The Eagle's Throne

70. (LORENZO HERRERA GALVÁN)

(I am playing hide-and-seek in the garden I laugh a lot they can’t find me I hide behind the tree and they say there he is we’ll get him now run over there and I hide behind another street and shout there he is but I am the one who shouts because I am alone playing all by myself and I think I should shout here I am, right? here I am playing all by myself in the middle of all the trees in the house where I have always lived was I born here? the lady doctor says no that they brought me here who brought me here I ask and she says nothing and I try to remember who brought me here to my house I hear the house talking but I only say my house because I have never had another house and I know that I will never leave here but I don’t mind I have a fuzzy picture in my head of a man and a woman who came here when I was little but they came less and less and the lady doctor told me they love you they love you they are very worried about you they are people who are good and I don’t know what that means good people but I know I love them too I love everything that comes near me and says hello and talks and touches me I love that a lot but it doesn’t happen much I am very alone and I love all those things a lot but it is hard for me to tell the lady doctor that’s what they call her she said to me they love you I wish I could talk like her but I can’t I talk without even opening my mouth if they knew all the things I say without opening my mouth I hear everyone but nobody hears me I talk to the inside talk to me talk to me a lot please I hear them I understand them I understand everything they say they think I don’t understand because I don’t talk but yes I do understand everything they don’t tell me much because they think I don’t understand I don’t know how to say the things I want and I don’t know how to say the things I think and without talking I say what they say I understand them very well you are intelligent the lady doctor says intelligent intelligent I understand them very well but they don’t know that and that’s why they don’t talk to me they just talk about me but they don’t talk to me they should know that I understand everything even if it’s hard for me to talk the doctor should realize that I understand because if I didn’t how could I laugh so much when once a week on the day called sunday sunday sunday they put us all together and show us cartoons of dogs mice cats that make us all laugh at first I didn’t know what to do watching the duck get angry and break plates because he was so angry and I started to laugh when I saw all the other kids laugh it was OK to laugh it wasn’t bad to laugh everyone laughs watching the duck all angry but I only see the children on sunday sunday sunday they keep me away the rest of the time and the lady doctor whispers to the nurses that’s what they are called all of them in white white white you see I do understand white sunday sunday sunday white duck angry the doctor talks in whispers I don’t know what she tells them I am all alone except on sundays now I have changed because I am growing up like they say to me I am not a little boy anymore be careful with your hands I don’t know what to do with my hands I ask them why don’t I see anyone else I am always all alone before they used to pat me on the head and now they don’t even do that now all they say is careful with your hands but the lady doctor her eyes get filled with water and she whispers to the other nurses in white white white now nobody ever comes to visit me like when I was little and I used my hands to play ball careful with your hands when you play ball Lencho they call me Lencho or Lenchito now I want to ask them why they look so pale what is wrong what is going to happen I don’t know anything outside this place who knows what there is behind the walls why do they get sad when they look at me why do they move their heads like that when water falls they close the windows I don’t know what happens there outside where I used to play hide-and-seek now they lock me up in a dark room what did I do what did I do what did I do I don’t know I feel my head spin even though I don’t move I am alone in a dark room and I say I am nice to the plants and the animals and the trees I love them I smell the plants I stop at the trees I am like them I am them I have nobody else except the garden before now they don’t let me out into the garden I am the tree I am the plant I am the animal I have nobody but them I don’t see the other children I can still see the squirrel a dog some flowerpots with flowers but the trees no not anymore now they don’t let me out all I have is a blue blue blue notebook I heard them say let him scribble in his blue book when I scribble I write things down like these things I write without ink the notebook has letters I only have a finger to write on these white papers I remember the man and the lady that used to come and visit me and now don’t ever come I don’t ask them anymore if I will ever see them again and sometimes I think I never saw them I only dreamed them I ask the lady doctor who were they why don’t they come and see me anymore she says Lencho love is real Lencho love is real Lencho love is real write it in your blue notebook with your finger remember everything you think and dream because you won’t see them again they are very important people I knock on the door don’t they hear me? won’t they come to see me? can’t they see me all alone? don’t they know a boy can’t forget? why do they tie my hands behind my back? how can I play like that? how can I write in my blue notebook?)