Music in the Night (Logan 4)

"Good."

Clara turned back to me.

"I'm going to help you now," she said, "but I need you to help yourself, too. Okay?"

"Yes," I said.

"Good. I want you to get up and walk with me. We're going to get into a car outside. I'm going to take you to a nice place, okay?"

"Okay," I said. I raised myself up on my elbows and Clara reached under my left arm and helped me get out of bed. When I stood up, I felt terribly stiff and said so.

"That's all right," Clara said. "You won't be stiff too much longer. help you," she said. She smiled. She had a nice, friendly smile, a much nicer smile than the elderly lady could ever have, I thought. I was glad to be leaving.

The elderly lady followed behind us as we continued out of the room, down a long corridor to the front doors of the house. I remember thinking it was a big house and there were things about it that looked familiar, but I didn't remember coming here. The elderly lady walked ahead of us and opened the ,door.

It was still lightly drizzling out, and the cold air hit me like a slap in the face. I shuddered and Clara wrapped her arm around my shoulders.

"There, there, now," she said. "We'll be warm soon."

She guided me out and to the dark car that was waiting. I didn't see the driver. Clara opened the door for me and I was guided carefully into the rear of the car. Then Clara stepped back.

"You want to say anything to her?" Clara asked the elderly lady.

"No. Tell them be there tomorrow to make the arrangements and give them a check," she said.

"Very good, Mrs. Logan."

I snapped my head around. Mrs. Logan? I remembered that name, but who was she? She glared at me, her eyes beady, icy, her mouth pinched tight. I was glad when the door was closed and she was out of sight.

Clara got in from the other side and sat beside me.

"All right now?" she asked. I nodded. "You'll be fine," she said. "Soon, you'll be fine."

I smiled back at her. She nodded at the driver and the car began to move away from the big house and into the rain, into the darkness that lay ahead.

I stared for a moment and then spun around and looked back, but the lights of the house were already gone and the darkness had closed in behind me. It was as if I had walked through a door and the door had been shut tight. I wanted to go back; I wanted to open the door again, but I couldn't find my way.

"Where are we going?" I asked Clara.

"Someplace else," she replied. "Is that okay?"

I thought for a moment.

"Yes," I said. "It's okay."

I wasn't sure why, but vaguely I realized that yes, yes, it was better to be someplace else.

10

My Name Is. . .

.

I fell asleep again in the car and didn't wake

until the car hit a bump and jarred me from my trancelike slumber. It was very dark outside because an overcast sky kept the moon and the stars hidden. When I gazed out the window, I saw only my own reflected face in the glass, the face of someone so lost and confused, her eyes were filled with question marks and her lips frozen in a vain struggle to find some word, some thought to voice.

I turned and looked at the woman in the nurse's uniform dozing beside me. Her eyelids fluttered as the automobile jerked and turned, but they didn't open. I gazed at the back of the driver's head and I wondered who these people were and where I was going. Should I know? Had I been told?