Toy Soldiers | Teen Ink

Toy Soldiers MAG

September 19, 2008
By Michelle Mar BRONZE, New York, New York
Michelle Mar BRONZE, New York, New York
1 article 0 photos 2 comments

“Why are you here, Vanessa?” asks the woman with the bun. Two blond ringlets fall behind her ears and I want to yank them, to see if they will straighten when you pull them.

“I don’t know,” I mumble. She looks at me irritably, pen poised like a dancer at the top of her notepad. “Because of my grandma,” I relent. My voice is hoarse. We have to drink tap water here, and I’m really an Evian kind of girl.

“Vanessa,” she says sternly. I hear the undertone in her voice: You know that’s not why. And I do, minimally. But I don’t speak. My ears are itching for the headphones that have filled them almost nonstop for the past two months. My eardrums quiver at the unnatural silence

“Here at Horizons, the first step toward mental health is taking responsibility for your actions,” she lectures. I tune her out, mentally rapping what I can remember of Eminem’s latest. She leans forward and for a second I think she’s going to slap me. She doesn’t, though. She just looks me hard in the eyes. “You do want to get out of here, don’t you, Vanessa?”

I don’t understand why headphones have to be contraband.

I am one of only two non-suicidal patients. The other one is here for reasons I don’t understand. He raps Eminem in the halls too, but with a fierceness I can’t quite muster, talking back to counselors and swearing at the receptionists. I just don’t care that much.

My tray of kosher vegan-friendly cuisine has two Lexapros and one Topamax where the milk carton should go. All around the room, kids take their medicine like candy, joking as the pills dissolve on their tongues in smears of pink and white. I take mine quietly in a single gulp. I’m not practiced enough yet to swallow them dry.

After lunch, everyone gets up and silently moves the table to the side and pushes the chairs into a circle. A counselor enters, his glasses askew. I reach up automatically to check that mine are in place, but then remember that they took them and issued me contacts. They said glass is unsafe, that even if I don’t want to hurt myself, someone else might ask me to help them.

I wouldn’t though. I’m not here to cater to someone else’s agenda, to play Kevorkian to their wounded souls.

A girl with a bandaged wrist nudges me. Time for group.

“Hi, my name’s Natalie, and I’m here because I slit my wrists.”

“Hi, Natalie,” we chorus. I mouth the words because if I say something out loud, that means I’m here.

The rapper boy is next. He’s wearing black nail polish. From before, I guess. “Hi, my name’s Randy, and I’m here because I pushed my father down the stairs.”

“Hi, Randy.”

It goes like that for a few more people. Then it’s my turn. “Hi,” I say. This is only my second time in group, and this is the first time we’ve had to say why we’re here. Before, we just had to say how long. “My name’s Vanessa, and I’m here because I hit my grandmother with a chair.”

There is an uncomfortable silence. Suddenly my pride is leaking away, my remorseless acceptance of my actions crumbling at my feet. “She’s, like, 50,” I snap. “And she goes to the gym. I mean, she’s, like, this big,” I say, holding my hands as far apart as they can go. “Don’t get mental images of this weak old lady with, like, white hair. And the chair was ….”

“Vanessa,” the counselor says. “That’s enough.”

I realize that I am leaning forward. Abashedly, I slump back like a sullen child.

Newbies don’t get to watch TV, but Randy recaps it for me anyway. We’re not allowed in any rooms but our own without two counselors to supervise, so we lean against the reception desk. He tells me about some show on MTV. I tell him about how much I miss my books and computer. He tells me how badly he wants a cigarette.

What strikes me as more painful than anything is the fact that I don’t want to go home. I know I won’t do what I did again, but the circumstances will be the same. I’ll still be in my grandmother’s condo with my mother, who’s the reason why we can’t live in our house. My clingy brother will be there with his stupid stuffed snowman, and my grandmother will check the computer history to make sure I’m only going to kid-friendly sites.

