Chapter 74 Chapter 74 [VIP]

On the first day at the special care center for children, Megan sent her father away and then returned to the dormitory alone after dinner.

She has independent awareness and can take care of herself. A psychologist who was also eating in the cafeteria observed some of the children with special needs and said to the staff, "Among all the children with mental illnesses, Megan seems to be doing well. I guess the intervention training we did earlier was very effective..."

Then what she needs is not further intervention. If the established pattern is changed hastily, it is likely to cause strong stress, which goes against their original intention.

Megan returned to the dormitory, but they actually had a fixed activity time after dinner, so she was called out by the staff again. After all, they had to ensure that the children had enough activities and were also careful that they might do dangerous things if they stayed alone in the dormitory.

After she was called out, she walked around a few times. Since there were only children in the care home, cartoons were playing in the public area. She watched Sponge Bob for a while, then went to look for other TVs and found a new cartoon!

Winnie the Pooh.

That night, when Arthur called the foster care center to speak to Megan, she held the receiver with both hands, tilted her head, and, forgetting the depression she had felt after being abandoned that afternoon, slowly formed her words, "Dad, I saw the bear."

Oh my god! How rare! She actually chose to speak! Or is this really how effective the foster care center is? It's even more effective than him personally training her.

Was Arthur surprised? Of course he was, but could she please him? That was not certain.

He was on the other end of the phone, and there was always some noise affecting his hearing and speaking. After a few muffled sounds, he pretended to be curious and asked, "Oh my Megan! So you like bears?" He remembered that Megan had placed the plush bear that Bain gave her on the bedside. It was her favorite doll.

Megan felt that her father understood her. "...well, Little Bear, doesn't like Winnie." When she said this, Arthur immediately understood what she had been through.

"Why?" He spoke in a gentle and persuasive tone, but the background sound was clearly a scream.

The child on the other end of the phone began to think, but when it comes to liking something, it's hard to grasp the root cause, nor can it imagine why it needs a reason. Finally, he said frankly but a little uncertainly, "I don't know."

She herself was confused, so Arthur had nothing to say to her, "Okay, kid, you have to go back to bed." It was already time for her to go to bed according to her regular schedule, and he was still busy with his own work. He couldn't be said to have taken time off to talk to Megan, after all, they were doing it at the same time.

He was squatting on the ground, holding an acid flower in his hand. After turning on the mechanism, he sprayed the acid onto a corpse's face. Amidst the sizzling sound of corrosion and a hint of smoke, he said to Megan with a ferocious smile, "Good night."

Now is not a dramatic moment, and it is obvious that a new game is already being prepared. Who says he is destined to be a hard-working person?

The Joker hung up the phone, threw away the now empty acid flower, clapped his hands, stood up, and took a few steps. Then, as if remembering something, he ordered his gang in the theater: "Clean up this place, and take him away. He has a better place to go."

For example, if a bat falls from the sky and hits a bat lantern, that would be a good opening, with the flavor of a Hollywood thriller.

For an insignificant dead person? This is certainly a good place to go. When the time comes, there will be several police officers, forensic doctors, and even Batman to track down clues before and after his death. They will treat him like a big star. Look, they are all his paparazzi.

Megan said "good night" and the call was hung up. The little bit of panic she had felt disappeared. She returned to the dormitory and took medicine before going to bed, but this time she took a look at the small pill first. Of course, she didn't see anything.

After taking the medicine as usual, on the second day at the care center, the staff will take them to understand the course schedule here, the functions and routes of each building, familiarize them with the environment to form cognition, and tell them that there is no danger here. This can help children quickly reduce their anxiety, which is a very effective way to comfort them.

The process of which children each teacher leads has been carefully studied, and Megan——

When she shows that she doesn't like her peers, and also dislikes non-peers who are noisy, overly lively, and talkative, she will hang out with other quiet children and no one will deliberately disturb her.

The nursing home had everything it needed, including classrooms, art studios, music rooms, an indoor gymnasium, an outdoor stadium, and a lecture hall. It wasn't as big as a regular primary school, but Megan had never understood what a 'school' was. She only felt that it was a little big... bigger than the activity space in the two-story building, but not as big as Arkham Asylum.

Megan was not stupid at all. She memorized the teacher's introduction, and then each child had to get their own schedule. Because their disability symptoms and family situations were different, the courses were differentiated accordingly.

Because she is still young, she has independent awareness and can take care of herself. Her condition is gradually improving. The most important thing is -

Arthur expressed his wishes and plans for the future to the foster care center. His child will one day go to school like normal children and experience the life that other children have, so there is no need to teach her the skills to make a living, but she must learn the knowledge taught in school.

