Obscurity

Chapter 26: Spasm

Sierra

Standing near my bed, I decide on what to do with the time I have before dinner. I've read all the magazines I've lifted from the day room and set about to return them. I grab the stack of pilfered magazines and walk out of my room into the hallway.

Alma's just a few paces ahead of me on her way to talk to the doctor. I hurry my step to catch up with her. She hears my approach and turns to look behind her. She smiles at me and I return the gesture. I fall into step beside her and just as we pass the room neighboring our own, Nick steps out of his directly across the hall.

"Got a minute, Alma?" he asks her. She nods and stops in the hallway to talk to him. I roll my eyes and continue toward the day room.

I clutch my magazines a little harder in my arm. Realizing I'm grinding my teeth, I take a deep breath and try to relax as I walk. If I'm being honest, I'm worried about Nick telling Alma what he speculated earlier about my being responsible for her trouble with Chris. I kept my poker face, but he didn't relent and I'm pretty sure he thinks he's right about my deal with Chris. He is. But she doesn't need to know that. Alma and I have just broken through a friendship barrier and I don't want him screwing it up. I don't think she'll forgive me if she finds out.

As I turn to go into the day room, I look back at Alma and Nick. They're still talking. I sigh and carry the magazines over to the coffee table in front of the couch in the television area of the day room.

The stack slams down with a loud SLAP. Jim looks up, a bit startled, from a book he's reading in one of the sitting chairs.

I flash him an apologetic smile. He huffs and goes back to reading. Abigail is sitting on the couch holding her pencil in one hand and a crossword puzzle book in the other. She seems deep in concentration.

"Hey Sierra?" she says.

"Yeah?"

"Can you think of a five-letter word, starts with an "S" for an involuntary twitch?" Abigail asks engrossed in her puzzle.

"Um, I don't know." I say.

"Well, hell." She says closing her book on her pencil.

"Sorry."

"No worries. It'll come to me later." She smiles.

Jim speaks up over his book without taking his eyes from it, "Abigail, it's 'spasm'..."

She quickly opens her crossword puzzle book and plucks her pencil up and writes the answer in the small boxes. "Thanks Jim. That one really had me baffled."

"It was the easiest one you asked about today." He says with a grouchy tone. Come to think of it; his tone is always grouchy, I muse as I watch the geriatric exchange.

Abigail chuckles and goes back to solving her puzzle. Jim continues reading his book. Both blissfully disinterested in my presence. I get up from the couch and mosey over to a table toward the back of the day room. I pull my deck of cards out of my pocket and begin to shuffle.

I glance over to the nurses station occasionally. I see Dr. Summers is on the floor. I already knew he was seeing as how he sent for Alma a little while ago. He gives me the creeps. I watch as he talks with the nurses and flips through files.

I continue shuffling. I wonder what's taking Alma so long. Nick must be filling her head with all sorts of crap. Nothing of which is probably flattering about me. I let out a sigh and shuffle some more.

Glancing over at Jim and Abigail, I conclude my shuffling isn't bothering them since they don't seem disturbed. Good. I don't need any more problems from Chris. I'm watching what I do to avoid any behavior intervention with Chris. If Jim even glances in my direction, upset about the noise my deck of cards is making, I'm pocketing my cards and moving on to my room. I'm not getting in any trouble today.

Shuffling is getting boring so I decide I'll build houses. As I set the cards up, I sneak looks over into the nurses station. Chris has materialized and is talking with Dr. Summers. I'm curious as to what he's saying to him. I doubt he'll mention how he lost his cool earlier today with Alma and dragged her kicking and screaming out here into Secondary. Oh, no. He won't mention that. I'll bet he'd be in deep shit if he disclosed that.

My mind trails off onto a path of wonder regarding how to file complaints against staff members. I've seen first hand that none of the nurses will intervene or make reports about staff members' inappropriate behavior. They're probably afraid of losing their jobs.

All I know is, if what Nick and Michelle said earlier is true, I'd be willing to bet Chris broke protocol with that whole situation. I wonder what the board of trustees would think about an imbalanced staff member causing emotional harm to patients. I make a mental note to talk to Cindy when she gets here in the morning. If anyone will know what to do about it all, it'll be Cindy.

After I line up five houses of cards side by side, I set about building a second tier of houses atop the first ones. My first attempt proves to be futile. I knock the bottom two houses down as well as the one atop them. Well, there goes half my palace.

I correct and rebuild my houses and try again at adding the ever elusive second row of houses. The first one doesn't topple any of the others. I carefully go about working on the second one in this row.

I shoot a glance around the day room to see if anyone has entered since I last looked around and I see Nick entering the room. He walks casually to a table beside mine and sinks down into a chair. I look back to my project and add a roof to the second house of the second tier. Not too shabby, Sierra. Not bad at all. I mentally pat myself on the back.

I peek through my palace of cards and see Alma making her way casually to the nurses station. My eyes dart over to Nick sitting at the neighboring table, he's watching her.

"She's a nice girl." I casually mention in his direction. I don't take my eyes off my tower. I'm working on the third tier, and I have no room for mistakes at this point.

Out of the corner of my eye, I see Nick looking at me. He sits silently. He doesn't respond to my comment. I look over at him, and he reaches behind him to grab a car magazine off of another table.

"You don't agree?" I ask playfully.

"Shut up, Sierra." He spits as he opens his magazine.

I shrug off his hatefulness because that's how most people react to me. I hear a light tearing noise coming from my side where Nick sits, but I largely ignore it. The stupid boy has probably found a picture of some dumb car and is tearing it out to use it as a poster in his room.

Looking over to the nurses station, I see Alma talking with a nurse. Chris and the doctor are having a conversation at the observation desk. Alma is there to see Dr. Summers but it appears as though Chris is monopolizing his time. What a jerk.

I turn my attention back to my cards and start on building house number two on tier three when suddenly a paper airplane shoots right through my tower. It came from Nick's direction.

I narrow my eyes at Nick and he throws his hands up laughing.

"You bastard!" I growl at him and throw what remains of my card deck at him. Most of the cards miss, but a good portion of them do not.

"Don't you just hate when your house of cards falls?" He cleverly quips as he tosses some of my cards back in my direction.

"Touché. Nick." I slyly grin as I get up to go to collect my cards. He'll pay for this later.