Page 46 of The Lost Girls of Willowbrook

“Then I’ll get Wayne to beat me up. Please! I have to get out of here. I don’t care how.”

He grasped her by the shoulders and looked her in the eye, his face stern. “The only thing you’ll get by doing either of those things is a nice, long stay in the pit. Is that what you want?”

She covered her face with her hands and shook her head, swallowing the sobs that threatened to tear from her throat.

“I’m sorry,” he said. “I know you’re scared, but you’re going to be okay.”

She dropped her hands and gaped at him. “How can you say that? I’m locked up in a loony bin, I feel like I’m dying, my sister is still missing, and my stepfather, the only person who can get me out of here, doesn’t give two shits where I am. He’s probably glad to be rid of me.” She couldn’t hold back any longer, tears fell down her cheeks. “The only people who might care are my friends. Would you go see them and tell them I’m here?”

“I can try,” he said. “Where do they live?”

She wiped her face and tried to pull herself together. “Dawn lives in the housing units over on Belmont Avenue in Mariners Harbor. She’s in apartment 5B. And Heather lives about ten blocks from there on Gooseneck Drive, above the Starlight Liquor store. Do you know it?”

He nodded. “I’ve driven by it.”

“You should probably try Dawn’s place first because Heather’s father is an asshole. If he doesn’t know you, he’ll just tell you to get lost.”

“Okay,” he said. “If your stepfather doesn’t answer the door this time, I’ll go see your friends afterward.”

“Do you think Dr. Baldwin will listen if they come?”

“I don’t know,” he said. “But all we can do is try, right?” He gave her a reassuring smile.

She nodded and tried to return the smile, but her lips quivered and her eyes filled again.

CHAPTER 11

By Sage’s fifth day in Willowbrook, Ward D had gone two nights without heat and no one had showered since the day she’d arrived. Four residents had been wrestled into straitjackets and hauled off to who knew where. Two residents had died; one broke her leg. Yesterday, they’d been given only half portions of the ground-up meals, and a strange, itchy rash had started on Sage’s feet and ankles. She’d been spit at, screamed at, grabbed, slapped, and punched. She knew every wall and corner and piece of furniture in Ward D and the dayroom like a prisoner knows the inside of his cell. She knew who relieved themselves on the floor, who liked to piss off the attendants, and who refused to take off their soiled clothes. She knew who watched television and who acted like it didn’t exist.

After another exhausting morning of waiting in line for pills and forcing herself to eat one more watery bowl of mealy oatmeal, she sat in her usual corner in the dayroom, her eyes locked on the double doors, watching for Eddie, praying he’d talked to Alan or Heather or Dawn. She imagined Dr. Baldwin coming into the dayroom, apologizing, and taking her to meet Alan or her friends in the lobby.

When Eddie finally appeared, it was all she could do not to cry out and run over to him. But they couldn’t talk about their plans in front of Wayne—no matter how hard it was, she had to wait a little longer. After emptying the trash and sharing a cigarette with Wayne, Eddie finally made his way over to her.

“I went to your stepfather’s after work again,” he said. “He didn’t answer and I didn’t hear the TV this time, but I pushed another note under the door, then talked to the building supervisor. He said Alan went up to the Adirondacks to go ice fishing with his buddy . . . what’s his name?”

“Larry?”

“Yeah, that’s it.”

She opened her mouth to reply but couldn’t speak. Despite knowing how little Alan cared for her, the news that he’d left on a fishing trip knocked the wind out of her lungs. Surely he’d seen the first note Eddie had slipped under the door. But he’d left anyway. When she found her voice again, it cracked. “Of course he did,” she said. “Now that I’m not around, he’s free to do whatever he wants. Did the super say when they were coming back?”

“No, he saw them packing up a truck yesterday morning. I’m sure Alan will call Dr. Baldwin when he gets back, but I’ll stop by after work again in case they come home tonight.”

“What about Heather or Dawn? Did you talk to them?”

He shook his head. “No one was home at Dawn’s. I tried to leave a message for Heather, but her father tore it up and told me to get lost.”

“That sounds about right. What about your uncle? Have you talked to him yet?”

He nodded.

“And?”

“It’s like I thought. He told me not to get involved. And unfortunately, even if he believed my story about you and Rosemary, which I’m not sure he did, he can’t do anything to help anyway.”

She felt like she couldn’t breathe again. “Why not? I thought he was the head of some department here?”

“He is, but he has to be really careful right now because his coworker, Dr. Wilkins, just got fired.”

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