Empathy

The world shook. Wrenched from sleep, my eyes snapped open and I looked around. The room was unfamiliar, and I didn’t know how I’d gotten there.

There wasn’t a whole lot to it, frankly. All I saw were three walls, a ceiling and a floor, all bright white. It wasn’t clear where the light was coming from, but there was no lack of it. 

Then the world shook again, but this time I saw the one who was shaking it, or, more accurately, me.

“I said, why won’t you talk to me?!” the young boy yelled, from just over my left shoulder.

When I’d woken, I’d been on my right side, so what I’d previously seen of the room was skewed. Clearly, there was something behind me, or I might have seen the annoying child trying to knock me out of the…cot?...I was lying in.

“What is your problem?!” I yelled back at the little twerp. He couldn’t have been more than 7 years old. “I was obviously asleep!”

I flipped over to my left side before fully sitting up. The young boy sat back on his own cot. More like fell back, really. I think I startled him a bit.

“I…I was scared, and you wouldn’t answer me,” the little guy sputtered.

I wasn’t particularly amenable to children, but his demeaner tugged at me a little. I mean, if I had no idea where I was, what was this kid’s story? And why were we in this small empty room alone together, come to think of it? No wonder he was scared. I had to set my own questions aside and be the adult in the room. Even if I was only 12.

And then he started gushing and bawling, which broke the spell entirely.

I rolled my eyes and transferred myself over to his cot next to him. I patted him on the head with an obligatory ‘there, there’ as I sat down. That’s what adults do, right?

I gave him a chance to catch his breath and settle down before plying him with questions. “Maybe you can start by telling me what’s going on here. Do you know why we’re here? Do you know where here is? How did we get here? Who brought us here? And who are you?”

He stared at me slack jawed for a few moments as he sniffled. After finally rebooting from my overload, he let the dam burst. “Iwassittinghereforeverbeforetheybroughtyouinandyouwereasleepthewholetimeand…,” he paused less than a second to suck in a breath, “…thentheybroughtinfoodbutyoudidntevenwaketoeatandIstartedgettingscaredand…”

I was able to clamp my hand across his mouth before another syllable spilled out. He actually kept going for a moment before realizing it was wasted breath.

I kept my hand right where it was as I asked, “How do you expect me to understand that?”

I slowly pulled my hand away and invited him to speak again. He took a few slow breaths before proceeding at a more sedate pace.

“You were asleep when they brought you in, and you wouldn’t wake up. I got scared. I don’t know who they are. Grown ups.  I’ve never seen them before. A big guy with a beard and a woman with long blonde hair.”

He took a breath to compose himself, as his emotions started to flare, before he wrestled them down again. “I don’t know how long I’ve been here. It feels like forever. There’s food over there, if you’re hungry.”  The boy pointed with thumb over their shoulders, to the opposite side of the room from what I saw when I woke up.

I looked in that direction and saw two glasses of water and two plates containing cheese and bread. Prisoner fare.

Who took children as prisoners? Oh yeah. Kidnappers. Kid…nappers. Duh. 

The right question is, why? My own parents must be out of their minds about me at this point. Presuming I have parents. I must have parents, right?  So why couldn’t I remember them?

I had no idea how long I was going to be stuck with the kid, but the food in the corner by the door held no interest to me whatsoever. Maybe because it was the most basic of foods, but whatever. I wasn’t hungry. 

But I was getting a little angry. 

It was clear that I was stuck with this other small person until I could get answers from the man with the beard and the blond. Were we being hesld for ransom? Were we part of some experiment?

I stood and did a simple check on my exposed skin for obvious marks. That didn’t take long because there wasn’t much exposed skin. I was covered from neck to ankle in a one-piece body suit, with no closure in front. The only thing exposed was my head, hands and feet. I reached to the back of my neck, where the collar crept about halfway up to my chin, and found the zipper.  

Checking the rest of my body would be impossible. 

I sighed deeply and stared at the ceiling with my eyes closed. I didn’t really have many options but to wait.

Which didn’t end up being long.

While I was still contemplating the insides of my eyelids, the latch on the door clicked and the door swung open.

A dark bearded man, thin but nearly as tall as the door, entered through the frame, flanked by an equally tall pale skinned woman with blond hair cascading down to her midsection. She had no discernable makeup on, and she looked like she might have just woken up herself.

Before I could utter a single syllable, the man pointed a small remote in my direction and I was immobilized completely. I couldn’t move anything, even my eyes. I’m not even sure I was blinking. 

The boy was still in front of me, and it appeared that whatever the man had done affected him too. Despite the fact that my eyes were squarely fixed on the two adults, I could clearly see the runt in my peripheral vision.  He too was stock still and unblinking.

The man shook his head. “We’re making progress, but I think we still have a long way to go.”

The woman seemed to concur.  “You’re not wrong, but I’m concerned about the empathy.”

The man responded with a shrug.  “It’s better than the last time. He didn’t even have a trace of it before.”

“Still not wrong. That pat on the head, though felt more like a concession than empathy,” she replied tersely.

I realized at that point that they were talking about. I understood their words, but not what they were talking about. They had an issue with my empathy? What did that mean? Who cared? I’d been kidnapped, and was being held against my will! So what if the little brat was scared?!

The woman raised her hand toward me. “See, even now it’s like he’s devolving into a more primitive demeanor. Emotions clearly aren’t the issue, but we need to get the balance settled. He really needs to show a lot more compassion.  Oh, and of course, he’s not thinking or acting age appropriately. I think the base imprint is too strong. We’ll need to adjust that too.”

If I could have rushed them, I would have done so. I was done with whatever crap was going on and I wanted answers. If I could have raised my voice at them, I would have done so. That fact was, I wasn’t even breathing.

“We’re going to have to reset.  Again.” With that statement, the bearded man raised the remote one more time and everything went black for me.

The world shook. Wrenched from sleep, my eyes snapped open and I looked around. The room was unfamiliar, and I didn’t know how I’d gotten there.