Brenda Mendez

Professor Broadous

Pan African Studies 114B

23 February 2012

An Ultimate

            Walking into Scotties house my eyes were immediately attracted to a family portrait that only consisted of Mrs. Walsh and Scottie. Scottie grew up only in the eyes of his mother, she taught him how to tie his shoes, ride a bike, drive a car, and even how to talk to girls. Their relationship (and I have to be cliché) like a “Peanut Butter and Jelly relationship.”  I have to say Mrs. Walsh was one of the coolest moms of the block given her age. She had luxurious bright red hair with pearl white skin, had glossy chestnut- eyes, and her body looked as if she lived inside the gym rather than two houses down from me. We all lived in a small upper middle class town named Ridgewood in New Jersey. Growing up Scottie and I could afford all the comic books we pleased to buy. I remember Scottie was so into comic books he would go days barricaded inside his room reading his all-time favorite comic book, The Ultimates.  He was a thin and tall young man who was full shyness and intelligence that never let his guard down. Unlike his mom he didn’t have red hair with brown eyes, but instead had buttercream blonde hair with piercing blue eyes that looked blurry through his prescribed glasses. We also had the best relationship any other best friends could have. Even though he would sometimes punk on me for being a little chubby and not as tall as him I still won him over with my apple green colored eyes and blonde hair. Scottie was living an average life, that is until he started hearing the voices and getting paranoid thinking that the people around him were plotting to hurt him, so he was going to try to prevent it by harming them first, all showing symptoms of schizophrenia. It is not always about how much you help a person out, but more about if you understand them.

            “My doctors say it isn’t as severe as other cases.” Scottie would say calmly with a concerned looked to people that would ask how he was doing. It had only been a year since Scottie had been diagnosed with schizophrenia and to be honest everything did seem like everything was fine. Although, I would walk in on Scottie talking to himself, everything else seemed perfectly fine to Mrs. Walsh and me, or so we thought. Mrs. Walsh had Scottie go in to see his psychiatrist, Dr. Vanessa Griffith at least twice a week. He would describe Dr. Griffith with such passion to me every time he saw her. He said she had long beautiful goldilocks blonde hair with amazing baby blue eyes and had warm and moist red lips that made him twitch every time he looked at them. That said she was as tall as a skyscraper that came with nice racks. “Dude! I swear it looks as if she just came out of a Victoria Secret magazine.” Scottie would exaggerate to me. March 5^th was the day things started to seem sketchy, I remember the date because it was the day before my cat’s birthday, that day I wanted to check up on Scottie and see how he was doing.

“Do you think Dr. Griffith is actually helping you deal with your sickness?”  I asked Scottie as calmly as I could possibly think of.

 “Yeah man, everything’s fine.” Scottie responded with such annoyance in his face.  I was starting to get tired of hearing that response from him all the time. So I would keep insisting and making sure that everything was fine. Scottie and I had planned to go to a DC convention that was being held in our town the next day. As I sat down my Quicksilver backpack that had my skateboard strapped to the front of it I turned to Scottie and asked.

“Are you sure you’re okay Scottie?” “Do you think you are up for it and can handle today’s event?”  “If you want we don’t have to go to the convention being held. I heard there’s another one being help in four months, we can just go to that one.”  I just wanted to make sure Scottie would be able to handle going to a big even like that.

 “Yeah man!”  “I’m alright!” “Can you please just stop asking me that?” “Maybe you just don’t want me to go to the convention so you can have all that fun to yourself!” Scottie accused me with such anger, it looked as if steam was about to come out of his ears because his veins were ready to pop out of his skin. 

 “Scottie! Are you out of your mind, your starting to sound paranoid!” I yelled at him, afterwards I stormed out of Scotties room and took a minute to cool down.  I then realized that I had gotten out of line. It was just one of those bad days doctors said he would have. I went back to his room to apologize and he accepted it. I knew it was his disordered that made him react like that but, I felt as if Scottie was slowly starting to drift away. We then went to the convention and had a blast, we bought the newest editions of The Ultimates and I ended up sleeping over his house and watched movies while we stuffed our faces with buttery popcorn until we fell asleep.

            “Scottie it’s time for us to go to our art class!” Yelled Mrs. Walsh walking up the stairs trying to wake up Scottie. It seemed as if Mrs. Walsh and Scottie also started drifting apart and the only thing holding up their relationship was going to their art class on Saturday mornings. That morning it seemed as if Scottie wasn’t waking up so Mrs. Walsh decided to go inside his room. When she walked into his room she walked in on him saying “Get out of my head! Stop talking!”  Of course she didn’t want to startle him so she just walked away. “So son, how has school been going for you?” Asked Mrs. Walshed on the car ride to their art class.

            “School is fine mom.” Scottie replied just staring out the window watching the trees pass him by.

            “How are things going on with Dr. Griffith? Is she helping you with your sickness?” Mrs. Walsh insisted.

            “Yes mom! She says I’m getting better! Why are you asking me all these questions?” Scottie responded to his mom swinging his arms back and forth with fury.

