Notifications
She was not oblivious of the possibility of him being real. She was, however, aware of the human tendency to play on the emotions and attachments of others. Some told her he was real, the rest said it was all in her head, so she chose an in-between. Knowing that he might be real, or just in her head as her doctor often told her. Both hypotheses were quite convincing.
And maybe...just maybe, that's where he wanted her. Or where her mind wanted her. In the in-between
In another world, she might've been diagnosed as slightly out of the ordinary, mentally different. In yet another world, she'd have been considered stubborn and too open minded. In another, they might've called her too accepting, unaware of the importance of boundaries between the various "classes" of humanity.
She knew herself to be flexible but reasonable.
Firm but not rigid
Sweet but not stupid
Nice but not gullible
Open-minded but with a filter.
So even when she talked to him, she was open to the possibility that it was all in her head. Whenever she heard of him, she listened but held back. Maybe those talking about him were as sick as she was. She recalls contact once long ago. She knew not if the response came from a ghost...or the voices and images in her head... or a bored human in an attic whose only friend was his pen and paper.
Both sides of the scale had different things to offer. Things that made her smile, others which made her tears well up. Some which made her heart ache, some that made it glow. Both, storylines with their beautiful and ugly.
Life basically.
So whenever she stayed quiet, it wasn't because she was blind to the events around her, no. But there's just something about observing from a safe distance. For a while at least.
In the safety of the IN-BETWEEN.
