost 9pm, and he had been so tired already with everything that already happened on that day, not able to think much of anything anymore to wonder about.

"Pen?" Sarah spoke up, causing Pen to 'snap out' from his 'dream' while he was only staring out into space in tiredness.

"Ouh." He rubbed his hand over his forehead up to his hair to the back of his head. "Damn I was dreaming. What?"

"You're tired. You've been here a while, right? Go home, get some sleep," she said as she was holding Nisa's left hand, her eyes directed at Pen's sleepy eyes.

Pen yawned, hitting his head with his head soft. "Yeah. I went to Jen first before I met up with Neeeesa, you know."

Sarah chuckled. "Now, it's a simple Nisa - you're prolonging the 'Ni' too much."

"Ouh, sorry." He sighed, trying to put up a smile. "Been getting her name wrong the entire day."

"It's okay. Thanks for everything."

"No problem. Don't stick around so long, you too need a break."

Sarah just nodded. At that, Pen moved away from where he was standing at and went towards the door. As he was about to leave, he stopped for a moment and turned back to Sarah. "Hey, who's Joey?"

Turning to him, Sarah gave him a puzzled look that was pretty much meant to mock him. "That'd be... Johari. You don't know that is it?"

The name sounded quite alien to his ears as if he never heard of it before.

"He's our lecture mate as well..." She tried to make him remember, knowing that he indeed knew Joey too, but somehow not realising that he does. "You know him, you do, believe me I know you do."

Pen's eyes twirled up toward the ceiling, as if thinking so hard - his frown on his face said it all. "You know... how come I don't know that I know?"

... stupid. He's well-known and he knows a lot of others but really, he's got a bad memory. Joey's not as popular, but still known by many. And yeah I know Pen knew him.

"Say, I know why." A big grin appeared on her face. "You call him Harry."

"AH!" Pen seemed enlightened now. "No way!"

"You see, that's the problem, you call people not by their usual nickname. We've been calling him Joey ever since from Malaysia." Sarah shook her head in amusement. Baka indeed.

He laughed thinking about calling the Joey guy, Harry. "I forgot his real name. Been calling him Harry, like, forever..." He was shaking his head as well. "Sorry bout that..."

"You're weird," she claimed, smiling. "Just go home now."

"Yeah, thanks. See ya." Pen closed the door behind him, leaving Sarah alone with Nisa.

Seconds later, still holding Nisa's hand, Sarah came up wondering on her own. Why did he suddenly ask about Joey?

008

The lady stared at him, blank, without responding a word. It left Pen feeling bad if he just did something wrong - particularly, if he got her name wrong. "Err, no way your name's Rulisa, I don't know anyone by that name. Melissa?"

Again, no reponse.

My, what am I supposed to do about this?

Pen faked a smile on his exhausted face. "I do know many Melissa's, you know?"

Other than several blinks on her eyes, the lady still did not say anything. This made Pen feel a bit pressured - he cared about his friends even at the most despair times of his life, and would not want to make any of them get mad at him, not even for the simplest mistakes he did.

He sighed, feeling bad. "Give me a clue! Am I talking to a statue??"

The lady blinked again a few times before smiling at him. "Pencil."

Eh?

Feeling a bit relieved to see her smile, he laughed a bit. "Don't do that, miss... Melissa? I mean, don't get angry, for I might not remember your name... you can call me Pencil if you wish so, anyway, Brian always does."

"B." She smiled again.

Ehhhh?

He was starting to feel a bit weird about the so-called conversation they were having - if that was even a conversation, counting the few words she had spoken back. "Miss, are you okay?"

Looking straight at his face, still smiling, she replied, "Fine."

It made him remember that those who actually said that they were fine, were always - always - apparently, not fine. Plus, being in the hospital area, he became more convinced that the lady he was talking to was indeed, not fine.

"Miss, why are you here? You alone?"

Blank-faced again, she simply muttered out short, "Sarah. Who knows."

Ahh, definitely not the wrong person. Sarah's friend... of whose name I've forgotten... still I don't understand what she's saying!

"Miss, WHY are YOU here?" He stressed out the important words, really eager to get the answer from her. "Where's Sarah?"

From a blank face, her face suddenly showed an expression - she frowned, as if worrying about something, and began to go frantic again just like the way she was when Pen accidentally bumped into her before. "Why.. why, why! I'm sorry, I'm sorry, excuse me-" She turned around and ran away, into the hospital, fast - all in a split second - before Pen could really comprehend what was going on.

"... looking for Joey!!!" He heard her yelling out loud as if telling it out to him, as she did glance back to look at him. He was surprised at the sudden change of her behaviour, and that behaviour was not going to be good at all in a hospital, where it was supposed to be a place of quietness for sick people - the way he looked at it, and the lady seemed to go about to uncontrollably break the good silence.

"Hey, hey, wait a second!" Pen went back chasing after her. Not understanding much, he wondered why he had to go after her, as he barely knew her. However he had to do something. "Hey missy!"

Stopping clumsily at the information counter, the lady abruptly asked the counter woman in her forties, who was talking on the phone, to tell her if there was a guy who had been taken into the hospital after a suicide attempt, own-made injury or anything like it. "Tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me, tell me-" She was not yelling anymore, but she looked rather hysterical, as if desperately looking for something, having lost her calmness.

The counter woman put her hand over the phone receiver for a moment to get over to her, being panicky as she was. Before she could say more, the lady almost seemed to lose her control - like a dead volcano suddenly erupting, it was a great surprise, since she looked like a good, calm person.

"Don't give me that face and tell me he's not here... he's somewhere, he's here, he's around, HE'S HURT!!!" As Pen approached her from the side of the counter, he could tell she was starting to cry. "Where's JOey!! WHERE IS HE!!"

Pen pulled her arm to get her away from the counter, as he could tell the woman at the counter was starting to get scared. "Sorry, miss, she's my friend."

"Sir, no patient was taken in by suicidal causes... does she need help?"

Shaking his head, he stuggled as he tried to pull her over a bit farther away to try to hold her and talk her down. "Lookie here, quieten up NOW!"

There was a moment of silence, where the lady and Pen were both looking at each other. He could see fear in her watery eyes. That silence was soon broken. She began screaming out of control, attracting looks by the public and attention by the hospital staff who quickly came over to help calm her down.

"D-d-do-do-don-don't touch - don't touch me - GET AWAY FROM ME!"

For a while, Pen was taken aback. He never expected for her to become as wild and uncontrollable, and felt terrible that he might have helped to worsen it. About two or three nurses nearby came to help. She was struggling to get away, at the same time she was crying like crazy. Pen took a moment to let her go and let the nurses handle her, as he just decided to make a quick phone call to ask for help.

Dialing the numbers quick, he waited impatiently for an answer while looking at the lady and the nurses trying to take her away from public view. Once the phone was picked up on the other side of the line, he immediately called for the name of the person he called.

"Sarah?" He sighed hard, as he followed the nurses. "It's Melissa - um, I mean, got a massive problem here. Come over to Royal Sussex County, NOW."