Obscurity

Chapter 40: Revelation

Sierra

I wake up to a knock on the door and someone coming into the room. I open my eyes and see Alma asleep in her bed. Our visitor hasn't woken her up.

I look over toward the door to see Chris standing there with his stupid clipboard in his hand.

"Are you going to get up?" His question comes off more snide than anything.

"I'm up."

"No, you're still in bed. Get vertical." He snips.

I'm too tired to argue, so I sit up.

"There, are you happy?"

"No. I work in this shithole. What would make someone happy about that?" he says. It's a strange reaction coming from him. He doesn't typically use foul language, and he's being unusually candid. That gets my attention.

"I need to have a word with you." He says. "In private." He glances over to Alma and back to me.

I throw back my covers and follow him down the hallway, in my pajamas, to his office beside the nurses station.

When we go inside, he closes the door and takes his usual seat and huffs out a big sigh.

I sit there wondering what this is about.

"Did you tell Dr. Fry I tampered with your medications?" He glares at me.

I'm surprised by the question. I'd figured Dr. Fry would be more discrete with my suspicions.

"No. I never said you messed them up." I try to explain.

He holds his hand up, and I stop talking.

"For some strange reason, I came into work this morning and was notified I'd been written up for a medication related complaint. Your name was on it, Sierra." He seethes.

"I suggested Dr. Fry look into the nurses. I never said you had anything to do with my medication issue." I stand firm in my denial.

He shakes his head. He runs his hands through his hair, which does him no justice because it looks like crap anyway. He looks like he hasn't shaved in days. I'd say he's having a bad week by the looks of him.

"Sierra." He sighs.

"What Chris? It's not impossible that one of these new nurses messed my medication up. The turn over here is ridiculous." I quickly say before he gestures to me to shut up again.

"Sierra. I was the sole person who handled your medications on the specific day in question." He says in a low growl.

"How is this my fault?"

"Because it is. Had you kept your fucking mouth shut I would be dealing with this shit right now." He spits.

"How was I supposed to know you only handled my meds? I was not intentionally trying to get you in trouble. Maybe you should be more careful when you're doling meds."

His eyes go wide. His mouth falls open. After a few moments the disbelief on his face turns into anger. His eyes narrow and he lowers his voice.

"Are you suggesting you could do a better job of running my unit?"

"No, I just—"

"Get out of my office. Right fucking now." He points toward the door, and I don't wait around to be told again. I jump up from my chair and quickly leave the room.

I rush down the hallway to my room. I have severely pissed him off. I can't believe I made it out of there without a trip to Solitary or Secondary. I let out a huge sigh of relief when I finally make inside my room. I shut the door behind me and stand against it catching my breath.

Alma is standing at the foot of her bed looking at me with a confused look on her face. I shake me head and wave her off. Her look doesn't change.

"What's going on?" she must be able to sense there's something very wrong.

"I think I just put Chris on a warpath. You better watch your ass today, Alma." I say as I walk away from the closed door. I need to get dressed.

"What do you mean?"

"I told Dr. Fry yesterday I thought one of the nurses may have messed up my medications that one day I went Loco. Anyway, I guess she looked into it." I shrug.

"What does that even mean?" she says as she sits on the end of her bed.

"It means when they looked into the mishap; it turned out Chris was the only person who handled my medications that day. I guess they wrote him up for it. And that's why he called me down to his office. He wanted to confront me about it. I never said he did it. By the process of elimination, he was caught for it." I realize my legs are trembling a little.

"Oh my goodness, did you tell him you didn't tell on him?"

"Yep."

"What happened?"

"He didn't believe me and right when he was getting ready to Hulk out about it he told me to get out of his office. I can't understand the restraint he showed. Normally, I would have already been halfway to Secondary over something like this." I say staring at the wall trying to make sense of the situation.

"I'll bet he can't retaliate." Alma suggests.

"Huh?"

"He can't punish you for the write up. He'll look way too suspicious if he does." She explains.

"I didn't think of that."

"Well, his day isn't going to get any better." Alma says.

"What?"

"I submitted a report about him yesterday with Dr. Summers." She says with an air of confidence.

"Alma, I don't think anything will come of your report." I reluctantly say.

"Oh, Dr. Summers assured me Chris wouldn't be privy to the report. I hope it's true." She says as she slips on a fresh pair of socks.

I pull my shirt over my head and shiver runs down my spine.

"You know, Alma, I get the funny sensation that Chris isn't going to be the one having the bad day."

"I guess we'll see."

"Alma. Remember when I was going to tell you something about Dr. Summers that one day and you knew I wasn't being honest with you about what I'd said instead?" I ask her. My nerves tingling. I feel like vomiting.

She nods and stops rolling her sock.

"Well. There's something you should know..."

She looks at me quizzically.

I let out a sigh. I can't believe I didn't mention this sooner because if I had, she might not have reported Chris yesterday and today wouldn't be such a gamble as far as knowing what will happen with everything.

A loud flurry of knocks at the door interrupts my thoughts. Chris swings the door open.

"Breakfast." He says as he turns to finish going down the hallway announcing it's meal time.

I look back over at Alma who's sitting there waiting for me to share my revelation.

"Alma, did Chris mention his last name when he introduced himself to you the first time?"

She shakes her head. "I just got the impression everyone here goes by first names." She rationalizes the omission of Chris's last name.

"Okay. Did Cindy give you her last name?"

"I'm not sure. What are you getting at, Sierra? Spit it out."

I growl in frustration.

"Damn it, Alma. Chris's last name is Summers. How else do you think someone as imbalanced as he is got a job here?" And I watch her face change from neutral to complete disbelief.

"Oh, God. What have I done?" She covers her mouth with her hand.