“It tasted real.”
“No, I mean it was sugarless, they make them with a kind of not-real sugar that’s not bad for your teeth.”
That’s confusing. I point at the other bed. “Who sleeps there?”
“It’s for you.”
“But I sleep with you.”
“Well, the nurses didn’t know that.” Ma’s staring out the window. Her shadow’s all long across the soft gray floor, I never saw such a long one. “Is that a cat in the parking lot?”
“Let’s see.” I run to look but my eyes don’t find it.
“Will we go explore?”
“Where?”
“Outside.”
“We’re in Outside already.”
“Yeah, but let’s go out in the fresh air and look for the cat,” says Ma.
“Cool.”
She finds us two pairs of slippers but they don’t fit me so I’m falling over, she says I can be barefoot for now. When I look out the window again, a thing zooms up near the other cars, it’s a van that says
“What if he comes?” I whisper.
“Who?”
“Old Nick, if he comes in his truck.” I was nearly forgetting him, how could I be forgetting him?
“Oh, he couldn’t, he doesn’t know where we are,” says Ma.
“Are we a secret again?”
“Kind of, but the good kind.”
Beside the bed there’s a — I know what it is, it’s a phone. I lift the top bit, I say, “Hello,” but nobody’s talking, only a sort of hum.
“Oh, Ma, I didn’t have some yet.”
“Later.”
Everything’s backwards today.
Ma does the door handle and makes a face, it must be her bad wrist. She does it with the other hand. We go out in a long room with yellow walls and windows all along and doors the other side. Every wall’s a different color, that must be the rule. Our door is the door that says
“What other persons?”
“We haven’t met them yet.”
Then how does she know? “Can we look out the sideways windows?”
“Oh, yeah, they’re for anyone.”
“Is anyone us?”
“Us and anyone else,” says Ma.
Anyone else isn’t there so it’s just us. There’s no blind on these windows to stop seeing. It’s a different planet, it shows more other cars like green and white and a red one and a stony place and there’s things walking that are persons. “They’re tiny, like fairies.”
“Nah, that’s just because they’re far away,” Ma says.
“Are they real for real?”
“As real as you and me.”
I try and believe it but it’s hard work.
There’s one woman that’s not really one, I can tell because she’s gray, she’s a statue and all naked.
“Come on,” says Ma, “I’m starving.”
“I’m just—”
She pulls me by the hand. Then we can’t go anymore because there’s stairs down, lots of them. “Hold on to the banister.” “The what?”
“This thing here, the rail.”
I do.
“Climb down one step at a time.”
I’m going to fall. I sit down.
“OK, that works too.”
I go on my butt, one step then another then another and the giant robe comes loose. A big person rushes up the steps quick quick like she’s flying, but she’s not, she’s a real human all in white. I put my face on Ma’s robe to be not seen. “Oh,” says the she, “you should have buzzed—”
Like bees?
“The buzzer right by your bed?”
“We managed,” Ma tells her.
“I’m Noreen, let me get you a couple of fresh masks.”
“Oh sorry, I forgot,” says Ma.
“Sure, why don’t I bring them up to your room?”
“That’s OK, we’re coming down.”
“Grand. Jack, will I page an aide to carry you down the stairs?”
I don’t understand, I put my face away again.
“It’s OK,” says Ma, “he’s doing it his way.”
I go on my butt down the next eleven. At the bottom Ma ties up my robe again so we’re still the king and the queen like “Lavender’s Blue.” Noreen gives me another mask I have to wear, she says she’s a nurse and she comes from another place called Ireland and she likes my ponytail. We go in a huge bit that has all tables, I never saw so many with plates and glasses and knives and one of them stabs me in the tummy, one table I mean. The glasses are invisible like ours but the plates are blue, that’s disgusting.
It’s like a TV planet that’s all about us, persons saying “Good morning” and “Welcome to the Cumberland” and “Congratulations,” I don’t know for what. Some are in robes the exact as ours and some in pajamas and some in different uniforms. Most are huge but don’t have long of hair like us, they move fast and they’re suddenly on all the sides, even behind. They walk up close and have so many teeth, they smell wrong. A he with a beard all over says, “Well, buddy, you’re some kind of hero.” That’s me he means. I don’t look.
“How’re you liking the world so far?”
I don’t say anything.
“Pretty nice?”
I nod. I hold on tight to Ma’s hand but my fingers are slipping, they’ve wet themselves. She’s swallowing some pills Noreen gives her.
I know one head high up with a fuzzy small hair, that’s Dr. Clay with no mask on. He shakes Ma’s hand with his white plastic one and he asks if we slept well.
“I was too wired,” says Ma.
Other uniformy persons walk up, Dr. Clay says names but I don’t understand them. One has curves of hair that’s all gray and she’s called the Director of the Clinic that means the boss but she laughs and says not really, I don’t know what’s the joke.
Ma’s pointing me a chair to sit beside her. There’s the most amazing thing at the plate, it’s silver and blue and red, I think it’s an egg but not a real one, a chocolate.
“Oh, yeah, Happy Easter,” says Ma, “it totally slipped my mind.”
I hold the pretend egg in my hand. I never knowed the Bunny came in buildings.
Ma’s put her mask down on her neck, she’s drinking juice that’s a funny color. She puts my mask up on my head so I can try the juice but there’s invisible bits in it like germs going down my throat so I cough it back in the glass real quiet. There’s anyones too near eating strange squares with little squares all over and curly bacons. How can they let the food go on the blue plates and get all color on? It does smell yummy but too much and my hands are slippy again, I put the Easter back in the exactly middle of the plate. I rub my hands on the robe but not my
