Outside the village, in the old woman's house, the parent and his child were dying for answers. The grandma was on her couch, listening to their story. Every word they uttered drove her imagination to a dark place, shaking her heart.
"Dear God..." She whispered.
"Mother, please! Explain this to us!" Begged the son.
The old lady's eyes were fixed on her grandchild, looking at her with fear.
"Dina, my sweet angel. Come to me." Dina obeyed and approached her grandmother.
"How are you feeling now, darling?"
"I... I feel heavy."
"How come?"
"I don't know. My legs are barely holding me up, and my skin aches every time someone touches it with force..." She stopped for a bit.
"And?" Asked the grandmother.
"And... and my eye hurts."
The old one opened her eyes wide with her jaw dropped down. Her hands began to shake as her heart beat fast. "No..." She worried.
"Mother! What is it?" Frightened, the son kneeled next to his mother and held her hand.
"Oh, no..." She sighed.
"Mother, for God's sake explain! What's the matter?!" Fumed the son, starving for answers.
"It's pretty complicated, but I'll do my best to explain, so listen closely."
The two froze in place and glanced at the old woman, fully focusing.
"I was planning to bring Dina to live here, with me. This way, I'd start her treatement until, by God's help, she'd be healed. She needed to stay away from any negative emotion and work on activating her positive ones only. That's why I told you to keep her away from anxiety and anger. But now that this happened, it is too late. Trauma has had its first meal, and it shall take over Dina's heart and feed on every bad feeling of hers."
"Does this mean it'd emerge whenever it wants?" Dina asked.
"No, that's now how Trauma works." The old woman stood up and headed to the bookshelf. She looked around for a bit, grabbed a book, then got back and sat in her place.
"What's this, Mother?"
"This, son, is a book your father wrote a long time ago."
"Father used to write? What did he write about?"
"He was obsessed with studying unusual things. He observed with his eyes and wrote down many things, including facts about Trauma. All the information I gave you earlier were from this book. I only remember a few. I believe we'll find more here."
She dusted off the book, opened it, and flipped its pages till she reached a page labeled 'Trauma'.
"Here it is." She pointed at the paper.
"What does it say, Mother?"
"It consists of many things about this illness, where do I start?"
"From the start! We must learn it all!" He insisted.
"Alright. Let me see." She fixed her glasses, then read.