toward the sound, taking the steps two at a time, and came upon three young women, standing by the first floor front entrance. All wore white nursing outfits beneath cardigan sweaters of different hues, and they looked up, surprised, as Lucy launched herself in their direction.
Gesturing a little wildly, Lucy grabbed some breath and said, 'Excuse me…'
The three nurse-trainees stared at her.
'… I'm sorry to interrupt your conversation,' she said, 'but I'm Lucy Jones, the prosecutor sent here to…'
'We know who you are, Miss Jones, and why you're here,' one of the nurses said. She was a tall black woman, with athletic, broad shoulders and dark hair and matching complexion. 'Is something wrong?'
Lucy nodded, and inhaled before replying, trying to regain some composure. 'I'm not sure,' she said. 'I returned here and found my dormitory door unlocked. I'm sure I left it locked this morning when I went over to the Amherst Building…'
'That's not right,' one of the other nurses said. 'Even if building maintenance or the cleaning service went in there, they're supposed to lock up afterward. That's the rule.'
'I'm sorry,' Lucy said, 'but I was alone up there and…'
The tall black nurse nodded, in understanding. 'We're all a little jumpy, Miss Jones, even with Lanky's arrest. These sorts of things just don't happen in the hospital. Why don't we three accompany you back to the room and check it out.'
No one had to expand on the phrase these things to understand it.
Lucy sighed. 'Thank you,' she said. 'That is kind of you. I would really appreciate it.'
The four women then turned and walked up the stairwell, marching together, a little like a squad of water birds paddling across a lake in the early morning. The nurses continued talking, gossiping really, about a couple of the doctors working in the hospital, and making jokes about the weaselly appearance of the latest group of legal advocates who had arrived at the hospital that week for a round of quasi judicial commitment hearings. Lucy led the way, moving rapidly right up to the door.
'I really appreciate this,' she repeated, and then she reached out and grabbed the door handle, twisted it, and pushed.
The door lock stopped her in her tracks. The door ratcheted back and forth, but did not open.
She pushed again.
The nurses looked at her a little oddly.
'It was open,' Lucy said. 'It was definitely open.'
'It seems locked now,' the black nurse said.
'I'm sure it was open. I put my hand on the handle and put in the key and before I turned it the door opened just a little,' Lucy said. Her voice, however, lacked conviction. She was suddenly filled with doubts.
There was a momentary, awkward pause, and then Lucy removed her room key from her pocket, slid it into the lock and opened the door. The three nurses hovered behind her. 'Why don't we go in and make a quick check?' one said.
Lucy pushed the door open, and stepped inside the room. It was dark inside and she flicked the switch for the overhead light. Abruptly the small space lit up. It was a sparse, narrow area, a monk like room with nothing on the walls, a sturdy chest of drawers, a single bed, and a small brown wooden desk and hard backed chair. Her suitcase remained open in the center of the bed, on top of a red corduroy bedspread, which was the only splash of vibrant color in the room. Everything else was either oaken brown, or white, like the walls. As the three nurses watched, Lucy opened the small closet on one wall, and peered inside at its emptiness. Then she walked over to the small bathroom, and checked the shower stall. She even dropped to one knee and checked under the bed, although they could all see that there was no one concealed under there. Lucy rose up, dusted herself off, and turned to the three nurses. 'I'm sorry,' she said. 'I'm quite certain the door was open, and I had the sensation that there was someone in the room waiting for me. I've put you out and…'
But all three nurses shook their heads. 'Nothing to apologize for,' the black nurse said.
'I'm not apologizing,' Lucy said sturdily. 'The door was open. Now it's locked.'
But inwardly, Lucy was unsure whether this was true.
The nurses were silent, until the black nurse shrugged and spoke slowly, 'Like I said before, we're all a little jumpy, and it makes more sense to be safe than sorry.'
The others murmured in agreement.
'You okay now?' the nurse asked.
'Yes. Fine. I appreciate your concern,' Lucy said, a little stiffly.
'Well, you need help again, you just find anyone. Don't hesitate. Best to trust your feelings in times like these.'
The nurse didn't elaborate on what she meant by times like these.
Lucy locked the door behind the nurses, as they walked back down the hallway. She was a little embarrassed, as she turned and leaned up against the door, pushing it with her back. She looked around and thought to herself: You weren't wrong. Someone was here. Someone was waiting.
She glanced over at her bag. Or someone was just having a look. She stepped to the modest collection of clothes and toiletries that she had brought with her and realized, in that second, that something was missing. She didn't know what, but she knew something had been taken from her room.
It was you, wasn't it?
Right there, right at that moment, you tried to tell Lucy something important about yourself, and she missed it. It was something critical, and something frightening, far more frightening than anything she felt as she closed that door behind her with a satisfying thud. She was still thinking like a normal person, and that was to her great disadvantage.
Peter the Fireman looked across the dormitory room, trying hard to separate the pain of distant memory from the immediate task at hand. Uncertainty marred his thoughts, and he felt the bitterness that indecision can nurture. He thought of himself at the very least as a man of determination and a man of decisiveness, and he was uncomfortable with doubts. He knew it had been impulse which prompted him to volunteer his and C-Bird's services to Lucy Jones, and he was still certain that it had been the correct choice. But his enthusiasm hadn't contemplated failure, and he strained to see a manner in which they could succeed. Everywhere he considered, he saw restraints and prohibitions, and he did not see how they could overcome all those limitations.
In the world of the mental hospital, he considered himself to be the sole pragmatist.
He sighed. It was deep into the night and he was leaning up against the wall, his feet stretched out on the bed, listening to the racket of sleep surrounding him. Even the nighttime knew no respite from pain, he thought. The people in the hospital were unable to flee their troubles, no matter how many narcotics Gulp-a-pill had prescribed. He thought this was what was so insidious about mental illness; that it took so much force of will and depth of treatment to simply get to a position where one could consider trying to get better, that the task seemed almost Herculean for most, and well-nigh impossible for some. He heard one long moan, and almost turned in that direction, but then stopped, because he recognized the author. It saddened him, sometimes, when Francis tossed in his sleep, because he knew the young man didn't really deserve the hurts that emerged unwelcome in the darkness.
He didn't think he fit the same category.
Peter tried to relax, but could not. For a moment, he wondered whether when he closed his eyes, if the same turmoil erupted from his sleep sounds.
The difference, he told himself, between him and all the others, including his young friend, was that he was guilty, and they probably were not.
In his nostrils, inexplicably, he could suddenly smell the thick, sweet odor of some
