Age 10

Jano stared at the doctor, smiling and nodding at his words. Somewhere behind him he could hear the voice again, but he knew that if he looked around for it then the doctor would make 'the face' again, and his days would go back to staring at the neutral walls of his little hospital room. He had to make the doctor think that he was all better or he would not be allowed to go home.

The second time that he heard the singing he was at the dinner table with his parents, and the sound was coming from his soup spoon. The image had made him a bit dizzy, feet kicking high into the air before coming back to earth again. It had taken him a moment to realize 'he' was on a swing. He showed his father but his father just patted him on the head. Jano watched until the song stopped and he was staring at his own reflection in the shiny metal surface.

He did not realize that nobody else could see the images until several months later when his parents scheduled him an appointment with a special family talking doctor. His teachers had complained about his inability to focus, how sometimes he would be staring at a window and smiling, missing whatever lessons were being taught during that time. When the talk doctor asked him what he was doing Jano answered honestly, he was watching the girl.

He didn't know it was a girl at first. It took seeing a grownup through her eyes and hearing them refer to her as a daughter. Nobody decorated in pink in his world, it was all shades of blue and gray everywhere he looked. Seeing a room filled with pink curtains, pink bedding, white lace, it meant nothing to him. He loved watching her world through her eyes, everything was so different. There were trees, and flowers, and once he saw something that looked like a Butterbug from one of his story books. It's wings were all sorts of colors and it was one of the most beautiful things he ever saw.

The talk doctor had asked a lot of questions, and when a song started up in her sweet, happy voice Jano had pointed to the shiny lamp base to show him. The doctor asked more questions, about what he saw. Jano realized that nobody else could see the things that he saw. They thought he was ill. The next year was filled with different medications that made him sick and did nothing to stop the songs from coming to him. Eventually he was admitted to the hospital and had to undergo all kinds of tests to find out why his brain was going weirdy. Jano learned to stop acknowledging the sounds and stop looking for the reflections. After a few months the doctors all agreed it was a transient episode, his brain was showing him things while it tried to work through some issues. Basically, they were saying they had no idea what happened or why it stopped.

Jano smiled at the doctor as the song ended behind him. His parents watched him closely but he had gotten better at hiding his reactions and nobody could see any signs that he was hearing or seeing anything. He was allowed to go home with his parents, where he would be schooled from home for a while while they observed him to make sure he was really okay. While they drove in their little car he rested his head against the window and closed his eyes. Just past his eyelids on the glass there was a table full of presents and children all singing a song about birthdays. He did not look at the reflections, but let the song fill his ears and calm his heart.