That never happened, thankfully, but they were real buddy-buddy with each other. Eh, a little more than that. Berretti took a seat next to her and leaned forward. They spoke in hushed tones. I couldn’t understand either of them if I tried. Then Berretti took a piece of ham from Credence’s plate and popped it into his mouth. She scooted the tray toward him after that, and Berretti went to work on the uneaten food.
In between bites, he pulled out a little brown notebook from inside his lab coat. He flipped it open and pointed to the pages. Credence nodded as he talked fervently. They were both passionate over whatever the subject was. I wondered what it could be, but then again, I didn’t really care all that much. If anything, I was weirded out by this unlikely match. But hey, opposites attract, right?
My curiosity piqued and my stomach queasy, I decided I’d need a to-go box for my dinner (wasting food in the City was a big no-no). If Debbie ever found out you threw away a perfectly good piece of ham, she was liable to have you hanged. Besides, Debbie’s cooking wasn’t the kind you wasted. It was too damn good.
So I walked up to the kitchen where Deb and two other cooks were cleaning up for the night and asked for a container.
Debbie came out of the back a few seconds later with a Styrofoam box. “Didn’t like it? You don’t have to kiss my ass, Grady. I can take a bit of criticism.”
I shook my head. “No, no, I loved it. Well, what I ate of it, anyhow. Your food’s too tasty to throw away, Deb. I’m just not that hungry right now.”
“Aw, you little ass-kisser.”
I smiled, but I felt that it lacked actual happiness, and Debbie noticed this. She gave me a searching look, hands planted firmly on her hips, and said, “Grady, you all right? Stone’s still doing good, yes?”
“Yeah. He’s fine. It’s not him.”
“Then what is it?”
I nodded my head over my shoulder. “Them. What’s going on there?”
Debbie squinted at the table Berretti and Credence shared. “Looks like a nice dinner date to me, but dessert’s not gonna happen here. That’ll be in the bedroom...probably with lots of icing.”
“Yuck.”
“Aw, leave ‘em be, Grady. Love is a beautiful thing. And so is lust.”
“Okay…I don’t like where this conversation is going.”
She giggled.
I asked, “Debbie, how do you feel about Berretti?”
“He’s a sweet man. Kind, polite, and above all else, smart. Maybe a little distant sometimes, but his mind is focused on other things.”
I wondered if she blamed him for the death of her family. Judging by her opinion of Berretti, I doubted it. She didn’t seem like the kind of person to put blame on anyone.
Debbie tapped the side of her head, near the temple. “He has a fine mind. If you ever get the chance, you should sit and talk with him. Pick his brain. You’ll be astonished. It’s like conversing with a human encyclopedia. I think you two would get along swimmingly.”
“I doubt that.”
She squinted. “Let me impart some wisdom on you, Grady, my friend. Life is short. It always has been and it always will be, but it’s especially short now. We are all basically walking around with grenades in our hands, grenades that had their pins pulled as soon as that first unnatural snowflake fell. So don’t hold grudges. Forgive and forget. Move on. You’ll feel a lot better, trust me.”
Maybe she was right.
I kept the incident I’d seen between Berretti and Credence to myself, mostly because speaking of it would make me relive it, and that was certainly not something I wanted to do anytime soon. Honestly, I would’ve taken it to the grave had Eleanor not come into our barracks one night looking like she’d seen a ghost.
Her face was pale and her eyes were watery. She stumbled her way through the door, and when she got to her bed, she plopped down like a rag doll.
I had been kicked back, reading The Great Gatsby for our book club, but as soon as I saw her, the paperback fell from my grip. I stood up, concerned.
“Ell, what’s wrong?”
She shook her head, buried her face in her hands, and moaned.
“Ell?”
Mia leaned in from her room. She’d been watching another one of her old black-and-white television shows. I looked at her and shrugged, but inside, I was thinking bad things.
“Is everything okay?” I asked. “Are you hurt?”
“Just my sanity.”
“What do you mean?”
“I-I saw something…in the hospital.”
Images of gruesome injuries twirled through my mind—broken bones, fractured skulls, burned skin. Who was hurt? What happened?
Ell read my expression. She always did that well. “No one’s hurt, Grady. But I’m lucky I didn’t go blind.”
Now I was really confused. Mia entered the room. She stopped behind me and leaned on the bedpost.
“Blind?” I repeated.
Ell nodded and took a deep breath. “Oh God, here it goes… I was doing my rounds, and I heard something down the hall. There wasn’t anyone in those rooms. We keep everyone grouped together. Easier that way. So I hear this noise and I’m thinking the worst. I’m thinking it’s a…a monster, but then I notice how bright the lights are all around and I realize that's impossible.”
Mia sat on the bed. She offered me a concerned glance, and then turned back to Ell as she continued her story.
“I went to check it out. It was a soft banging noise, like a cupboard door knocking against the wall over and over again. Sometimes that happens around there. People forget to close cabinets, and the air registers blow them around. Harmless but annoying. I stopped in front of the door the sound was coming from and listened. There wasn’t any pattern to it. It was bang-bang-bangbang-bang-BANG!”
