A Contrast in Perception / A Mirror of Shielded Innocence

“She keeps staring at ya, pal,’ said Shaemus in a cautionary tone. 

Max awoke from the daydream of the now departed silence. He looked up and smiled at the wheelchaired man before him, embarrassed at missing what he had said. Sunshine dappled the man’s face as the two men sat beneath an oak tree patiently yellowing in the Autumn breeze.  Shaemus starred past Max emptily. 

“She’s staring at you," said Shaemus.

“Who’s that?” asked Max.

“Her," he said, raising an arm battered by time, and pointed past Max’s shoulder. 

“In the bushes back there. What do you think she’s up to?”

Max turned and saw nothing. Just a small thicket of bushes against the pale white stucco of the building.

It was a striking contrast from the perspective of Shaemus and his collidescope eyes gazing out from beneath his thick lenses. When he looked past Max, he saw a gaunt woman standing in the bushes but a stone’s throw away draped in soiled and shredded cloth. She stared right through them both as her mouth slowly opened, releasing a river of blood to the dirt. A dagger held her hand. 

Max continued to entertain Shaemus for a moment, gazing into the bushes for a long few seconds to feign an intense effort, but eventually turned back to his companion, and patient, on the patio. 

A sweet breeze brushed the leaves as a few of the same dropped amongst them. 

“I don’t see anything, Shaemus,” he said at last. "Maybe she ran off!" He said it cheekily, with an air of confidence. He didn't want to argue. There was no point to argue with schizophrenia, he knew. 

A quiet silence persisted as Shaemus shifted his gaze slowly to his feet, about, and then back to Max’s patient face. .

“Huh... I think you’re right,” he said at last to humor the innocence of his companion. It was fruitless to sway the unaware. It was best to leave them blissful, albeit ignorant. 

He smiled gently and they turned the conversation to lunch, and the advertised Reuban sandwich of the canteen.