Page 35 of Nights Without Night
“I see. So, it’s mainly you?”
“I guess.”
“What about you? You’re close to your parents?”
“Yeah.”
“Any other support system?”
“For me? Oh, well, yeah, I guess. I have friends.”
“That’s good. So, what made you decide to reach out to us?” he asks.
“Well, I…I guess I’m just, I’m worried. I don’t know what to do. How to help him.”
“Okay. You don’t mind me asking questions about the situation? You are not obligated to answer any of them, of course. Say pass and we’ll go to the next one or stop there.”
“Okay. Sure, yes.”
“Okay. When you say worried, can you tell me a bit more about that? Are there any behaviours your friend is showing, or not showing, worrying you?”
“Well…He doesn’t talk to me. No, wait,” I say, shaking my head. “He, okay, he seemed to be doing better when he first got here but it’s like things are getting worse.”
“In what way? Are there any specific behaviours that have changed to give you the impression things have worsened?”
“He doesn’t leave the house, or his room, even. We live together, so…When he first got here he would leave the house, socialize…now he just doesn’t.”
“What did he use to do when he left the house?”
“Go to the dog shelter. He had a job as a bouncer at the bar I worked at. I got it for him, I…maybe I pushed him too hard…”
“Did you insist he take the job?”
“No. No, no, I just suggested it.”
“It doesn’t sound like you pushed too hard.”
“I guess. I just…”
“I understand. We’ll get back to that in a moment if you like, let me just ask you a few more questions. So, from what you’ve said, one of the main changes concerning you is a decline in how often he leaves the house. I’m guessing he doesn’t have the job at the bar anymore?”
“No, he, uh…He sort of, I mean the guy was an asshole, but he sort of hurt someone.”
“Can you tell me what happened?”
“Well, I was working behind the bar and some guy was not taking no for an answer, if you know what I mean, and grabbed at me, and Isa- I mean, my friend, was working the door and he sort of…hulked out. Grabbed the guy, slammed him against the wall. The guy cracked his head…”
“Any charges pressed?”
“No. But since that night, that’s when everything changed. I mean, I knew, before, that things weren’t right, but theyseemedokay. Now, he doesn’t do anything. He doesn’t come out to eat with me, I think he barely eats. I—I have class, so I can’t. I mean I want to, but I can’t be there all the time, you know?”
“Of course. I understand. How do you know he doesn’t leave the house when you’re not there?”
“Well…this is gonna sound kind of shady, but I leave a tiny slip of paper between the front door and its frame when I close it, so I know if someone has opened it ‘cause it would fall, you know? And it’s always untouched.”
“That’s quite inventive.”
“I got the idea from an anime I watched when I was a teenager, so…” I say. He chuckles.
