Alice's Asylum

Chapter Twenty-Two

It was easy and surprisingly fast to be allowed on a private jet. We went to Philadelphia Municipal Airport. Doctor Walker had more authority than he had ever told me. We sat in the luxury of our own private plane. The hostess watched Mary warily. She was shaking worse than ever. She had to go to the bathroom to throw up. Obviously her withdrawal symptoms were getting worse. The plane took off and she looked like it was a relief when she could have her chair lying down.

"Try to sleep, honey." Doctor Walker told her as he stroked her hair. Her forehead had beads of sweat on it. She snuggled down in her blankets as Doctor Walker went back to his seat beside me. I produced her file from my briefcase. Doctor Walker sighed.

"You read it then?"

"Why the hell is she in Philadelphia Mental Asylum when she was born and bred in Biloxi, Mississippi?"

"Her father wished for her to be as far from Biloxi as humanly possible. She was sent to Philadelphia." Doctor Walker shrugged.

"So where do we go now?" He smiled slightly, sitting back in his seat.

"Where indeed?"

****

We finally landed in Oklahoma. It was a cab drive to Duncan. We couldn't take my car because we must have already had our names down by the cops. However we managed to find a nice hotel and Doctor Walker booked us in. We only had the one room. It meant that he could keep an eye on Mary and I could sleep too without having to dive between rooms if something went wrong. I fell asleep on the single bed, Mary took the double. I fell asleep the second my head hit the pillow.

"Jas...Jasper?" I heard a voice call my name. I opened my eyes sleepily. The room was dimly lit with a bedside lamp on the dressing table against one wall. I got out of my bed and padded over to Mary.

"What's wrong?" I mumbled. She was shaking even worse. How was that even possible?

"I'm cold..." She whispered. I got into bed beside her. She was ice cold. I pulled her small body close to mine. My legs seemed to curl around her's, left arm over her frail body and right underneath her acting as a pillow. It was automatic. No thought to the action.

"I'll warm you up." I murmured. We both closed our eyes and fell asleep again.

When I woke up, daylight was pouring in and there was movement around the room. I sat up, slowly untangling my limbs away from Mary as I did so. Doctor Walker was making cups of tea.

"Good morning, Doctor Walker." Doctor Walker turned and smiled.

"Please call me Robert." He handed me a cup of hot tea as he spoke.

"Robert." I sipped at the tea. It was so warm and welcoming.

"Sorry I wasn't here when she woke up. I had to hunt and I also had to get some new clothes for us all." He gestured to the three piles of clothing. I got out of bed and walked over to the dressing table. I noticed that Robert was already wearing his new clothes. He had already taken off his doctor's coat in my car but now he was wearing denim jeans and a red checked shirt.

I went through my own pile of clothing. I chose a pair of black faded denim jeans and a purple long sleeved shirt. I put it on under my black waistcoat. It looked pretty cool.

When Mary woke up, she had her own cup of tea and chose a yellow and green flower patterned skirt and a yellow shirt. She pulled at the new clothes in awe and amazement.

We had to stay in the hotel for now. Robert couldn't go out in the sunlight and Mary was being looked for in more than ten states already. We would have to move soon but we didn't know exactly when.

What we didn't expect was for it to be so soon.