Her basic courses are set in this way, including mathematics, English, science and sociology. As for painting and music classes, Megan can experience them and then decide whether to take them. Even the main courses are basically the same. If they cause discomfort to special children, make them strongly reject or fear them, the courses will be suspended first, and resumed after the problem is resolved.

The special children's care center has a very flexible curriculum schedule for the children, ensuring that there are long breaks for free activities every day, as well as a physical education class for physical exercise, teaching them a variety of sports.

So when the third day of class started, Megan did not mind attending classes and would take notes and do homework seriously. The only problem was that she did not respond to the teacher's "calling on her to answer questions". But when the teacher talked to her after class, she would selectively respond.

But there are too many children with mental problems who have developed quirks and strange tempers. Megan does not have paranoia, no delusions, no schizophrenia, no phobia, no mania...

Compared to those children who scream, cry, bump into others, hurt themselves, talk to themselves, and are impulsive and irritable, she is a rare good child.

…

After two days of main classes, Megan received the brushes, drawing board, paint and buckets needed for the painting class at noon, and went to class in the afternoon with the buckets.

In Arkham, Poison Ivy tried to teach Megan how to paint, but when she held the paintbrush, her mind felt empty, without any impression left in it, and they could not be recalled...

She was used to the empty world, so she would just scribble on paper. The colors she painted had no logic or beauty, and were "meaningless". They had no meaning to express. She just applied layers of colors that she thought looked good. In the end, it was just a pile of paint, which she threw into the trash can.

Now the child was wearing an apron like a little painter. In order to avoid getting her clothes dirty, she carried a bucket to the studio. White paper was laid on all the erected easels. Megan leaned over to take a look and found that the paper was stuck on them with tape.

Megan just touched it and then took her hand back. When the bell rang, the teacher asked them to put down what they were holding and watch her draw first.

The teacher was painting and talking a lot, but Megan only half understood what he said, which seemed to make sense but not fully understood. In short, she still didn't understand. She just watched a forest emerge under the teacher's brush. Its colors were beautiful and the picture was also beautiful.

While other children were fetching water, squeezing out paint, and starting to paint, she was still standing in front of the drawing board, not knowing what to paint.

"Can't think of what to draw?" the teacher asked.

Megan nodded slightly. She had always been a talkative person, and even less so after leaving Arkham and her father. Her empty gaze fell on the white paper, but she still did not move.

It seemed that the teacher said a lot to her, or maybe just one or two words. But when Megan finally came to her senses, she only heard her say gently: "May you have many, many beautiful memories worth remembering in the future."

Her words gave Megan the same sensation as a cat rubbing against her. She rarely raised her eyes to look at her. The painting teacher noticed her gaze and squatted down beside her, trying to look her in the eye. "What's wrong?"

Megan is the best-behaved child here. She is very quiet in her daily life, doesn't like crowds, doesn't like talking, doesn't like expressing feelings and emotions, and hardly ever causes trouble to others. She looks really well-behaved and cute, and even though she hasn't grown up yet, you can still see some exquisiteness in her. Faculty and staff always talk about her when they chat.

When Megan heard the question, she thought of her father.

What's wrong?

He always asked this question, forcing a hideous and terrifying smile on his pale face, or sometimes acting exaggeratedly. Megan always felt that her father cared about her. In the past, people familiar to her would also ask this question, and now, the teacher was asking it.

Megan tilted her head: "What's wrong?" She herself was puzzled and gave a very strange response.

The teacher didn't know what was wrong with her. She spent a moment with Megan, whose gaze had returned to the blank paper. Knowing she might not understand, she continued, "If you've ever been to the beach, you'll know that waves come to the shore and recede, taking away many things, but also washing up many things: crabs, shells, conchs, small fish..."

"What are memories? They are what you pick up when you walk on a beach washed by waves."

Megan had seen the beach, so she knew the waves would wash up a lot of things, but she couldn't seem to pick them up, just like she could remember her father, but her arms still felt heavy and she couldn't draw anything.

The teacher said, "You still have a long way to go, Megan, and you must try your best to preserve some things and treasure them. As your understanding continues to improve, you will reap the rewards one day."

"Or maybe I can teach you how to draw flowers?"

The painting class was originally intended to cultivate children's own imagination and creativity, but since Megan can't paint, it would be better to teach her simple drawing.

The author has something to say:

I'll fix it! (Raises shovel) The one that was blocked before was Winnie the Pooh, the one with Tigger.