ISAAC
“Ahh,every time a season comes to an end, I find myself a little…wistful.” Reggie sighed as he stood outside with me, bundled up against the chilly weather.
I glanced at his red cheeks and his smile, my lips twitching. “Is that so?”
“Yes,” he said promptly. “You’d think I’d have grown used to it after a few years, but it has yet to happen. I guess I can’t help but get attached to you all, and each end of season I don’t always know who will return or when.”
I glanced at the group of men waiting for the transport vans. Most guests arrived and left that way. The main stop being the bus depot down the mountains. Some took private vehicles or were picked up. But all went back to their lives, maybe to return another time.
I blinked. “Huh, seasons.”
Reggie glanced at me. “That was Marc’s idea. Having people stay for most of one season, then a few weeks' break, so we can do maintenance. Then, into the next season, and we welcome new or returning guests. It’s working well.”
“There’s a synergy to it that I appreciate,” I said, chuckling. “It feels ritualistic, symbolic.”
“Fun fact. There’s symbolism to each of the seasons,” he said with a smirk.
I rolled my eyes. “Please, if you try hard enough, there’s symbolism in everything.”
“True, cynical but true,” he said. “Call me romantic, but I notice symbolism for some things has become literal. At least here.”
I snorted. “I remember hearing that you tended toward…mystical thinking.”
“Marc needs to stop telling people that.” Reggie frowned, but I didn’t believe he was annoyed. Any time he spoke about Mr. Shepherd, there was a quiet glow about him that he wasn’t aware of or couldn’t bring himself to conceal. I knew love when I saw it, but like so many secrets, I would keep that one.
“I won’t be coming back,” I told him, as the luggage was put in the vans and men started to get in. “I realize I needed to come here, but coming back would be pointless.”
“Would it?” he asked lightly.
I nodded. “It would. I found what I came here for. Time here doesn’t pass as it does in the real world. Arete is separated from reality, which is what people need to heal. But once you’ve reached a point in healing, there’s no reason to come back. It would just be an escape from reality, from my life. The best thing I can do is start living again and make something of my life.”
He grunted thoughtfully. “And if you were to return for another reason?”
Confused, I looked at him. “Well, if Clay decides to return to Arete, I would want to visit him.”
The reminder of Clay when I was about to leave for good gave me mixed feelings. I hurt for him in the midst of his hurt, but I knew he was where he needed to be. I’d had a brief call in the two weeks he’d been in the inpatient facility. It was a placewith a similar attitude to Arete. They tried to limit patients’ connections to the outside world, a safety bubble.
He had seemed off, but I’d expected that. There had been so much pain and despair locked deep in his heart, he was bound to be different now he couldn’t contain it. He’d sworn up and down he was trying to keep to the treatment plan, though he sounded grumpy about that. His annoyance was comforting because it meant the man I’d come to know wasn’t completely lost.
“We try to keep outside visitors to a minimum, but there are always exceptions to be made on a case-by-case basis. If Clay returns, I’m sure your request would be approved, all things considered.”
“How generous of you…and Arete.”
“I know, right?” he said with a laugh. “But I wasn’t referring to you being a visitor for Clay.”
I raised a brow, rubbing my hands together as it began to snow. “Then what?”
“As much as this place, and the staff, played a part in Clay’s treatment, the true credit should go to you,” he said, holding up a hand as one of the drivers gave us an impatient look.
“That’s generous but delusional,” I said, sensing this was why he was talking to me.
“Not particularly,” he chuckled. “You forget, I talk to Luka a lot, and he’s told me things.
“Uh-huh,” I said doubtfully. “I sense you’re trying to work your way around to a point.”
“Well, I would have gotten there,” he said with a huff.
Luka’s voice piped up behind us. “Ignore him, Isaac. Reggie has a flair for the dramatic and forgets people have other things to do rather than stand around, freezing.”