The only company I want right now is Eminem’s. And failing that, Randy’s.

Or my father’s. But he’s in New York with his new girlfriend, and I … well, I’m not.

“So this one time,” Randy tells me, “I stole my cell phone from the nurses. And I was just standing there trying to think who to call. ’Cause who do you call when you’ve been stuck in a hospital for six months? I wanted to talk to everyone I knew. But I knew I had, like, ten seconds, so I ran to the bathroom and stood in the shower and turned the water on.”

“Who’d you call?” I ask urgently. That detail makes his whole story. I want him to say it was his dad, or his girlfriend, or his drug dealer. I want him to say that it was the most beautiful conversation he ever had.

But he picks at his nail polish and says, “This kid from my psych class. I asked him about the homework.”

I sit there, stunned.

“He was all, ‘Dude, you haven’t come to school in six months.’ I didn’t know what to say, so I hung up and gave the phone back to the nurses.”

“Wow,” I say quietly.

On my eighth day at Horizons, Randy and I find a small radio in the custodian’s closet. We search for Eminem songs for a good 20 minutes. Finally, we catch one, just as it’s winding down. We mouth the words that are bleeped out, and I stare into the blinking red light of the radio like I’ve suddenly recovered my sight after 30 years of blindness.

When I am discharged, my mother comes in her maroon minivan to pick me up. My brother is with her, clutching his stuffed snowman. Pens and pencils are contraband except in the common area, so that’s where Randy and I stand. We write our phone numbers on each other’s hands, though he tells me to send letters to Horizons “for now.”

I promise. My resolve crashes, and as my mother’s heels click past the reception area, I shudder. I’d rather stay at Horizons for seven years than go back with her. What hurts is that I can’t choose. I could fake a suicide attempt, but I know I won’t. Something in my face lets Randy know all of this. “Hey,” he says in that raspy way of his. “Hey. You be a soldier, okay? Don’t let them get to you this time. Be strong.”

I close my eyes. “Like Eminem,” I say quietly.

“Yeah,” he says. “Okay? Say it.”

“I’ll be strong,” I mutter.

“No,” he says seriously. “Say what I said. Say ‘I’ll be a soldier.’”

“I’ll be a soldier,” I promise.

Randy kisses me on the cheek. Casually, because that’s all we’ve ever been. “I know you will,” he says.

I walk to the car with my chin up. When my mother hands me my headphones with her familiar cluck of “I wish you wouldn’t listen to this,” I tune her out without any help from the music.



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This article has 246 comments.


on Apr. 23 2010 at 7:37 pm
loveypink BRONZE, Bronx, New York
1 article 0 photos 2 comments
nice!!!! I love eminem

on Apr. 7 2010 at 6:46 pm
Wellington BRONZE, Ann Arbor, Michigan
2 articles 0 photos 44 comments

Favorite Quote:
A man is not finished when he is defeated. He is finished when he quits.
Richard M. Nixon

i liked it a lot

on Apr. 5 2010 at 10:48 pm
i_am_nobody SILVER, Belgrade, Montana
7 articles 0 photos 85 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Be yourself, don't take anyone's sh*t, and never let them take you alive." -Gerard Way

you're very tallented at catching the moment through relatable eyes. it shows a lot in this story. very good!

on Apr. 5 2010 at 7:23 pm
HeatherBee BRONZE, I Live In, Texas
1 article 0 photos 1979 comments

Favorite Quote:
Go on and try to tear me down. I will be rising from the ground, like a skyscraper

Love is louder than the pressure to be perfect

b-ra-vo!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

sharpest said...
on Mar. 31 2010 at 7:27 am
Yeah, well, this one wasn't just pulled out of nowhere like some of them. Based on real experience. Does that make it better?

vchdeo GOLD said...
on Mar. 30 2010 at 2:06 pm
vchdeo GOLD, Kansas City, Montana
10 articles 0 photos 4 comments

teenage treatment stories are so painfully ubiquitous

you have a nice writing style though


on Mar. 14 2010 at 11:45 am
Challenger101 BRONZE, Littleton, Colorado
1 article 0 photos 1 comment

Favorite Quote:
Horses lend us the Wings we lack.

