- Chapter 31
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- Laura sat on an uncomfortable metal chair
and studied the sleeping woman who was lying before her. She and
a female orderly had given the woman a sponge bath, changed her clothes,
and combed out her matted hair. Then they had released her wrists
from the restraints and rubbed lotion on her raw, chapped flesh.
Laura had lifted one of the woman's eyelids and saw that her eyeball was
rolled up toward her forehead. Whatever they had drugged her with
was very powerful stuff.
- She looked at her watch. It was
seven-thirty and still the transport unit hadn't arrived. She hadn't
eaten a thing since morning and along with her hunger she was in desperate
want of a hot shower. But she folded her arms in front of her and
continued her vigil.
- She felt a lump in her jumpsuit and realized
she'd put a power bar in one of the suit's pockets. She unzipped
the pocket, took out the power bar, and began to eat. At least one
of her needs had been met.
- Her mind alternated between concern for
her father and her growing interest in Art MacKenzie.
- It was true that she had a tendency to
be like a mother hen when it came to her father, but after all he had cancer
and it seemed to be spreading. She also knew that he'd just as soon
die before he'd admit any pain. She'd learned to watch him for the
slightest indications of discomfort. She did her best to be ready
with his medicine or pain pills.
- How long does he have, six months
or a year maybe? she wondered.
- Her thoughts turned to MacKenzie.
From the first time she saw his picture on her father's desk she'd thought
him handsome. She smiled as she remembered his reluctance to board
the plane at LAX. And what was the nickname he'd called her when
they met again? Green eyes. She took another bite of
the power bar and crossed her legs in front of her. It seemed he
was interested. Hadn't he perked up when he saw her in the hospital
parking lot? And when he left the hospital room he reached out and
touched her and asked if she was going to be all right. She liked
that he was caring.
- She took the last bite of the power bar
and realized it had made her thirsty. She also needed to use the
bathroom.
- She went to the door of the room and
looked out the wired mesh glass window. The corridor was empty.
The orderly had promised he'd check in on her every half hour. The
man had been fairly punctual. She looked at her watch again.
Roughly another ten minutes before he'd be back.
- She decided to pace around the small
room rather than sit again, walking slowly, taking long strides and holding
them to stretch her leg muscles. After a few minutes passed, she
was relieved when she heard the door being opened. It was the orderly.
A little early this time.
-
- "Everythin' all right?" he
asked.
- "Yes, she's still out cold though,"
Laura said, and nodded toward the sleeping woman. "Look, I have
to use the bathroom, and I could use something to drink."
- "Thought you might. I brought
you a soda but regulations say I can't bring anything down into lockup.
You got to come up to my post."
- "Okay, just take me to the bathroom
first."
- "Yeah, all right come on."
- Laura looked over at the sleeping woman.
- The orderly followed her gaze and said,
"Oh heck, she ain't going nowhere, she'll be all right."
- "Okay, let's go, but we'll make
it quick," Laura said, as she left the room.
- "I'm the only one with the key,"
he assured her.
- She followed him up the corridor.
They stopped in front of a bathroom, where the orderly fitted his key in
the lock and let her in. "It locks from the outside, so you'll
have to knock or call me when you're done," he said. "I'll
be right here so you go 'head."
- Laura flipped the light switch on and
entered the bathroom. At least it's clean, she thought as
she closed the door behind her.
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- * * *
-
- A short distance away in the same area
of lockup, Bobby sat like he always did in his little cell, on the balls
of his stocking feet on the cell floor, with his knees tucked into his
chest and his chin resting on them. His palms lay flat on the floor
and helped him to keep his balance.
- He was mildly retarded and had been institutionalized
for as long as he could remember. He was prone to unpredictable violent
outbursts of behavior, which was the reason he had spent most of his life
in lockup. He was nicknamed "the Screamer" by the orderlies.
It was his wild, wailing scream that had sent shivers down MacKenzie's
spine a few hours ago.
- Sometimes he would just go on screaming.
