The Institute

Chapter Eight- Picture of Josh

I woke up feeling pretty good, and that really surprised me. I thought I would be nervous or tired or something. It felt like just another day.

Around the middle of breakfast, it hit me: I was going to break out a mental hospital. I immediately dropped my fork and it hit the table with a clatter. I guess my thoughts were written on my face because David promptly started questioning me.

“Are you alright? What’s wrong? Did something happen with your brother that you’re not telling me about?” The questions came like gunshots and I couldn’t help but smile at how much David legitimately cared. I realized I was going to miss him. I was going to miss all of them, even Brady who never spoke a word to me the entire time I was here. Maybe they would get out soon and I would be able to see them again.

No. You’ll never see any of them again. You probably won’t even see your own parents again. It will be just you and Josh for who knows how long. Not only are you bonkers, but you’ll also be a criminal. I resisted the urge to scream an answer to that voice in my head, but knew I couldn’t react to it, couldn’t let my fear get the best of me.

“Jeremy? Jeremy, can you hear me?” It was David.

“Oh, yeah, yeah, I’m fine,” I said. “I’m just… tired.” Lies.

David didn’t look convinced. “You know, if something’s bothering you, you can always tell me. What do you think I’m going to do? Tell the nurses? Please, I don’t even tell them what’s going on with me.”

“Thanks, David. I really appreciate it.” More than he’ll ever know. “But I really am fine.” He seemed to accept this answer because he didn’t say anything after that. Not even Lucy spoke. I glanced up at the clock and my heart jumped to my throat. Half an hour until Josh came! A flood of thoughts came into my mind just then: I was going to have to leave Sean behind; what if we get caught; wait, Sean isn’t real, remember; what if we get caught; I never told Josh where I should meet him.

That last one slithered its way to the top of my worry list. If I didn’t find him without him or me getting caught, this whole scheme was going to crash and burn.

Right after breakfast ended, I went straight to my room to figure out what I should do. I was in there not ten minutes before there was a knock on my already open door. That was one thing I didn’t get about this place. It’s not like we have any privacy so why bother knocking?

I turned, annoyed, and prepared myself to snap at the person who interrupted my planning session. A man stood, dressed in the standard white scrubs but also a doctor’s mask and hair nets that I have only seen used on occasions, like for sanitation or for the medics of the hospital.

“Jeremy Crow? It is time for your, uh, liposuction now,” the man said. Josh! I wanted to run over and hug him and burst out laughing at the same time, but I knew that I couldn’t. I couldn’t hold in a small smile though.

“Um, right away, Doctor,” I joked. I couldn’t believe he had actually managed to get in here. I also wondered how he planned on getting us out. I followed him out of my room and down the back hall towards the hospital wing. I had only been there once, when I first got here, to get a physical. I hadn’t been back there since and I hardly remembered the layout. Josh, however, seemed to know exactly where he was going, as if it was our house.

I did think ahead, give me some credit. Our conversation from the day before came back to me.

“Excuse me, where do you think you’re going?” An unfamiliar voice. We were caught. I knew I shouldn’t have let Josh get into this. We were both now in major trouble.

I turned to look at the face connected with the voice and saw a man I assumed was a doctor. I glanced at Josh’s face to see how he reacted. His face was white as if he’d seen a ghost. Oh, the irony.

“Doctor, don’t you know this is the female wing? Are you new here? What am I talking about, of course you are. You seem a little lost. The male wing is down that hall.” The man smiled expectantly.

“Oh, uh, thank you… doctor. You’re right, I am new here. This is my first week. I haven’t quite got the whole wing thing yet. You see, at the hospital I worked at previously, there was no female and male wings. It takes a while getting used to. Thank you so much, I really appreciate the directions.” I couldn’t believe Josh. He was such a good liar. I wondered if it had to do with the acting classes he had taken a few summers ago.

“Sure, sure, anytime. By the way, I’m Dr. Lane. Maybe I’ll see you around? Say, you look young for a doctor. How old are you?” Dr. Lane asked.

“I get that a lot, but I am actually twenty-eight,” Josh said.

“You don’t say. Well, it was nice to meet you, er…”

“Oh, Dr. Smith.” I wanted to shout at Josh that we didn’t have time for a polite conversation; that we needed to get moving if we had any hope of getting out of here. Besides, I had to admit, it was a little awkward being the “patient,” just standing here like a fool, while the two doctors conversed.

Dr. Lane smiled one last time and walked off down the hall, disappearing into a room a few doors down.

“Come on,” Josh said, walking towards an unmarked door. As I got closer to it, I could read a label, about eye level of a dwarf, that said LAUNDRY ROOM. Laundry room? What could Josh possibly be doing in a laundry room? Nevertheless, I followed him into it. It’s not like it could get any worse. Either we get caught or we didn’t.

As soon as I closed the door behind me, Josh slipped of his doctor’s attire and tossed it the side, leaving it in a crumpled ball in the corner. He finally turned around and gave me a big hug.

“So what’s the plan?” I asked, grinning. I was starting to get a little excited.

“Do you know what day it is?” Josh asked.

“Uh, Wednesday?”

“Laundry day.” I looked at him quizzically. “All of the laundry from the week gets sent down here in big carts. On Wednesdays, the company, Kwik-N-Klean, sends a crew out to pick the laundry up with trucks. They take the laundry to the factory and… Well, never mind, that’s not the part we’re interested in. The plan is to hide in the carts and when the laundry men wheel the carts out, we’ll be wheeled out. We have two options after that: We can either try to get out before we get loaded in the trucks, or after, when we arrive at the factory.” We had been walking while he talked and I listened, and now we were standing in a large basement-y room, filled with white carts, some holding laundry, some empty.

“They come at around ten o’ clock, it’s nine forty-five now. We need to get in those cart,” Josh said. He walked over to one of them, took out an armful of clothes and gestured with his head for me to get in. I climbed into the cart and waited for Josh to dump the clothes on me.

“Just stay very quiet, and don’t move. I will take care of everything. When it’s a good time for us to get out of the baskets and escape, I will come get you out of the cart. Don’t do anything until then. Okay?” He didn’t wait for a response, just dumped the clothes on me and left to get in his own cart. I exhaled deeply and settled in for a very interesting and very intense ride.

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Okay, sorry about this chapter. I am no expert since I have never attempted to break out of a mental institute. I am not exactly sure how these things work, but this is my best shot. Feel free to comment with input! :)

Please leave comment if you have any comments or suggestions:):)