This was really good. I think I've found my new favorite author. YOU! Wow, I am going to read way more of your stories, that was great! It really held my attention and captivated me. Very well written. Keep it up!

on Feb. 20 2010 at 4:50 pm
Michelle Mar BRONZE, New York, New York
1 article 0 photos 2 comments
Wow! Thanks so much! :D

on Feb. 20 2010 at 4:45 pm
HappySappy SILVER, Berlin Heights, Ohio
6 articles 0 photos 34 comments

Favorite Quote:
Courage is the magic that turns dreams into reality.

An eye for an eye makes the whole world go blind.

wow i thought this story was gonna be about crazy people but with that first person view i thought hm maybe some people in there AREN'T really that crazy. You write so well that i had to read the article twice to make sure i was reading right! This story is a nuance (hope i used nuance right since i'm trying to have better vocab!) to me. Keeping on writing! Alt 9774!

Payton SILVER said...
on Feb. 20 2010 at 11:17 am
Payton SILVER, Howells, Nebraska
9 articles 0 photos 23 comments

Favorite Quote:
Be yourself because that's whats really cool.

This a really great article you will make it far in life.

on Feb. 15 2010 at 5:51 pm
Mykindapeopledontcarewhatyouthink BRONZE, Gueydan, Louisiana
2 articles 0 photos 124 comments
awsome story

on Jan. 29 2010 at 8:56 pm
shhimhuntingrabbits BRONZE, North Port, Florida
4 articles 0 photos 10 comments
This is excellent! You are quite skilled with the pen.

taco5 SILVER said...
on Jan. 29 2010 at 8:56 pm
taco5 SILVER, Palo Alto, California
5 articles 3 photos 12 comments

Favorite Quote:
"Life is either a daring adventure, or nothing at all," -Helen Keller

Wow, this is spectacular and really realistic.

on Jan. 29 2010 at 11:54 am
Allissa Younan BRONZE, Warwick, New York
3 articles 0 photos 4 comments
this is extremely well written:) keep writing!
check out some of my work, let me know what you think.. http ://www.teenink .com /fiction/realistic_fiction/article/164991/Refresh/

on Jan. 29 2010 at 9:21 am
iNKsWorD SILVER, Ottawa, Other
9 articles 0 photos 2 comments

Favorite Quote:
Don't tell me the sky's the limit when there are footprints on the moon.

I, personally, love the fact that it doesn't end with some torrid love affair with the cutter down the hall. The lack of romance, for me, gives the narrator more character.

A Reader said...
on Jan. 26 2010 at 1:21 pm
This is really captivating. You don't find many pieces like this. I hope to find more.

on Jan. 25 2010 at 7:25 pm
lily1411 BRONZE, Fargo, North Dakota
2 articles 0 photos 69 comments

Favorite Quote:
Absence sharpens love, presence strengthens it.

--Benjamin Franklin

You, my friend, have a talent with writing:)

on Dec. 25 2009 at 1:14 am
SerenityMine BRONZE, Not Saying, California
2 articles 0 photos 156 comments
That was really good. When I first started reading it, I was like, "Ugh, another one of those stories. That's soo overdone." Ya know, your everyday girl-in-a-rehab-center story. No. This was original and had a nice artistic flair and twist that made it your own. Good job on owning this piece.

Peanutt said...
on Nov. 24 2009 at 6:40 pm
This was like... so insanely captivating! Something about it was really cool and I want to read more like it, so keep 'em comin'!

on Nov. 10 2009 at 10:49 am
dreamyface77 SILVER, New London, Connecticut
8 articles 70 photos 30 comments

Favorite Quote:
Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.
Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.

There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other

people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of
God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.

—Marianne Williamson

This is really good! It made me cry at the end..lol