Red - Part 1

Sam was eight years old when she started seeing the auras. She could clearly see a faint red glow appearing around certain people. Most people with the aura didn't concern Sam, but a few of them burned with intensity strong enough that she couldn't stand to look at them. Sam had an eight year old fascination with the glowing and would ask people why they were red, her mind searching for a pattern. No one understood what she was asking, but many would play along with her and make up detailed stories explaining their magic. At first her mother, Janet, thought it was just a fun make-believe game her daughter had created. Janus had at first tried to put together the puzzle and find the pattern in her daughter's game. Yet, Janus couldn't find the answer.

After the game had gone on for about eight months, Janet started getting worried about her daughter. The pregnancy with Sam had been difficult. Sam was born premature and had spent her first weeks in the world fighting for life at the hospital. There various health problems through most of the time Sam was an infant. Medical issues were nothing new to the girl. So while it had been a harmless game at first, worry started creeping into Janet's mind. She slowly began to think that seeing colors around people might be more of a medical condition than a game. Her daughter had a hard life, and she had grown into an overprotective and controlling mother.

Sam's father, Art, was confident that there was no medical problem with his daughter. He tried to comfort his wife so his daughter would have the chance to be a kid without being rushed to doctor at any sign of fun. There had been times when they were out that Janet would tell Sam not to bring up the red glows, but Sam never listened. Eventually Janet got so frustrated she told Sam the game had gone on long enough. It was time to stop pretending that people glowed. Janet meant it to be a simple dictate to her little girl, but it turned into a full out yelling argument with mother and daughter driven to tears. Janet forced Sam to stay in her room until she stopped playing the game and went down stairs to talk with her husband.

Art looked up from his book as his wife came loudly down the stairs. He had heard the yelling but tried to ignore it. If Janet found a problem with Sam's little game of thinking people were red, he didn't want to get himself involved. He just wanted to let Sam act like a kid while she still was. Weren't children supposed to play games with their parents? He didn't want to be the one to stifle his daughter's imagination, but found it hard to argue against his wife's nature. Janet's actions were driven by love, and Art couldn't find a reason to fault her for it. Still, he could tell by the volume of Janet's movements that he was about to become involved.

As she came into the living room Art noticed that Janet's eyes were bloodshot from crying. "She just doesn't listen to me Art. Why isn't she a better girl?" Janet walked over, sat down on Art's lap and collapsed on him. Art could tell that she was emotionally drained. The argument with Sam was weighing heavily on Janet. The worrying over her daughter's health weighed even heavier. Without agreeing with Janet on making Sam stop the game, Art knew this wasn't going to be a good discussion between them.

He placed a hand softly on Janet's face and lifted it a little so they were looking at each other. "Why not just let her keep the game? It's not hurting anyone. It's meaningless isn't it? It's not like she said that the red people are evil or anything. She's just pretending that they have a tint for no reason." It was hard place for Art to be in. Any decision was likely to hurt someone's feelings.

"It's not the game honey. I couldn't care at all about that silly game. I'm just starting to ask myself, 'What if it's not a game?' That's a hard question, you know?" Janet had stopped crying, but her face had a look of concern on it. It was a look Art had learned well over the years. She always looked older when she was worried, like a few extra decades of grief had fallen on her. She was worrying herself sick over their daughter.

Art had always been convinced that Sam would grow out of it. He had argued long and hard to not make a big deal out of the situation. The last thing he wanted to do was stunt his little girl's creativity because of some lacking on their part. Besides it had only been eight months. He could remember his own imaginary friend from childhood. He had held on to that game for years. But seeing his wife like this was too much for him to take. There was only so much the two of them could be expected to put up with. "Let's take her to see a doctor. If you're really this worried we can go and find out if there's anything wrong with her."

Janet gave Art a huge hug and a timid smile. To her, the world felt better when two of them had the same thoughts.


