Music in the Night (Logan 4)

"What? Yeah. Sorry, Clara," he said. "I fell asleep waiting," he added dryly.

"Well now that we're here, we'd like to come in," she said sharply. He stepped back quickly and we entered.

Nothing looked familiar inside either. It was a large room with gray-and-blue cotton--covered sofas and chairs. There were about a half dozen light maple wood tables. Only three of the small lamps in the large room were turned on, but I could see that there wasn't much on the walls, just some paintings of ocean scenes with sailboats and fishing boats and a few paintings just of colors in rectangular shapes. The floor was a dark wood with oval area rugs here and there. At the far end, there was a large fireplace made of fieldstone.

The freckle-faced man she called Billy looked at me for the first time, his gaze sweeping up from my feet to my face as if he were measuring me for something to wear. His eyes widened with a little more interest and alertness when I gave him a friendly smile.

"This is her?" he asked, his voice filled with surprise. "Of course it is. Who did you think it was, the new Miss America?" Clara quipped. He smirked.

"She looks pretty good. I just thought . Mrs. Miller said we should just show her to her room and get her to bed," he concluded once he saw the expression of impatience on Clara's face.

"So let's do it," she said. "I don't have all night to dillydally with you."

He turned and started toward the stairway, pausing at the bottom step.

"She's going to be on the second floor. She can take care of her own basic needs, right? She looks like she can," he added, gazing back at me.

"Why don't you leave the diagnosis and treatment to the doctors and just take us to her quarters. It's late and I'm tired, too, Billy," Clara replied with more fatigue in her voice than anger this time.

"I'm just agoing," he whined and started up the stairs. The nurse guided me up. We turned at the landing and went down a long hallway. The lights above were very bright, creating a glare off the gray tile floor. Occasionally, the clean white walls were smudged. Here and there I saw what looked like squiggly lines made with dark crayons. Suddenly, I heard someone wailing. Moments later I saw a woman and a man in white hurry through the corridor.

"That's Sara Richards having another whopper of a nightmare, I bet," the young man said. "The last time that happened, she scratched her face so badly they had to cut her nails back to her knuckles. She's headed for upstairs, for sure," he predicted.

"Thanks for the cheerful news," Clara said.

What was upstairs? I wondered.

Billy paused at a doorway and reached for a set of keys hanging on his belt. He rifled through them, chose one, and opened the door. He switched on the light and we entered.

The first thing I noticed were the bars on the windows. How odd, I thought, for a hospital. Other than that, the room looked very pleasant. There were pretty blue and white curtains around the windows and a pretty blue flowered wallpaper on the walls. The bed was twin size and looked comfortable. It had a light blue comforter and two plush pillows with a thick, dark mahogany headboard. Beside it were two matching nightstands, on the right one of which was a lamp shaped like a ship lantern in brass. Across from the bed was a small dresser and to the right of that was a desk and a chair. There was a cushioned, blueand-white patterned chair between the two windows. On the wall across from the bed was a painting of a garden with lawn furniture. The word Impressionist came to mind, shooting out of some dark closet, followed by the face of someone I should be able to remember. Was it a teacher? A friend? Family? It was gone too quickly for me to come to any conclusion.

"Isn't this nice?" Clara said.

"Yeah, you know the facilities here are quite good when you consider," Billy said before I could respond. "Consider what?" Clara asked. He shrugged.

"That most of them don't know where the hell they are anyway," he said.

"You've got a great attitude, Billy. Mr. Sensitivity himself"

He laughed.

"I just call it like it is," he said.

"Spare me," Clara told him and he laughed again.

Clara crossed the room and opened the closet. There was what looked like a hospital worker's powder blue uniform dangling on a hanger and a pair of white terry cloth slippers beneath it. Other than that, the closet was empty.

"All right," she said to Billy, "I'll settle her in."

"What about the paperwork?" he asked.

"I'll be down in a little while to take care of it. Just have it ready for me."

"Aye, aye, Captain," he said with a mock salute. He gazed at me and then nodded at her. "Good," he said as if I had done something difficult by merely walking in and up the stairs. He turned to me again before leaving. "What's her name?"

She hesitated a moment as if she had forgotten and then said, "Lauren."

Lauren? I thought. That didn't sound right.