The Devil in Silver

“Okay. So she stays on the West Coast, but she wants to be somewhere warm. Los Angeles?”

“There’s a lot of Chinese, which she would like, but I don’t think she’d go that far. Maybe San Francisco. Or somewhere near there. That’s where we were supposed to end up at first, anyway. But what does it matter? God, Pepper, you’re doing it again! Stop trying to fix things! Just shut up. It’s like even you’re trying to kill me.”

“You make me sound like a monster,” Pepper muttered.

She took a breath and when she came back, she put her head on his chest. She listened to the thick thumping sound of his heart.

“I’m sorry, Pepper. I am. Hard times make people scared. And scared people see monsters everywhere.”

Pepper nodded, he wasn’t offended, but before he could explain he caught himself. He lifted his head.

“Isn’t Oakland right next to San Francisco?”

Which is the moment when the room’s door blasted open. Pepper wouldn’t be blamed for having flashbacks to when the NYPD’s tactical unit had powered through the front door. Both Pepper and Sue recoiled like they’d been sprayed.

Miss Chris stood in the doorway.

Sue grabbed the sheets and pulled them up to her neck. Pepper stammered, just repeating the word we until it didn’t even sound like itself. Just a stream of noise.

“We, we, we, uh, we …”

But Miss Chris wasn’t even looking at them. She’d opened the door and reached in to flick the lights on. (Didn’t even have to turn her head to find the switch, that’s how well she knew the rooms.) Miss Chris shouted, “Wake-up hour! Come for breakfast!”

Then she walked to the door across the hall and did the same.

Door banged open, light flicked on. “Wake-up hour! Come for breakfast!”

Then Miss Chris moved ten feet down the hall to rooms 8 and 9.

Pepper and Sue still shivered there where they were. Sue took another moment before she let go of the sheets and Pepper still hadn’t stopped blabbering.

“We, we, uhhh, we, uh …”

Sue touched the side of his face and that calmed him down.

“Stop talking,” she said.

They looked at each other quietly. From down the hall they heard the routine.

Door banging, the click of the light switch being flicked.

“Wake-up hour! Come for breakfast!”

Which is when Pepper and Sue laughed. All that fear turned to its happy opposite. They clutched each other as Miss Chris awakened the patients in room 10. And rather than getting up, getting dressed, Pepper and Sue settled down again. Just enjoy the last minute, fuck it. They spooned one last time. “Whose room is that?” Sue asked, pointing to the one across from his.

“Room six. That’s … Japanese Freddie Mercury.”

Sue lay quiet a moment. Down the hall, they heard Miss Chris, at room 11.

Sue said, “You mean Glenn?”

“Is that his name? How would I know? The guy never speaks.”

Sue laughed quietly. “That’s not right, Pepper.”

Pepper raised himself on his right elbow, so he could lean over and see her face. “You don’t think he looks like a Japanese Freddie Mercury?”

“Because of the teeth?”

“Well, it’s not because he’s a great singer.”

They watched the open door of the room across the hall now. Pepper and Sue wanted to see him, since they’d just been talking about him. Pepper even wanted to call him out by name. Hey, Glenn! If Sue knew his name he must be able to talk, the man just hadn’t spoken to him. Then he thought maybe Glenn only spoke to other Asian people like Sue. Which seemed kind of racist to him. Then Pepper just had to admit he’d never introduced himself to the guy, probably he was just shy and maybe that—the simple, clear explanation, as Dr. Anand would stress—was the truth.

They watched Glenn’s room, but could see little more than the floor and a pair of blue footies that Glenn had probably kicked off before going to sleep. They saw the same double windows as in Pepper’s room but Glenn’s faced the New Hyde parking lot, a sight much worse than Pepper’s lawn and trees. Then one of the ceiling panels in room six shook.

“What?” Sue whispered.

The wood-fiber ceiling tile buckled. There was a weight, on the other side, pressing down.

“No,” Pepper said.

Miss Chris reached room 12 (there were sixteen rooms in each hall). The door slammed open. From this far off, they couldn’t hear the light switch flip up. Miss Chris gave the same call as before.

“Wake-up hour! Come for breakfast!” Her breakfast call camouflaged the sound of the ceiling tile when it snapped. The two pieces of the panel dangled for a moment before tumbling to the ground.

Sue and Pepper watched but couldn’t speak now. They couldn’t move. They forgot about Miss Chris. What could her wrath compare to the sky falling in?

Just a moment later, they watched as something plopped out from the darkness overhead. It landed on the tiled floor.

A rat.