| Maeve |
| Angry and lonely, she sat frozen in the cold rain of winter. The weather had been fickle for some time, raining and then snowing. The dreary weather didn�t lift her mood as it usually would. Hordes of people passed her on the dirty Moscow street corner. She wasn�t homeless; nevertheless, she sat on the sidewalk lamenting in despair. Most people pointed or stared. However, some sympathetic people stopped to offer her help, directions, a ride, anything to make her feel better. However she refused with her unusual silence and distant stare. All the people not trying to be charitable just passed her by, assuming she was unemployed or wanted attention. Days passed, and then weeks and still she sat cold on the corner in a daze, it seemed. Eventually police started to check to see if her profile fit a missing persons report. Nothing came up and she wasn�t bothering anyone so they left her alone. Then one day the girl left. No one saw her depart. She had just disappeared. Maeve�s performance was the best anyone had ever seen. The papers raved about her beautiful voice. Her appearance had been long expected and everyone who lived in the real world knew her name. Maeve was a mysterious person; she would leave and not contact anyone for weeks, even months, at a time. Yet she always performed for her fans no matter what. Most famous singers or rock stars have silly requests for living room furniture or silly foods; however, Maeve had no unusual requests. She only wanted her space to prepare for the performance, as well as a new pound bag of plain M&M�s and a bottle of green tea before the show. Her manager Kurt hated the frequent disappearances; however, he was not the one with the �voice of gold� as the papers would put it. He hated that he could not contact her for information about her outfits for the performance or autograph signing ahead of time. He told her that he really wanted to see her succeed and the only way to do that would be constant interaction with him. She paid him no mind and did what she always did. Then one day she was gone and didn�t arrive for her show. It seemed to be just another performance at the beginning. Kurt was used to her not showing up until about half an hour before the performance. But this time she was an hour later than usual. The audience waited patiently; however, some people grew rowdy and started booing. Kurt made an appearance at the microphone. He informed the audience that their beloved Maeve was running late and would arrive shortly. Nevertheless the people wanted to see her immediately; they believed that they had waited long enough. Some people left and went home. Others stayed in hopes that she truly would come in the long run. Eventually every one had given up and everybody in the theater was gone. She never showed up. She was awakened by a loud noise. In the hallway there was something that fell. When she awakened, her senses were dulled, all except her sight. The bright lights burned her eyes. Everything was white. The white walls reflected the lights, making it worse. She stood up uneasily and shut off the lights. She looked back at where she had awakened; she saw a bed with white pillows and sheets. At the foot of the bed was a clipboard with papers. On the papers she saw printed �Jane Doe,� then a whole bunch of symbols and words she didn�t understand. She did understand that they didn�t know who she was and they thought she was homeless. A nurse walked in. She was made aware that their patient was awake by the darkened room. She went to turn on the lights so she could talk to �Jane.� However as soon as she turned on the lights, the woman dropped to her knees, covering her head. Quickly the nurse turned off the lights. �I am sorry dear. I didn�t know that was going to bother you.� Slowly Jane rose to her feet and sat on the bed staring at the nurse. �Hello, my name is Merrill. I will be your nurse. Do you understand me?� Silence. The sweet, patient, Merrill realized she couldn�t get an answer out of Jane. Quickly she excused herself and went to speak with the head nurse. About ten minutes later a doctor came in and questioned Jane. She still refused to answer. After a week of absolutely no communication with their lovely young patient, she was transferred to a psychiatric ward in another part of town. In psychiatric therapy she was allowed to roam the campus and draw or any other whim she might experience; however, she had to visit a psychologist for an hour each day. These daily visits were uneventful, consisting only of the nice woman named Meredith talking to Jane, as she was still called. Even still Jane did not talk. The time had come for Jane to leave, or so she thought. When she tried to walk out, she was informed in a rather abrupt way that she could not. Security took her back to her room kicking and screaming and tied her down to her bed. It was there that they kept her for over a month until she found out that if she talked to someone and made progress she might be allowed to leave. She decided she would allow the nice Meredith to hear her talk and she would tell Meredith the story of the other half of Maeve. At first the Meredith did not believe her. But in a few days Maeve had proved her case by informing Meredith why and when she would go on these outings. In Maeve�s music she sang about the city and the people who suffered the travesties of daily life. These were experiences gained while watching people in the streets in the weeks prior to her latest performance. These conversations continued until Meredith officially declared her sane and allowed Maeve to go home. Walking in to her recording studio, Maeve was showered with hugs and kisses from her beloved Kurt. He had no idea where Maeve had been almost three months. Two of her performances had gone by and he was worried sick about his �voice of gold.� When he asked her where she had gone she just replied, �Just out, and I plan to do it again next month.� |