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“Why don’t you get up and come to the park with me, love?”
“I don’t feel like it, Mum.”
“But you have been sleeping most of the time for days now. Surely you’re not tired.”
“I don’t know. I just don’t feel like doing anything.”
“But it’s summer! You’ve been looking forward to the holidays for a long time.”
“Not necessarily the holidays, Mum. I’ve been looking forward to not going to school.”
“But don’t you want to see your friends and do something nice?”
“I don’t have any friends and there is nothing nice to do.”
“Boy, you’re in a bad mood!”
“Yeah. It’s no good. This holiday is going to be a disaster.”
“Only if you make it one, son.”
“I just feel rotten and that everything is a waste of time.”
“If you feel bad and you start thinking negatively, then it is like you are spiraling downward. But you can make yourself get up and shake this off.”
“It’s not as easy as you think, Mum.”
“How do you know that I haven’t felt bad like this in my lifetime?”
“You’re always doing stuff and, you know, keeping busy, running around. ”
“But that doesn’t tell you about how I feel inside. Sometimes bad feelings come over us, but we should never give in to them.”
“I don’t think this is just feeling bad, Mum. I just feel like I’m on an island all by myself and I’ll stay like that forever.”
“Look around you—I mean in the real world. Are you alone?”
“Well, you are sitting here, Mum.”
“So you’re not alone. And there are plenty of people who care about you.”
“Why should they care?”
“Because you are a good person, son.”
“What makes you think that?”
“Everyone is basically good, son.”
“Oh Mum! You don’t know the people I know.”
“I don’t mean that people never do wrong. Some people might behave in an evil way, but everyone has the potential to be good if they want to.”
“So you mean Jack the Ripper was a good person?”
“He was once an innocent baby and then he was brought up and he made decisions and he decided to be evil.”
“I don’t feel good.”
“We all feel like that sometimes. Life is full of ups and downs and it looks like you have hit a down and don’t know how to get up again.”
“I can’t seem to get up, Mum. I feel kind of like I’m drowning.”
“Well you had better start getting up now, son. Right now!”
“Where are you taking me, Mum?”
“You need to get out and get some sun, see your friends, and start moving in your life.”
“I thought you said everyone has to decide for themselves.”
“But you, my dear boy, are not deciding—you’re vegetating! And I’m not going to sit here and watch you do it. We’re going to get some sun and fresh air!”
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