The Devil in Silver

Josephine fought hard to make her mouth work, to talk these patients out of doing anything with lasting repercussions. But she couldn’t master speech at the moment. Yelling seemed the best she could do. Josephine Washburn would not let herself die today. No, she would’ve begged if she could. Please. But the only sound that came out of her was this primal howl.

So Coffee and Pepper continued to restrain her.

Then Loochie raised her arm. Loochie made a fist. But Loochie didn’t throw the punch.

Instead, Dorry spoke.

Calmly.

Dorry said, “All right now. All right. Everybody stop and think. Loochie, you don’t want to hit her. And she doesn’t want you to hit her.”

Loochie lowered her arm. It was true. She didn’t want to hit Josephine. She didn’t like the nurse, but she didn’t dislike her, either. She couldn’t say that about Scotch Tape, which is why it had felt so satisfying when he crumbled. And even Scotch Tape wasn’t someone she hated. There was only one person around here that she hated.

One thing.

Josephine looked everywhere but at the old woman. This wasn’t on purpose, but an instinctive response. The reptile part of Josephine’s brain, trying to figure how to save its tail.

Dorry said, “Look at me now. Look at me.”

Josephine’s shoulders went looser at the soothing measure of Dorry’s voice. She unclenched her fists. Pepper and Coffee didn’t let go of her wrists.

“I’m a mother,” Dorry said. “And a grandmother. So believe me, I know you’re somebody’s little girl, too. No one wants to hurt you. That’s not what we’re here to do.”

Dorry touched the pearls around her neck. As if drawing Josephine’s eyes to the pearls would prove these four patients weren’t murderous, violent psychopath cannibals. Would such people wear jewelry? In fact, the pearls only made Dorry seem more peculiar in these circumstances. But what could Josephine do but trust the old ambassador? At least while she found herself trapped between the salt-and-pepper sentries.

“What do you want?” Josephine asked quietly.

“Keys,” Pepper answered, and the nurse looked at him nervously.

“I can’t let you all out of here. I’m sorry but I can’t. You’ll hurt … yourselves.”

Dorry frowned at Pepper to shut him up. She tugged at Pepper’s fingers until he let go of Josephine’s wrist. Then she did the same with Coffee.

Dorry said, “We don’t want to escape.”

“What, then?”

Coffee blew out a deep breath. “The silver door.”

Josephine looked up at Pepper and at Coffee. “I’m not going to let you hurt another patient.”

“You got a lot of rules for a bitch that’s outnumbered,” Loochie said.

Josephine crossed her arms and both Pepper and Coffee winced, afraid of another eruption. They placed their hands over their crotches, just in case; they looked like two soccer players awaiting a direct free kick.

Dorry said, “Nobody’s going to get hurt.”

Josephine sucked her teeth. “Sure.”

Dorry said, “Look at me. We want to speak with him. You give us the keys. We put you and Clarence into one of the rooms. As soon as we’re done, we let you out. And we’ll take any punishment that comes after that. Okay?”

This all could’ve been over much quicker. Just let Loochie start swinging. But it seemed important to Dorry that the nurse hand over the keys on her own. That the nurse trust Dorry. This didn’t matter so much to the other three at first, but as they listened to Dorry, they, too, felt a change. They didn’t want to batter and steal like criminals. They didn’t want to rampage like frenzied animals. They were human. Dorry put out her hand to accept the nurse’s keys and the others waited patiently.

Josephine looked at each of them, moving from one face to the next. Josephine made twelve dollars an hour at this job. That should put all cries for courageousness into context. Taking this job for that pay had already been an act of bravery.

Finally, Josephine opened her hand and the looped red plastic key chain dangled from her thumb. It swayed side to side. All five of them listened to the keys as they jangled like a wind chime.

Finally Josephine set the keys in Dorry’s palm.

Dorry led Josephine toward Northwest 1. Conference room 2 awaited. Pepper and Coffee followed behind them like members of a broke-ass Praetorian Guard. And last was Loochie, dragging the unconscious orderly backward by the arms. She’d demanded that Pepper and Coffee let her do this alone. Like hauling what you’ve hunted. It was an effort, but she managed.

They brought Josephine and Scotch Tape to the room. Loochie laid the orderly flat on the floor with more tenderness than any of the others might’ve expected.

Dorry sat Josephine in one of the chairs. Pepper and Coffee and Loochie left the room. As Dorry pulled the door shut she said, “We won’t be long. And thank you.”

Josephine didn’t respond. She watched her hands, gathered limply in her lap. After the door was closed and locked, she listened as the footsteps receded.