station. She looked up and eyed the cousins curiously.
SUTURE SELF
247
“Excuse me,” she said with a faint lisp, “where are you
going this time of night?”
“The chapel,” Judith replied. “My husband is in the
ICU. Perhaps you’ve heard. He was stabbed earlier
today. I want to pray for him.”
“I see,” the nun replied with a benevolent smile.
“You know where the chapel is? The second floor.”
“Thank you,” Judith replied as Renie leaned into the
wheelchair to aid her cousin’s progress.
The elevator was empty. “Blasphemy,” Renie muttered. “What next?”
“I really would like to go to the chapel,” Judith said.
“Luckily, it’s on the same floor as the ICU.”
“That makes sense,” Renie said as the elevator
stopped on two. “Gosh,” she remarked, giving Judith a
shove into the hallway, “it’s dark around here. Which
way, I wonder?”
Metal light fixtures with three bulbs hung from the
ceiling at twenty-foot intervals. The somber dark green
walls were relieved only by the tan linoleum floor. A
wooden sign with flaking gold letters and arrows directed the visitor to the operating rooms, the intensive
care unit, the isolation unit, the waiting room, and the
chapel.
“To the left,” Judith said, steering herself. “Everything but the ORs are that way.”
Heavy glass-and-steel double doors bore a sign that
read “No Admittance—Staff Only.” Perplexed, Judith
paused. “Now what?” she asked.
“There’s some kind of buzzer system on the wall to
punch in what must be a code,” Renie replied. “As you
may have guessed, we don’t know what it is.”
“Drat.” Judith gripped the arms of the wheelchair
and peered through the glass. She could see nothing
248
Mary Daheim
except for a short hallway and another set of doors
about ten yards away. “Double drat.”
Behind them, they heard the elevator doors open and
close, followed by a beeping sound. “Robbie!” Renie
exclaimed. “He’s headed this way.”
The robot cruised down the hall, swerving to avoid
the cousins. The double doors swung open at his approach. Hurriedly, Renie pushed Judith inside. Instead
of going straight ahead, Robbie swung to the right
where a single wood-frame door said “Keep Out.”
Again, Robbie was given access and disappeared as
the door swung shut behind him.
“What’s that, I wonder?” Judith murmured.
“How should I know?” Renie replied. “Hey, this
