Page 48 of Ward D
“Here you go,” he says. “Enjoy.”
“Thanks.” I take the book out of his hands, and my fingers brush slightly against his. “Appreciate it.”
Now that I’ve got the book, I recognize that I should get out of here. Nothing good can come out of lingering in this room. Yet part of me wonders if I can help this man. Maybe I can get him to confess what he’s done and realize that the only way he’s going to get better is to take his medications. After all, Dr. Beck mentioned that most patients with schizophrenia don’t even recognize they have a problem.
“So that was crazy what happened earlier with Miguel,” I say. “Wasn’t it?”
Will’s expression is still wary, but he nods. “Yeah, it’s the second crazy night in a row. Every time they lock somebody in one of those rooms, it’s a big event.”
“Yes,” I agree. I shift the copy ofCider House Rulesbetween my hands. “That definitely seems like something you want to try to avoid at all costs.”
“Yeah.”
“I mean,” I say, “you wouldn’t want to do anything to make them think you should be in one of those rooms, right?”
He takes a step back as he sucks in a breath. “Why do you think they would want to putmein there?”
“I don’t,” I amend. “I didn’t mean it like that. I just mean that it seems like not following the rules in here can get you into trouble.”
“He peed on a light socket. I’m not going to do that.”
“Of course not.” I force a smile. “But there are other important rules. Like, you want to get better, don’t you?”
They say one of the negative symptoms of schizophrenia is not being able to make eye contact, but Will is making pretty good eye contact right now. He looks like he’s staring me down.
“I’m going to turn in now,” he says tightly.
“Are you sure?” I gesture at the chair in the corner of the room. “Because I’m awake if you feel like talking. I’d be happy to—”
“I don’t,” Will says abruptly.
Will is a bit of an enigma to me. Granted, I’m not a psychiatrist. But he seems like an intelligent guy who loves my favorite author and is an extremely talented piano player. If I were in that situation, and I were hearing voices…
Well, maybe that’s a bad example.
“All right,” I say. “I’ll let you get to sleep. If you’re having any trouble, I know this great breathing technique called four-seven-eight. What you do is—”
“No, thank you. I’ll pass.”
I force a smile. “Are you sure? Because—”
“I’m sure.”
Will follows me to the door of his room, and after I leave, he slams it shut behind me. He may not be sure if I discovered his secret, but he knows I’m suspicious ofsomething.
Of course, after I get out of the room, I have a real dilemma. Will has not been taking his medications. And the entire reason he’s hospitalized here is to get better. Dr. Beck needs to know about this. I don’t want to rat Will out, but it’s not like he confided in me. I discovered his secret by accident.
Clutching the copy ofCider House Rulesin my right hand, I walk around the circle to get to the attending physician’s office. It occurs to me as I approach the office that at this hour, it might be too late and maybe I should just save this information until the morning. Then again, this is important, isn’t it? What if something happens during the night?
And anyway, the light is on under the door. Dr. Beck must still be awake.
I knock gently on the door, hoping that if he is asleep, I won’t have to wake him. After a second, I hear shuffling behind the door and something that almost sounds like a crash. “Who is it?” Dr. Beck calls out.
“It’s Amy.”
There’s another long pause with a lot of shuffling. After another minute, the door is yanked open. Dr. Beck is standing there in just his scrubs, his hair slightly sticking up on the right side. I hadn’t noticed when he was wearing his white coat, but he’s got a decent set of biceps peeking out from under his scrub sleeves.
“I’m so sorry!” I say. “Did I wake you?”