            “I was just trying to see how you were doing Scottie.” “If you think moving away from Ridgewood will help you cope with your disorder, then I think we should move.” Mrs. Walsh answered back with intimidation in her face.

             “What!? Mom, are you serious!? Do you want to ruin my life!?” Scottie yelled.

             “What no, not at all Scottie. You know what forget what I just said.” After the argument between Scottie and his mom was dismissed, they went on to their art class and ended up bowling afterwards and everything seemed to be well.

            “So tell me Scottie. Last week you told me that these voices you would only hear once in a while has developed into you hearing them all the time. What do they tell you?” Dr. Griffith asked Scottie with a focused look on her face.

            “I don’t really know Dr. Griffith. I can’t seem to understand what they’re saying to me. But I think I have a pretty good idea what it is though. My best friend Jesse and my Mom have been acting a little fishy lately and I think I know why. I think they are out to get me!”

             “What do you mean by “out to get you?” Asked Dr. Griffith as she wrote on her yellow colored pages.

             “I mean that they are trying to harm me. Not literary, but more in the sense that I think they want me to suffer and they keep hurting me on purpose. I mean they say they want to help me, but they don’t even know how to help. They just don’t understand! And these voices keep getting louder! I know how to get back at them before they harm me.” Scottie answered in a malicious tone.

             “What are you saying Scottie? How are you going to get back at them?” Dr. Griffith questioned as she sat up with a worried looked on her face.

            “They want the pleasure to make me suffer; well I think I should make them suffer. Know you; hit them before they hit me.” Scottie said diabolically.

             “Now Scottie I don’t think Jesse and your mother want to make you suffer. On the contrary, they want to see you back to yourself, full of life and joy.” “I want you to go home and think about that.” Dr. Griffith suggested to Scottie.

            That night Scottie laid in bed and kept thinking to himself about the words Dr. Griffith told him. He began to understand that his family just wants the best for him, but then the voices starting calling at him again. He soon developed an idea on how he could get back at me and his mother. He was going to try to injure them physically. He thought that way they would suffer the way Scotties been suffering. The following week Scottie had invited me to go over to his house to show me some of the new comic books he had recently bought. As planned I went over and what I saw when I walked in I could not believe. Scottie was waiting for me with a kitchen knife threatening me for trying to ruin his life. He accused me of turning our high school against him, when all I did was ask our school to sympathize for him, to treat him better. He also accused me of trying to steal his childhood crush away from him, when in truth all I did was meet up with her once in a while to see we can help each other cope with Scotties disorder. He misunderstood everything that I had been doing to try and help him. “Well, what about my mom huh!? She’s been trying to get rid of me so she can live in this huge house by herself and marry another guy and live her life without me!” In my head I knew this was one of the many more mental breakdowns Scottie was meant to have, but all I could concentrate was trying to make it out alive. Scottie in fact wasn’t fine, his schizophrenia had been getting worse and no one saw it coming, or maybe we did but we just didn’t want to realize it. As soon as I ended my thought Scotties mom walked into the house and yelled as loud as she could. It startled Scottie and dropped the knife and that is when I knocked him out to keep everyone safe.

            Three months had passed since the incident at Scotties house. His mom decided to move a way for a short period of time and seek even more help for poor Scottie. Throughout those three months I struggled to see why Scottie was so angry. I mean, I was just trying to help him. Then it hit me, it wasn’t about how much I help, but more important it was about understanding and putting myself in Scotties shoes. At that point I was motivated to look for him and make him see that I understood him and that I was there for him.

             “Scottie, have those voices you hear gotten any worse? Do they still yell at you constantly?” Dr. Griffith asked patiently as she picked up her pen that she dropped on the ground. 

            “Dr. Griffith, in all honesty they have gone back to normal.” Replied Scottie staring at Dr. Griffith.

             “Have you experienced-” Scottie interrupted Dr. Griffith

             “I had a deep conversation with my mother last night.” “She told me that she needed a reality check to realize that I wasn’t fine. She told me that she understood me and then she started to cry.” “Dr. Griffith, all I wanted was for them to understand me!” “They don’t know how insane I go with these voices in my head! They taunt me every day! You don’t know what I have been going through. I feel as if I’m the only person in the world, left alone.”    Scottie then began to cry.  Another seven months passed by I still hadn’t found out where he was. I would leave Scottie voice messages everyday hoping one day he would call back, but he never did. After another two months that Sunday I was woken up by the noise of a truck. As I ran out my front lawn I saw it was a movie truck. I guess it was about time someone moving into Scotties house.  All of a sudden I saw Scottie. It was Scottie! I ran to him and gave him the biggest hug. He told me he heard my voice messages and wanted me to be part of his life again. I realized that it was not so much about sympathy but more of empathy.

            Scottie needed to know that we understood him so that he can accept our help. I’m not going to say that after he came back Scottie was getting better he still had breakdowns, for it is normal with his disorder. But it’s different now, for he now had his mother and me, he was an Ultimate.