Oh, it’s you. Hello.

I’m ok. But I can still hear the voices on the other side of the wall.

Not in the wall, the other side. They are on the other side of the wall.

I don’t mean the corridor. I know there’s a corridor if you walk around the wall. The corridor is around the wall. This place is on the other side.

Through it.

I don’t care if you don’t get it. That’s where the voices are and they talk to me.

Why don’t you listen? I already said. They talk about all sorts of things. Sometimes they laugh. Tell me jokes. The jokes are horrible, always about people dying and stuff.

No I can’t tell you one now. I can’t remember any of them anymore. I just remember they were horrible.

Not just jokes. Sometimes they tell me secrets. Like Mrs Michaels has visitors when her husband leaves on his work trips. And Dr. Jacobs is em-bezz-ling. What’s em-bezz-ling?

That’s not the worst though. The worst is when they tell me to come join them on the other side. That’s when I crawl under the blanket and stick my head under the pillow, block my ears and as much as I can and try not to hear, but they still talk to me and I can hear them, no matter what I do. Sometimes it feels like I’m not just hearing them through my ears but in my head. Like they’re talking in my head.

I told you. It’s not my imagination. It’s not my thoughts. They sound like voices and they come from the other side of that wall. They say that if I go through the wall I will join them and be one of them. And they say it so much that it feels like I have to do it, that I have to go through, but I don’t go. I stay under the blanket and block my ears until Nurse comes in. Then they talk about how Nurse drinks, and steals things from patients to pay for the drink.

She does drink. I know because they told me, and they never lie. I know they never lie. If you heard them, you would know it too.

They say things about you too. That you’re sleeping with your sec-ret-ary and the people at work don’t like you and they want to get rid of you –

I’m sorry.

Really, I’m sorry, don’t-

What are you doing?

No, the voices never lie.

Yes, they’re talking now. They say they want someone to come through. They need someone to come through. Anyone. What are you doing?

No, I’ve never tried going through. That’s how you become them. I’ve told you. I wish you would listen.

You shouldn’t go near the wall like that. It’s dangerous.

Show me what?

Yes, I know you can’t go through walls normally, but this wall is different. This wall has voices on the other side.

What?

Oh, yes, you’re going through. Well, I told you to listen to me.

Help you? Why should I help you? You never listened to me. I told you they wanted someone to come through and you didn’t listen. Maybe next time you’ll listen.

Goodbye, Daddy.