Drown 'Em Memories

Chapter 16: "It's About Time, Joey"

It was a bustling night at the hospital, the kind where chaos seeped into every corner. The steady beeping of heart monitors blended with hushed murmurs, the clattering of IV stands, and the rolling of wheels on the polished floor, all forming a tense melody.

A nurse walked briskly down the hall, clipboard clutched tightly in her hand. She stopped at Cole Jeffrey’s room and knocked, her voice a bit louder than usual to be heard over the noise. “Mr. Jeffrey! Time for your medicine.”

Silence.

She frowned, glancing down at her checklist as if hoping for an explanation that wasn't there. After a beat, she tried the door, unease prickling the back of her neck. The room was empty. Too empty. Cole’s bed was perfectly made, sheets neatly tucked as if no one had been there at all. The small table beside it was clear, except for an overturned IV stand lying abandoned on the floor.

Her pulse quickened as she took in the scene. No signs of a struggle. No note. Just...gone.

Her footsteps quickened down the hall until she reached the nurse’s station where Keith sat, his eyes glued to the patient roster on his screen. He didn’t look up when she approached, only acknowledging her with a casual, “Hey, need something?”

“Keith,” she began, trying to keep her voice steady. “Has anyone come by to pick up Mr. Jeffrey? He wasn’t scheduled for discharge, was he?”

Keith’s eyes flicked up, brows knitting in confusion. “Nope. Why?”

“We’ve got... a Code Red,” she whispered, her voice barely more than a breath.

Keith’s eyebrows shot up. “A runaway patient?”

“Seems like it. I just checked his room, and it’s spotless, except for an IV stand he might’ve knocked over.” She shook her head, biting her lip. “I can’t believe he slipped out on us.”

Keith leaned back in his chair, scratching his head. “You sure there wasn’t anything else? No sign of a window left open or anything?”

“Nope, the room was sealed up like always. It’s like he just vanished.”

Keith’s gaze turned pensive, like he was reaching for a memory just out of grasp. “Wait, you said his name was…?”

“Jeffrey. Cole Jeffrey.”

He frowned, fingers tapping idly on the desk. “Cole Jeffrey… That name’s ringing a bell, but I can’t place it.”

“What do you mean?” Her impatience was clear, her fingers drumming a nervous rhythm on the counter.

Keith grabbed a pen and an empty sheet of paper, scribbling down Cole Jeffrey’s name in quick, jagged letters. “Just... bear with me a sec.” He scratched out some letters and jotted something underneath. His eyes lit up as he held up the paper.

The nurse squinted at it. “What are you doing?”

He pointed at the scrawled letters with a glint of realization. “Look. It’s an anagram.”

“Anagram?” she repeated, her brow furrowing. “What are you talking about?”

“Two guys showed up here this morning, asking about a guy who’d been in a car accident…” Keith’s voice trailed off as he flipped the paper around to face her. Scrawled beneath Cole Jeffrey were the words "... but this was the guy they've been looking for. Joey Cleffer."

The nurse's mouth fell open. “You’re telling me that Mr. Jeffrey is actually... Mr. Clefer?”

Keith shrugged, the lines of suspicion deepening on his face. “I’m not sure yet. But I think we’ve got ourselves a whole lot more than a simple Code Red.”