Jacob.

This was originally submitted for the Civica Tales of "S" writing competition back in 2016. The version posted here is slightly edited, but the weird, sometimes melodramatic, expressions remain as initially written. If I remember correctly, we had to choose 3 elements from a list of objects and places and these were the ones I chose - a petal from a frangipani flower, a construction site and a white shoe/sneaker.

White. Brown. Black. Beige.

Jacob picked up each crystal tile using his tweezers with great effort. He had been spending hours every day pasting those tiny self-adhesive tiles on a page of his sketchbook, attempting to recreate the image he had in his mind. This was his latest obsession, occupying him for days without any psychotic episodes.

Mabel saw the tiles in an atrium fair and thought it suited her artistic son. His bedroom wall was covered with art he created with all sorts of materials. Mabel was incredibly thankful that despite Jacob's condition, he was still able to support himself. She would buy plain white sneakers in bulk for Jacob to design and paint by hand, then sold them online. Business was booming but nobody knew that the intricate designs were all from the mind of a paranoid schizophrenic.

Jacob's mother handled all the marketing and meet-ups so that he would have minimal interpersonal contact. At twenty-seven, Jacob was not your average Singaporean bachelor. He was diagnosed with severe paranoid schizophrenia when he was fifteen, after he came back from his Outward Bound School (OBS) camp. Jacob had never been a neat person but his quirky habits had evolved into an obsession. He was convinced plain, empty flat surfaces implied the presence of extraterrestrials. The moment he stepped into his room that Mabel had cleaned while he was away, he started to scream at the top of his lungs, throwing all his things onto the floor. When he realized it was impossible to cover the walls, he ended up curled up under his bed, sobbing and muttering to himself. Even after numerous confrontations with his teachers and camp mates, Mabel was still unable to figure out what caused this change in her son. Nobody knew what happened. A week later, Mabel was still at a loss about what to do. She had no choice but to beg an old psychologist friend of hers to come over and see Jacob.

The consultation led Mabel to take time off work and install black furry rugs over her apartment floor except her room and the kitchen. She also wallpapered by herself to save money. It was only then that Jacob was able to go through twenty-four hours without having a complete breakdown. The first time he saw the apartment in its new light, Mabel finally saw a wave of relief pass over Jacob's dark brown eyes. A boulder of burden was lifted off her shoulders as she saw her son smile for the first time in weeks. Jacob rushed over to hug her and said, "Thank you mummy..."

Mabel felt her heart swell and tears in her eyes like the time she held Jacob for the first time. It was at that moment, Jacob's body engulfing her petite frame, she knew things were going to turn out fine.

Ashlie was signing that she wanted to hang out. Jacob looked at his artwork and looked out his window at Ashlie's radiant face, beaming from two floors down. He could feel his cheeks pulling into a grin as he placed his tweezers back in its container. He was packing his things into his bag when Mabel poked her head into the room.

"Where are you going?"

"Ashlie" He. smiled

Mabel's worried look changed into a knowing one.

"Okay, don't come back too late!"

Jacob had already skipped out the door.

Ashlie had her arm looped around Jacob's as they walked to their favourite place to hang out.

I want you to draw me. She signed while trying out different crazy poses.

Jacob smiled and nodded, thinking about the numerous portraits he had already drawn of her. Ashlie Lim was sometimes all he could think about when he was daydreaming. Despite being deaf and mute, she was the light of his life. They had met by chance when he went to meet a customer as Mabel was down with a fever. She was the only one who knew Jacob was the real artist behind the hand-designed sneakers because he turned up with paint stains all over his shirt. She was also the only person who knew of his true condition besides Mabel.

Mabel was clearing up Jacob's workspace when a piece of paper slid off his desk.

This must be his latest work, she thought to herself.

Jacob never usually let her see his art work until it was finished. He was about halfway done with this one, Mabel could just about make out the outline of the nearby abandoned construction site he and Ashlie liked to hang out around. She once again marveled at the amount of detail in her son's art. Every piece of scaffolding and glass was drawn at the exact angle one could see from Jacob's room. In fact, Mabel could see Jacob and Ashlie dancing to the music blasting from a speaker he brought from home. Jacob's unbreakable smile tugged at Mabel's heartstrings, especially knowing that only Ashlie could coax it out of him.

How Ashlie managed to persuade him from drawing her to dancing with her, Jacob had no idea. But with his hands on her hips and hers around his neck, there was no place he would rather be. Jacob was leading Ashlie, swaying to a slow song while Ashlie was immersed in the moment with her eyes closed. Jacob's attention travelled to the petal-littered floor as he thought about how calm he felt in her presence. The first time Ashlie brought him there, he had a full-blown psychotic episode, especially with the bare floors and walls. He ran away to a grass patch nearby and curled up into a ball and cried. He cried for his fear, he cried for how pathetic he must seem to Ashlie, he cried for how unfair life was, that God decided one day to hit him in the head and caused him to become like this. When Ashlie found him, she embraced him wholeheartedly and comforted him like a child. Jacob later explained his condition to her and apologized for ruining what was supposed to be the unveiling of a secret place she found for the both of them.

Ashlie was able to lip read just as well as Jacob learned sign language to understand her. After looking around, her eyes lit up and she signed she had an idea. Ashlie then started to pick the fallen frangipani flowers lying on the grass. Jacob followed suit. When they had collected about thirty frangipanis, Ashlie led him to the perimeter of the site, took his flowers and signed for him to wait there. After ten minutes, she came back out and asked him to close his eyes. She held his hand and walked him to the most open area, where there were no walls. Jacob opened his eyes to see the evening sun streaming in, creating an amber hue, and the once-bare floor littered with frangipani petals.

The frangipani petals had been replaced with fake ones Ashlie bought so that they could last longer but the effect was still there. Her head was on his chest and Jacob was inhaling the green tea scent lingering on her hair when he felt a needle pierce the back of his neck. He recoiled to see what happened, only to have the world spin in front of his eyes before his knees buckled, and he fell to the floor with a thud.

Well, at least he was unaware of my betrayal to the end.

Ashlie thought to herself as she stepped away from Jacob's body. The fake petals on the floor started to vibrate and move towards the body. The petals encased Jacob until only his eyes, nose and mouth were uncovered. Ashlie knelt down beside him and briefly kissed his lips. A single tear escaped and landed on Jacob's eyelid. As she wiped it away, she took out her phone and dialed the second number on speed dial.

"Subject fifty-three, Jacob Chia is secure. Who's next?"

Cover image from Shutterstock, by artist yuRomanovich.