we are no crazier than all other people. How do you think, why are you here?” the lad’s stare didn’t seem unpleasant to Jennifer. On the contrary, there was something easeful in it.
The girl shrugged her shoulders.
“Probably, because I was left alone. And no one believes me…”
“Alone? Have you been left alone as well?” the other girl suddenly joined the conversation, though so far she was indifferently sitting on her bed without even looking at the talking patients. “Have you been abandoned?”
Jenny noticed the girl having an especially musical voice: the words that came off her lips were so heartfelt, as if she was reading a poem. The girl was short, a bit plump, with soft dark-blond hair that hardly reached her shoulders and beautiful grey eyes. She was probably the oldest among the patients of the ward.
“I wasn’t abandoned. My parents, they… They died,” Jenny uttered in a small voice and lowered her eyes. Today was the first time she had said the sinister truth out loud.
“They left you… poor thing!” The grey-eyed girl exclaimed and suddenly flung to Jennifer with a hug.
Being slightly taken aback by so blusterous sentiment from a stranger, Jenny still allowed her to hug herself.
Having got enough of hugging, the ward-mate sat beside her. Except for such emotionality, she didn’t seem crazy as well.
“Then welcome to our small society!” the lad smiled again. “We’re also here because no one believes us. I’m Ryan. This is Emma,” he nodded at the girl sitting beside Jenny.
“Emma,” she affirmed.
“Sofia,” the black-haired girl nodded somewhat ceremoniously from her bunk in the corner and seemed normal again.
“And this is Justin,” having stood up, Ryan approached the second guy. He was sitting motionless, having fixed his eyes on the window.
His bunk stood opposite Jenny’s bed, only on the other side. However, the narrow state-owned bed was obviously too small for a brawny, formidable body of a young man. Broad shoulders, knots of muscles the hospital pajamas were unable to hide, short crew cut of his fair hair… The lad seemed an enchanted hero that had been turned into a helpless patient by some evil sorcery.
“Hey, Justin, turn to us! Or else our new ward-mate might think you are being rude,” Ryan put a hand on his shoulder.
As if having come to himself, the young man turned his face towards Jenny. Having shot a quick glance at her, he suddenly melted into background. A confused, timid, almost childlike smile appeared on his broad and calm face. Having blinked, the hulk cast down his eyes and mumbled something resembling “hello.”
Having probably got what he wanted from the lad, Ryan returned to his place contentedly.
“Don’t be afraid, he’s kind. And also normal. Only he’s very shy with girls and sometimes forgets who he is. But we remind him of that – right, Justin?”
He only nodded and looked at Jenny with the edge of his eye again. Now he didn’t seem threatening to her despite all his hidden strength. Admittedly, just as other patients of the ward eighteen. The girl inly sighed with relief. “It seems everything is not as bad as it could be,” she decided, looking at her new fellows without any caution.
Chapter 9
A Long Day
Either the doctor took his time to start Jenny’s treatment or he had some special plans for his new patient. However, no one bothered her till lunchtime.
Inmates were supposed to have their meals in a small dining room penetrated with the smell of burnt onion; its windows were situated so high that one could look into them only having jumped up or taken wings. Two keepers standing at the entrance were sullenly watching the patients packing the hospital refectory. Some were brought there in wheelchairs; most of them came on their own feet.
The ward eighteen occupied a table to their own. Having whisked to a spare chair, Jenny burrowed her eyes into her plate, secretly watching other diners. It would probably be difficult to find another place, which inhabitants would look so different and so elusively resembling each other at the same time. Here, there were people of various age and gender, with frozen, estranged faces or – contrarily – with flaming eyes and fidgets. Some of them went at their food (a light-salted mush dressed with who-knows-what sauce) with animal esurience and wolfed it down in an instant. Others, on the contrary, seemed not to notice their plates at all; after having sat at their tables for about a half an hour, they retreated, leaving their food untouched. Keepers approached some of them and made them eat, having thrust spoons in their hands. Such indifferent, almost dippy patients were called “veggies” here. Among them, there were some that tried to eat themselves, however they had a hard time holding a spoon in their trembling hands.
Jennifer secretly noticed that such a trouble bugged Ryan as well – the lad strove to overcome slight trembling of his fingers, but not always successfully. Having caught the girl’s eye, he uttered a slightly embarrassed sigh.
“Damned nerve in my back! It turns my face into a caricature and doesn’t let me move properly. Something gets inflamed inside and pinches it… And dear sirs wise doctors can’t figure out what is the reason for that and what causes such a body response.” Unable to cope with his hand, Ryan dropped his spoon discontentedly. “So that’s why, instead of studying, I have to hang about different clinics at least twice a year, until my “back-biter” nerve is bored to envenom my life and decides to take its ease for a time…”
“Have you been here for long?” Jennifer wondered shyly.
“Not really. Three months, perhaps – I’m not that good at counting time here. It passes differently in here, not like out there,” the lad nodded at the barred window.
Having glanced in the same direction, Jenny sighed. She hadn’t even spent a day at the clinic, but yet she felt impenetrable longing lurking right to her heart. Longing for her freedom that had been taken away for God-knows-what sins…
Having left their dishware on tables, patients started retiring from the refectory – as they were to have their compulsory after-dinner nap. Dwellers of the ward eighteen also shuffled off homeward.
When they returned, Jenny’s bunk had already been made with bed clothing, if clothing could be a proper name for a grayish-white sheet and a blanket cover laundered out to pieces. After having reunited with its pillow-case, a pillow as if shrunk and now stank with drugs and dust even more. The girl sighed, having recalled her cozy bed and her favorite roller she used to take with her every time she had to spend the night not at home. However, such cases were pretty seldom – her parents were communicating with their friends not really closely…
The memory of her mother and father swept over her in a wave of longing again. To take her mind off it, Jenny decided to shift her thoughts to her new fellows, but all of them had already dived under their blankets as if at a command.
“You should go to bed too!” Emma advised from her corner.
“But I don’t want to sleep. I’ve never had a day nap since I was five.”
“Needle will come and chews out if you are not in bed,” Sofia added.
“Who’s that?”
“You’ll
