Max was sitting at the dock, he knew it was late but he didn’t want to be in his tent now. He was shaking with tears running down his face, the nightmare that woke him up still lingered in the back of his mind. He hated it. “F-fuck…” was all he could muster out as he stared into the lake.
(( I’m not good at writig starters yet but I’m working on it 🙂
Max took the wipe, wiping his face then balling it in his hand. “It’s fine.” He sniffled. “It was just a stupid dream. ‘Didn’t mean anything. It wasn’t real.” It almost sounded like he was trying to convince himself more than Carlos.
“It was a dream,” Carlos agreed. “But you still have to deal
with the emotions that came up out of it.” He sighed. “Sometimes… dreams bring
up things that you didn’t really know that you were afraid of. Like… sometimes
I dream that my, uh… my mom shows up again just to tell my family how she doesn’t
approve of anything we do.” It was a mild way to put it, but it was an example
that he hoped Max would appreciate.Max put his head back into his knees and sighed deeply. “Emotions are stupid…”
“Yeah… they are sometimes,” Carlos agreed. “Do you want to
talk about the dream? Maybe talking about it, your conscious mind can listen to
the events and realize that some of it wouldn’t ever happen.”Max nodded slightly, putting his knees down. “I-I dunno how to explain…” God, he wish he hadn’t left his bear in the tent.
“It’s okay,” Carlos assured him. “Go ahead and start talking…
I’ll listen.”“W-Well they were with me and- they sort of weren’t paying atttention, like I didn’t exist or something.. no matter what I did or said it was like they didn’t hear me- didn’t want to hear me.. then..” He was crying again. “F-fuck…”
Carlos sniffed softly. He reached and very slowly set his
hand on Max’s back. “Hey… it’s okay. I’m sorry, Max… clearly it hurt to
experience that in your dream.”Max gripped the sleeves of his camp shirt, taking a shakey breath. “Then-Then David was there…”
That intrigued Carlos and he found himself getting hopeful.
But he reminded himself that this was a nightmare Max was talking about. He started to rub the boy’s back gently. He had
an inkling of where this was going…“And he…” Max pulled his knees back up to his chest. “…And he was doing the same thing…”
Oh… ouch. Carlos could tell that that was an absolutely
horrible concept to Max.
“I’m sorry, Max,” Carlos said softly. “Um, you know… David
really strives to include everyone in the activities. And he pays special
attention to you, I can tell.”
The Perfect Scientist 