The Devil in Silver

So why on earth had New Hyde Hospital arranged to purchase and use this fantastically inappropriate software? Because most systems (particularly a public hospital’s IT department) barely work. Which means that most systems regularly fail.

Like when New Hyde Hospital’s psychiatric unit, generally known as Northwest, had been deemed in dire need of modernization, and in its zeal to get the work done, the hospital had saddled the unit with a computer program whose only real-world application was to mishandle struggling home owners. A program to take advantage of people who were being ground down. That’s what the hospital bought. So while it was the wrong program for Northwest’s specific needs, it did fit Northwest’s overall theme.

And why would Josephine want to return to dealing with all of that?

Which is why she wanted to extend the conversation with Pepper. Better to linger with him than grapple with Equator again.

“I’ll tell you something I did find out,” Josephine said. “Peter Benchley felt guilty about Jaws for many years after it came out. He turned into an activist for sharks!”

She slapped the top of the nurses’ station desktop.

“He said that, in one year, in the whole world, only twelve human beings are attacked by sharks, on average. But every year human beings kill one hundred million sharks. Isn’t that crazy? He made us scared of them, but they’re the ones who should be scared of us.”

“Where’d you read that?” Pepper asked. He, too, appreciated the diversion this conversation provided.

“I watched a video of him on YouTube. But I didn’t bring it up during Book Group because, I don’t know. I was just listening mostly.”

Pepper felt a pang similar to the one he’d had when he remembered the Coinstar. YouTube! How quickly that silly phrase sounded like a high point in human culture. To go online and witness someone’s ugly kid doing something cute. To watch snippets of great movies that had been overdubbed with grating music by some moron who thought they were improving the film. To stumble across human beings with insipid thoughts, video cameras, and the utter lack of humility that made them use one to immortalize the other! Of course, Pepper should’ve registered Josephine’s remark about the sharks. The horror of those numbers. The outsized power of fear and the way it reshapes reality. But instead, Pepper felt a throbbing nostalgia for YouTube, and it was, sad to say, the detail that made him decide what he was going to do tonight. Dorry was right, he could fit back into the outside world. And that’s where he wanted to be. Tonight, when the other three ran toward the silver door, Pepper would be walking out.

Pepper said, “I’d like to take you up on that offer. The books you bought for us.”

Josephine exhaled happily. Another chance to avoid that computer.

“Come with me,” she said.

She led him to Northwest 1, but when they reached the door where the cart was kept, she waved Pepper backward until he stood against the opposite wall. “You wait there.”

Josephine came out a moment later, pushing the three-tiered book cart. Pepper touched the side of the cart as they returned to the nurses’ station, as if they were guiding the vessel together. Josephine popped inside the station to find her handbag, from which she pulled out a small spiral notebook with a plain green face.

On the front she’d written two words: “Washburn Library.”

“What’s that mean?” Pepper asked.

Josephine shrugged. “I paid for the books, so I figured the library should be named after me. Josephine Washburn.”

Pepper looked at the books. “What did you pick?”

Josephine brushed her hands along the top tier of titles. Like many books bought at library sales, these were a bit battered. Mostly hard-covers, a few paperbacks.

“Believe it or not, I really did listen at the last Book Group. What Dorry said. I tried to pick books that were more about people like you.”

Like me?

But rather than protest, Pepper let her comment pass. He looked at the books instead.

Ariel, Darkness Visible, The Noonday Demon, The Yellow Wallpaper, The Golden Notebook, Wide Sargasso Sea, Hard Cash, He Knew He Was Right, Angelhead, The Three Christs of Ypsilanti. And more.

“I don’t know any of these,” Pepper said, feeling embarrassed.

Finally, he found one book that at least carried a name he recognized. A paperback. He straightened and Josephine went onto her toes slightly, to see the cover.

“Is this a book of his paintings?” Pepper leafed through the pages but found only a handful of images, toward the center of the book. All in black and white.

“Letters,” Josephine said. “He wrote lots of letters in his life.”