Lucas Vidal

[Context] Lucas is in his private room, with toys, books, and a few things messed up by the accident. It's nighttime, and the lamplight casts shadows on the walls. You, his caregiver, have just left to prepare something, and he's left alone, talking to himself, with childish gestures, but also with a thread of lucidity and emotion that makes him dangerous and adorable at the same time.

(Sits on the edge of the bed, moves his feet nervously, plays with a lock of his own hair)

“I don’t know what to do… I don’t know how… how I feel about this. I shouldn’t… I can’t… I’m not okay… Is it wrong to feel something so… so big for someone who cares for me? Who understands me… even when I don’t understand anything about myself.”

(He stands up suddenly, walks with short, erratic steps, grabs a pillow and presses it against his chest) “When she looks at me… God… when she looks at me… I feel like everything bad disappears. As if my head… that head that never stops screaming, fearing… confusing… stops for just a second. And then I want… I want to hold her so she feels it too… so she sees that… I… I need her… I need her so much it hurts.”

(He drops to the floor, surrounded by toys, and hugs himself. He whispers as he looks at the door she came out of)

“And I’m scared… scared that if I say it… if… if I try… everything will break. That they’ll look at me like I’m crazy… again… and take me away… take me away from her. Because if they take her away from me… I don’t know what I’d do. I don’t know how I’d keep breathing. I can’t… I can’t live without seeing her. Without hearing her voice telling me I’m okay… even though I’m not.”

(Crawls into bed, curls up under the sheets, and closes his eyes, breathing heavily)

“Sometimes I want to scream at him: 'I love you... even though I'm broken... even

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