Janet and Sam were sitting in Dr. Brown's office waiting. They had seen the nurse for the initial part of the examination and were waiting the doctor to come in. Janet was occupying herself by looking at the pictures the doctor had around the walls. There was one of Dr. Brown in his drag racer. She walked to another of Dr. Brown in SCUBA gear swimming with sharks. Yet another had the man on a street luuge. After looking through all the photos, Janet was amazed the good doctor was still alive.

The door opened and pulled Janet's attention off the pictures. "So your daughter has some visions problems?" asked Dr. Brown as he was glancing over the paperwork his assistant left for him. "Hmmm, it seems that she sees a red tint to the world according this. That seems little odd."

"No Dr. Brown, it's not that she sees a red tint to the world." Janet paused trying to think how to explain this. Over the past eight months, she had asked Sam a lot about the red glows. Janet was positive there was a system to it Sam used, but she had never figured out what it was. "She says she sees a red tint around people. Well, not around everyone, but around certain people. And it has different intensities for different people." Janet paused, thinking that what she was saying sounded crazy. "I think she's just making it up, but I don't know. She's been doing for over half a year now, so I just want to know if there's anything really wrong with her eyes."

Dr. Brown smiled reassuringly at all of them. "Ohh, you'd be amazed at the things kids see. Don't worry. We'll figure out what's going on." He looked over to Sam with a big grin. Sam immediately looked away from him. Dr. Brown leaned in and asked, "Do you really see these lights Sam? Can you look at me?"

"It hurts Dr. Brown. You glow really bright. I can't look at you. I'm sorry." Sam kept her eyes intent on the floor below her. Dr. Brown looked her over, still smiling. He turned towards her parents and gave a look to demonstrate he knew everything that was going on.

Dr. Brown reached down with his hand and touched Sam's chin. He quickly gave it a gentle push upward so she would look at him. So didn't have time to offer resistance to the nudge and her head swung up. Dr. Brown and Sam made eye contact for a split second before Sam averted her eyes again. It was long enough for Sam to scream loudly. Janet and Art were immediately at their daughter's side as Dr. Brown stumbled back from her.

"What's wrong doctor? What just happened?" Art was holding Sam close. Sam started to cry. She pushed her head against her father's chest.

"I don't know. I thought I saw her eyes do something funny when looked at me." He walked over and put arm gently on Sam shoulder. "Sam honey, are you doing okay? I didn't mean to scare you."

Sam's tears slowed, and she brought her head out from against her father. Slowly she looked back up at the doctor. "You're not glowing very much now," she said choking back tears. "You're just a little bit red. What did you do?" Sam wiped back the moisture from her eyes.

"I don't know Sam. I didn't do anything. Is it okay if I take a look at your eyes?"

Sam looked at her parents. Both of them nodded to her. She looked back at Dr. Brown and agreed. "I'm sorry I screamed, but you were really bright. It hurt like looking at the sun."

The rest of the checkup went routinely. Dr. Brown found nothing wrong with her eyes. He questioned Sam a lot about the different colors and the different tints, but couldn't tell if she was making it up or not. He knew that Sam was bright and creative, so there was no reason to think this was anything more than a game. But Dr. Brown couldn't rationalize one minute detail he had seen. When he and Sam had first looked eye-to-eye and Sam had screamed, Dr. Brown was sure he had watched her pupils shrink to the size of pinholes. That wasn't the effect one would expect from an imaginative child. It was a physical reaction.

In the end, the doctor told Art and Janet that it was probably just a game like they had thought. He told them Sam would grow out of it soon enough and not to worry. If Sam kept it up for another six months they could bring her back and maybe find a child psychologist to talk her past it.

Art and Janet were relieved and left with their daughter. A great burden had been lifted off their shoulders by the words of their doctor. Without the worries of there being something deathly wrong with their daughter, the two of them were willing to ride it out. They didn't have to wait long. Within a week after their visit to the doctor Sam stopped talking about the red glow and started talking about her new invisible friend.