Page 43 of Ward D
“Eventually, he’ll go to sleep,” he says. “And hopefully put some clothes on.”
Ramona laughs, but I just stand there. The whole incident has left me feeling shaken. Dr. Beck catches the look on my face and rests a hand on my shoulder. “He’ll be okay, Amy,” he says. “Don’t worry.”
How will that manpossiblybe okay? He thinks his father is God. He has alternated between wearing no clothing andallof his clothing. And he smeared his entire naked body with strawberry jelly. I’m going to hazard a guess and say this man doesnothave a bright future ahead of him.
“Get some sleep, Amy,” Dr. Beck says. “Find an empty patient room and lie down for a bit. Looks like your colleague is doing that.”
That’s right. Throughout this entire commotion, Cameron has been absent. Even if he’s asleep, which seems unlikely knowing Cam, it’s hard to imagine all the screaming wouldn’t have woken him up. And I happen to remember that Cam is a pretty light sleeper.
So where is he?
24
Hours Until Morning: 7
Once things have settled down on Ward D, I do a lap around the unit, looking for Cameron.
The first place I go is the staff lounge. It’s the obvious place to look for him. My eyes dart from the ancient sofa to the barred window to the dusty nook behind the door that is covered in spiderwebs. But he’s not anywhere in here.
My next stop is the staff restroom. The door is shut, so I knock on it—no answer. I try the door knob and it turns in my hand. But when I look inside, the bathroom is empty.
Then I start a lap around the unit, checking all the patient rooms.
I check Spider-Dan’s room first. The door to his room is open, and so is the door to the bathroom. He’s standing in front of the toilet, his wrists pointed at the wall. He’s trying to pee/shoot out webs. But either way, Cam isn’t here.
The next room is cracked open, and a man is sitting on his bed. I squint inside and notice that the man is licking his arms repeatedly. It’s the most bizarre thing—almost like a cat grooming itself. I move on.
The next room has a female patient inside. When she sees me standing at the door, she scrambles to her feet. She has black tangled hair and huge glasses that give her an owl-like appearance.
“Am I going home?” she asks me.
“Oh,” I say. “Um, no. I mean, I don’t know.”
“I need to go home.” She attempts to rake a hand through her tangled hair. “My son is home. I need to see my son.”
“I… I’m sorry… I don’t…”
“I need to see my son!”
I can see the pain in this woman’s eyes, but what can I do? I don’t even know who she is.
“I’ll see what I can do,” I mumble. Even though I’m lying.
The woman gives me a dirty look, because she almost certainly knows that I’m not going to see what I can do. She goes back into her room and slams the door hard enough that the entire frame shakes.
I should tell Dr. Beck that I can’t find Cameron, but Cam would be furious with me if I ratted him out that way for stepping outside—if that’s what happened.
Something not everybody knows is that Cam has a temper. He manages to do a good job of hiding it. And to be fair, he doesn’t fly off the handle very often. But he acts like this good-natured guy all the time, and it’s easy enough to keep that act going with friends, but it’s harder to hide it from the girl that you’re dating.
The first time I ever witnessed Cameron’s temper was when he found out he didn’t get a spot in a prestigious year-long research fellowship on the west coast. Orthopedic surgery is a competitive specialty, and doing research is—according to Cam—essential to matching in a residency spot. He and several other students in our class applied for the research position, which would have taken him to the California bay area between his second and third year of med school, and he believed he was a shoo-in. We were hanging out in his bedroom, sitting together on his bed, when he got the email. His left arm had been slung over my shoulders, and he pulled it away.
What the hell?Cam’s square face had turned a shade of pink.They didn’t pick me? Seriously?
I tried to look over his shoulder at the email, but he had already tossed it to the side of the bed. Then he leaped to his feet.
I can’t believe this!he ranted.How could they shaft me that way?
Is it that big a deal?I said.I mean, it’s just one fellowship. There are other research opportunities.
