Lucidity

Chapter 24 - The Tower

Jimmy tore down the four flights of stairs as if pursued by a banshee. The damn clogs clip-clopped with a fury of noise that reverberated like shotgun blasts, enough to wake the dead.

If he had breath enough, the thought would have made him laugh. As it was, it only spurred him faster until he almost tripped over his own feet as he plunged through the door to Pediatrics.

The children’s ward was dark, only the dim lights of the nurse’s station in the middle of the corridor shed any light. The entire unit was silent except for the faint beeping of a distant monitor.

Jimmy slowed his steps, clutching the too-small lab coat around him as if it would hide him from prying eyes. He kept his gait quiet, heading down the hallway to Alex’s room. He arrived without incident and pushed the door open.

To his surprise, Alex was wide-awake, staring at the door as if waiting for him. Surrounding him were the three bald girls.

“Something’s wrong, isn’t it?” Alex said.

One of the girls, a skinny lass with gorgeous blue eyes that looked all the larger given her missing eyelashes, hugged him in sympathy. Heather, Jimmy remembered. The girls looked at him as if they knew who he was, accepted his presence without question.

“Maybe,” Jimmy said, not wanting to cause the boy more distress.

Alex was already breathing hard and fast, drawing in oxygen from a machine that fit over his forehead and face like a horse’s bridle.

“Is it Kat? I heard them page her room number.” The machine whistled as Alex sucked in air. “Where’s Grace? She was supposed to be here.”

“My name’s Jimmy. Grace sent me to keep you company.”

Alex slit his eyes at him, scrutinizing Jimmy. Jimmy stepped forward, offering a hand. Alex stared at it a long moment, as if expecting a trick, then finally took it. Then he surprised Jimmy by reaching for Jimmy’s left hand as well. The boy twisted Jimmy’s wedding ring between his fingers.

“This is just like Grace’s. You were with her yesterday after she got trapped in the doors.” He turned to the girls gathered beside his bed. “She’s in trouble, isn’t she?”

The girls remained silent but they all bobbed their heads in affirmation. Jimmy watched the strange tableau, the glimmer of a plan beginning to form in his mind.

“Do you think you sweet lasses could give me a hand?” he asked in his most charming voice. “Take a stroll across the Skyway for me? Fetch Grace back?”

The eldest of the girls, Tiffany, smiled at that. Just as Jimmy began to relax, thinking he’d found his answer in these three girls, she cocked her hand on her hip as only women knew how to do. The other two looked to her, waiting for her answer. “Sorry, Jimmy. We’re not allowed to leave the floor.”

Jimmy wrapped his hand around the bedrail, his grasp threatening to dent the metal. “It’ll be all right,” he wheedled, hating the desperation that crept into his voice. “I’ll be with you most of the way.”

“But not all the way,” Brittany put in.

Alex turned to the girls. “Can’t you help? It’s for Grace.”

Heather gave him another hug then all three joined hands and began to stroll from the room. “Don’t worry, Alex. You can do it.” She blew a kiss to both Jimmy and Alex, then they were gone.

Jimmy looked at the pale wraith of a child dwarfed by the bed and the machines surrounding him. What good were the two of them? A ghost-turned-man who couldn’t even cross a damn bridge and a boy resembling a ghost who would never be able to make it that far without collapsing.