The Monsters and The Man

“So, what are you here for?”

The lady looks up from her magazine towards the source of the voice. “Oh, me? I am just here with my Aunt.” She smiles at the man, closing her magazine; sensing a conversation.

“For which doctor?” The man closes his own reading prop, the daily newspaper.

“Dr Rita, I have heard how accomplished she is in her career and how good she is with her patients. She, if I heard correctly, has won many awards in psychiatry.”

“Waiting for your turn is so bloody annoying, isn’t it?” the man says as his eyes glances at the closed door of the doctor’s chamber.

“It indeed is quite annoying.” The lady shrugs and brushes her semi blonde hair away from her face. “But, it's understandable. Those doctors sure do work their asses off.”

“Hmm.” The man nodded but something about his tone gave off a feeling of annoyance.

“So, where are you originally from?” The lady asks as she comfortably leans back.

“Me? From the town of Azalia. Small and creepy, people go crazy if they take in the town’s air too much.” The man grimaced and shook his head. The man seemed to be in his thirties, the lady estimated. Almost her age, she could make out.

The name of town struck a chord in her memory, her stomach suddenly got heavy and she could feel her spine straighten from its comfortable position. “Azalia?” she asks, perching her lips.

“Yeah, that wretched town. Spent half of my childhood there.” The man confesses with shame. “Ah, you must not be familiar with the town. Barely anyone is.”

“You will be oddly surprised; I know the town. Not much but fairly enough.” The lady says in an octave lower.

“You from there too?” The man raises an eyebrow, leaning forward. Now, more interested in the stranger.

“No! no!” The lady says backing away, her defences on line. She smiles awkwardly “My grandfather, he has spent his fair share of time there.”

“He was born there? Perhaps I might know his lineage. After all, a puny town it is or was. What’s his last name?”

“Heath, but he wasn’t born there. He went to live there, after he married my grandma.” She pauses “Excuse me, but what did you mean by the town was?”

“I heard it’s being destroyed and constructed from scratch. The authorities thought the town’s layout is too old fashioned or something. I couldn’t care less.” He shrugs. “So, is your grandmother a native from there?”

“What about the people then?” The lady asks, visibly a little agitated.

“They will be relocated to the newer towns, don’t worry about them. It’s high time someone barges their head inside the gloomy town.” He vaguely assures her. “Is your Aunt in there?” He points towards the doctor’s closed door.

“Ah, no. She is in the back with some of the other elderly women here.” She says falling back in her seat.

“It takes centuries in here, I swear.” He groans “You didn’t say, Is your grandmother from there?”

She perches her lips “Yes, she was.”

“Oh, I am really sorry. That’s why you were ignoring the question.” The man says, mumbling the end.

“No, don’t worry about it. We weren’t close. She passed away when I was like ten.”

“So, your mother moved to the city or something?” the man inquires.

“Yeah, she did. She moved when she was quite young to attend school here. My grandfather didn’t…” she halted looking away “…like his daughter living in the town, it wasn’t safe to him.”

The man chuckles for an oddly long minute. “The monsters, of course.”

The word made her spine chill, suddenly the cosy and welcoming waiting room of her aunt’s psychiatrist seemed chilly.

“Can you lower your voice, please?” She looks around as if expecting something out of the ordinary.

“Don’t worry, barely anyone is here today.” He was right. The lady looks around again with a look of relief. There were only two old women sitting at the back, talking to each other and occasionally letting out a small, heavy laugh.

“What do you mean by monsters? Some urban legend?”

“You seemed oddly conscious for an urban legend.” The man slightly smirks, an expression that suited a man who seemed to have caught someone in the act of stealing.

The lady smiles nervously “How come we didn’t introduce ourselves? I still don’t know your name.”

“Its Robert Harrison, yours?” the man’s curiosity was growing by the second.

“Julia Hudson.” The lady thinks for a while as her eyes freeze at the white titled floor. “What monsters are you referring to?”

“What monsters did you think of? Those ones.”

The lady furrows her brows. “What do you mean? I have no idea what you mean by monsters.”

“I know that you know what I mean. Your reaction gave it away?” The man bites his lips. “What are you scared of? To be deemed crazy?”

She exhales rather loudly; she thinks of what her mother would have said if she was here. Probably, something on the lines of how unladylike it was and instruct her to sit up straight and breath quieter. The thought made her smile in an uncanny way. Her mother was obsessed with being sane. “Yeah, I know what you mean. My grandfather has told me about them since I was of an understanding age.”

“What about you? Have you encountered them?”

“Have you?” She asks in return rather than replying first. She knew she had to be cautious.

“Yeah, months after that I moved to the city. I was 18.”

“I would see them every time I visited him.”

“Did you tell anyone?”

“I used to constantly be up my mom’s leg about it, as a kid.”

“And?” The man encourages her to go on.

“Why are you so keen on it? Do you believe me?”

“Why won’t I? Didn’t I say, I know.”

“She kept saying it was my wild child imagination. Until the vague explanation wasn’t enough, soon I was a teenager and childhood imagination as a reply didn’t satisfy my heart.” She pauses, stands up and gets herself a cup of water from the water filter. She continues after a sip from the Styrofoam cup. “It was another afternoon. I had just returned from the trip a day ago. I kept telling her what I saw.” She drinks up the whole cup, crushes it and tosses it over to the bin. A perfect shot. “She couldn’t hear no more. She grabbed my neck and whispered to my face.” She looks at the man and quotes her mother. “My father made our family a comedic show with his insane tales and you are not ruining my life anymore. No one wants to hear what you saw nor will they believe it and you will not speak about it any further.”

The man nods. “People don’t like to hear what they don’t want to believe.”

“After that summer, me visiting my grandparents wasn’t allowed. I didn’t have a father so she was the only way I could visit them.”

“I believe you.”

Before Julia could say anything, a nurse came out of the other room. “Mr Garrison, it’s your turn.” She announces but no one budges. The nurse looks over at where they were sitting, purses her lips and walks towards them. “Where is your caretaker Mr. Garrison?”

The woman looks confused and looks at the man with a puzzled look. The nurse smiles and bends down. “I am sorry, did he bother you? He is in treatment for schizophrenia. I am really sorry.” She gets up, takes the man’s hand and walks him out with her.

The lady sits back and laughs to herself. “Of course, what was I expecting? Getting crazy yourself, aren’t you Julia?” After she gets done at the hospital, she drops her aunt off. She felt exhausted after the day. She lays back in her well-made bed, when a thought made her whole body burst into ice cold sweat. “He spoke about them up first.” She said out loud.