Page 59 of Ward D
I start making a circle around the unit. I pass the two seclusion rooms, which are both dead silent. Of course, it is the middle of the night. Practically everyone is asleep.
When I get to the staff bathroom, a flush comes from inside. I let out a breath. That’s got to be Ramona. And sure enough, after the water runs for long enough for somebody to sing “happy birthday,” Ramona emerges from the bathroom.
“Amy!” She clutches a hand to her chest. “My God, you startled me!”
“Sorry,” I mumble.
She squints at me in the dark hallway. “Are you all right? You look a little…”
“I’m fine,” I say before she can complete her thought. I don’t even want to know how I look right now. “I just… I need to ask you something.”
Ramona smiles at me. She looks maddeningly perky for this hour of the night, but I guess she’s used to the night shift. “Sure.”
I point off in the direction of the seclusion rooms. “Were you cleaning blood off the floor in the hallway?”
“Blood?” She looks like she’s about to choke. “Absolutely not!”
Oh God. I really did imagine it.
Unless she’s lying.
“There was some strawberry jelly I noticed on the floor,” she says. “Quite a bit, actually. So I did grab the mop to clean all that up. Miguel really made quite a mess, didn’t he?”
“Strawberry jelly?”
“Yes.” She tugs at the collar of her flower-printed scrubs. “That stuff got everywhere, didn’t it? But I think I got the last of it, thank goodness.”
Strawberry jelly. Could that really have beenstrawberry jellyon the floor? It certainly didn’t look like it. And I wassurethat I saw it flowing from underneath the door.
Didn’t I?
“You thought that wasblood?” Ramona bursts out laughing. “Oh, Amy, honey. You need to get some sleep.”
A wave of dizziness washes over me. She’s right. I do need to sleep. But I have a feeling that if I try, I’m just going to lie awake, staring at the ceiling.
“Do you…” I shift between my sneakers. “Could you tell Dr. Beck that there was something on the floor that you cleaned up?” I want him to know that I didn’t completely imagine the incident—that I’m not insane.
Ramona squints at me. “You want to wake up Dr. Beck in the middle of the night and tell him that I cleaned up some strawberry jelly from the floor?”
Well, when she puts it that way…
“Listen,” I say. “I need to get some fresh air.”
She nods sympathetically. “Yes, I agree.”
“But when I tried the code for the door to the unit, it didn’t work!” I glance over my shoulder. “Could you help me get out? I’ll be right back.”
That’s a lie. As soon as that door opens, I’m gone. At this point, I would rather flunk out of medical school than come back here.
Ramona tilts her head to the side. “Oh, Amy, I wish I could. But when the fuse blew, the doors reset. The passcode doesn’t seem to work anymore. And the phones went out too. Unfortunately, we may be stuck here until the morning.”
My stomach sinks. “There’s no other way? I mean, we have to have a way out. What if there’s a fire?”
“Believe me, I’m not happy about this,” Ramona says. “But with the computer system down for the night undergoing maintenance, I’m not sure what we can do. We just better hope there isn’t a fire, right?”
I don’t love that answer. But she’s got a point. If the phones are down and the code on the door reset, what can we do besides wait for the morning crew to arrive?
I just hope we make it till then.
