closed her eyes.
The radiator clanged and clanked, whistled and
hissed. After two minutes of what sounded like a oneman band, Renie pressed her buzzer.
“We can’t sleep with that damned thing making such
a racket,” she complained. “It was fine until Stoopnagle came in to supposedly fix it.”
Almost ten minutes passed before a male nurse
peeked in. Judith explained the problem. The nurse
said he’d see what he could do about it. The radiator
continued its atonal cacophony.
SUTURE SELF
145
“I’m wide awake,” Renie declared, sitting up and
turning her light back on. “Damn.”
“I am, too,” Judith grumbled. “It’s no joke about not
being able to get any rest in a hospital.”
“I’m hungry again,” Renie said. “I wonder if there’s
a microwave around here. Don’t the nurses usually
have one? I think I smelled popcorn earlier in the
evening.”
“Why do you need a microwave?” Judith asked.
“To heat the leftover chicken,” Renie responded. “I
don’t care much for cold chicken, unless it’s in a sandwich or a salad.”
“Go ask,” Judith said.
“They won’t tell me,” Renie replied, getting out of
bed. “I’ll take the chicken with me and see what I can
find. There’s a biscuit left over, too, and one piece of
corn. I might as well bring them along.”
“Good luck,” said Judith in a tired voice.
Renie was gone so long that Judith had almost fallen
asleep when her cousin returned.
“Pssst!” Renie called from the doorway.
“Huh?” Judith raised her head from the pillow and
tried to focus on Renie. “What?”
Renie gestured with her bag of food. “Mr. Mummy.
Sister Jacqueline just went in there and closed the
door.”
Struggling to sit up, Judith gave herself a shake.
“So?”
“Isn’t this a little late for a visit from the hospital administrator?” Renie asked, half in and half out of the
room.
“Maybe,” Judith allowed. “But is it suspicious?”
Renie stepped all the way inside, keeping her eye on
the closed door across the hall. “I think so. It’s pretty
146
Mary Daheim
quiet out here right now. I was sneaking out of the staff
room, where I found a microwave, and I turned the
corner just in time to see Sister Jacqueline outside Mr.
Mummy’s room, looking very furtive. I ducked back
where she couldn’t see me, and when I peeked around