It was the only thing he knew how to do to get attention. He would
scream, and if he kept it up long enough, someone would come in to quiet
him and give him his medicine. And then he would try to bite or scratch
or kick or anything else he could do to hurt he liked to hurt. And
if he hurt he would get more medicine and then he would disappear for a
while.
- Bobby sensed things other people, normal
people, didn't. He sensed something now, although he wasn't sure
what it was. It made him very frightened, though. He rocked
slowly on the floor of his cell. He suddenly threw his head back
and let out a long wail almost like that of a wolf.
- Whatever it was, it was getting closer
to him.
- Using his hands and feet to propel him,
he slid on his butt to the corner of the cell and pressed his bony body
as far as it would go against the wall.
- He began to shake all over.
- Something bad was here and he didn't
want it to find him.
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- * * *
-
- Laura wanted to look at her face as she
was about to leave the bathroom but she realized this bathroom did
not have the luxury of a mirror. She knocked once lightly on the
door and called out for the orderly.
- Suddenly she was plunged into darkness.
She groped for the light switch and flipped it, on and off, on and off,
on and off
- "Hello?" she called out.
- She heard the same wailing scream she'd
heard earlier that day. Alone in the darkness it terrified her.
- "Miss Laura?" It was
the orderly's voice.
- Another scream echoed down the corridor
and entered unwanted through the crack between the bottom of the door and
the floor.
- She didn't know the orderly's name so
she just said, "Is that you the orderly?"
- "It's me. Listen, something's
happened to the electricity, that's all."
- "Get me out of here, please."
She pounded the door with the palm of her hand.
- "I'm tryin'. Hold on, the
lock has to be here somewheres."
- Another scream, this time starting with
a long low note which slowly crescendoed to a high shrill where it oscillated
deafeningly.
- Laura held her ears.
- "I got it, I got it," the orderly
said, as he finally found the keyhole. He opened the door.
Laura groped her way slowly from the interior of the bathroom. The
corridor was just as dark.
- "I can't see a thing," she
yelled almost in a panic.
- The screaming stopped suddenly and almost
as if by cue started again, but this time the other patients began.
And the laughter started, wild, insane laughter along with the shrills
and shrieks and groans chorused in chaotic confusion. It was nightmarish.
- She held her hands to her ears and yelled
above the cacophony, "What's going on?"
- "Electric's off. It's got
'em all riled up. They're afraid of the dark. Let me have your
hand and I'll get you out of here."
- She reached out, groped for the orderly's
arm, and followed it down to his hand.
- He grabbed her tightly. "It's
all right, miss, I know the way, we just follow the wall. I got a
flashlight back at my post," he said reassuringly.
- They started to make their way slowly
down the corridor.
- Then an explosion of light blinding light
that came violently from the room where the sedated woman lay.
- Laura looked at the orderly's face, illuminated
by the sudden light. "What's that!" he cried.
- The inmates screamed louder. She
could hear some of them hurl themselves against the doors of their cells,
at the peak of madness.
- The light grew in intensity.
- Laura felt the orderly let go of her
hand. She glanced at him and watched as he began to inch away from
her with his back pressed against the wall.
- Laura shielded her eyes and started toward
the light. She knew what it was what its source was and why it had
come.
- She staggered down the hall to the room
where the woman was and realized she didn't have the key to gain entry.
She peered in and what she saw terrified her. The small steel reinforced
window that was placed high in the wall was gone. Through the opening
the blinding light poured into the room. Floating above the bed was
the woman but now she was awake.
- Laura pounded on the glass and screamed.
- The levitating woman managed to look
once at her. It was a helpless, wide-eyed, terrified stare, crazed
with fear.
- The woman's lips moved and Laura could
read them. "Help me, help me!"
- There was a noise, like the rush of a
freight train. The woman's body quivered, and like a leaf going over
a waterfall, she was sucked out the window.
- A moment later the light was gone.
- Laura slumped to the floor. All
she was aware of was her breathing. Then she realized the screaming
and crazed laughter had suddenly stopped.
- The hall was dark again.
- She wiped her forehead with a trembling
hand and started to cry....
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