They had arrived in a two-bed room on the third
floor. The curses emanated from the other side of a
pale blue curtain. Joe didn’t respond. He didn’t have
to. Judith recognized the voice.
“Hi, Renie,” he finally said as Judith was flipped and
flopped onto an ancient hospital bed with a black iron
bedstead. “How’re you doing?”
Renie’s answer was unprintable.
Judith and Renie had requested sharing a room, but
the staff had made no promises. Good Cheer wasn’t a
hotel or a summer camp—it was a hospital.
“May I?” Joe asked in an unusually meek voice as
he gave the blue curtain a twitch.
“Why not?” Renie snapped. “You can set fire to the
whole damned place as far as I’m concerned.”
Judith moved just enough to see Renie, propped up
SUTURE SELF
27
on pillows with her right arm in a blue sling and her
shoulder sporting a bloody dressing.
“Hi, coz,” Renie said in a more normal tone. “How
are you?” She didn’t wait for an answer, but let out a
bloodcurdling scream.
“What’s wrong?” Judith asked in alarm.
“It’s the only way to get attention around here,”
Renie said, then screamed again.
“Stop that!” Judith exclaimed. “It makes my head
throb!”
“I throb everywhere,” Renie shot back. “They
dumped me in here almost an hour ago, and I haven’t
seen anybody since.” She slapped with her left hand at
what appeared to be a buzzer button extending from a
thick rubber cord. “I’ve poked this stupid thing so
often I think I burned the light out over the damned
door. Now I’m getting hoarse from yelling.”
“Where’s Bill?” Joe inquired.
“He left,” Renie replied after taking a deep sip of
water. “He had to run some errands and then have dinner. He’ll be back this evening.”
Judith looked at Joe. “You ought to go, too. It’s been
a long day.”
Joe seemed torn. “Shouldn’t I wait until Dr. Alfonso
comes in?”
Judith gave a faint shake of her head. “You’ve already talked to him. You have to tell Mother I’m okay
and let Mike know I survived. Frankly, you look beat.
I’ll be fine, as long as Screaming Mimi over there shuts
up. I might be able to sleep a bit.”
“Well . . .” Joe’s green-eyed gaze roamed around the
room. “I suppose I should head home.”
“Of course you should,” Judith said, also taking in
her surroundings. The walls were painted a dreary
