His eyes flew open. “Honey? Are you all right?”
“No,” she said. “Can I talk to you?”
“Of course.” He reached for the lamp.
“Don’t turn on the light.” She crept into bed beside him.
“What’s the matter? Aren’t you feeling well?”
“I’m worried.”
“About what?”
“You. You deserve to be loved. I want to make love to you.”
He was wide awake. “My God!” he said. “You’re just a child. You can’t be serious.”
“I am. Your wife’s not giving you any love…”
“Honey, this is impossible! You’d better get back to your room now, and…”
He could feel her naked body pressing against his. “Honey, we can’t do this. I’m…”
Her lips were on his, and her body was on top of him, and he was completely swept away. She spent the night in his bed.
At six o’clock in the morning, the door to the bedroom opened and Mrs. Lipton walked in. She stood there, staring at the two of them, then walked out without a word.
Two hours later, the Reverend Douglas Lipton committed suicide in his garage.
When Honey heard the news, she was devastated, unable to believe what had happened.
The sheriff arrived at the house and had a talk with Mrs. Lipton.
When he was through, he went to find Honey. “Out of respect for his family, we’re going to list the death of the Reverend Douglas Lipton as a ‘suicide for reasons unknown,’ but I would suggest that you get the fuck out of this town fast, and stay out.”
Honey had gone to Embarcadero County Hospital in San Francisco.
With a glowing recommendation from Dr. Jim Pearson.
Chapter Nine
Time had lost all meaning for Paige. There was no beginning and no end, and the days and nights flowed into one another in a seamless rhythm. The hospital had become her whole life. The outside world was a foreign, faraway planet.
Christmas came and went, and a new year began. In the world outside, U.S. troops liberated Kuwait from Iraq.
There was no word from Alfred. He’ll find out he made a mistake, Paige thought. He’ll come back to me.
The early morning crank telephone calls had stopped as suddenly as they had started. Paige was relieved that no new mysterious or threatening incidents had befallen her. It was almost as if they had all been a bad dream…except, of course, they hadn’t been.
The routine continued to be frantic. There was no time to know patients. They were simply gallbladders and ruptured livers, fractured femurs and broken backs.
The hospital was a jungle filled with mechanical demons—respirators, heart rate monitors, CAT scan equipment, X-ray machines. And each had its own peculiar sound. There were whistles, and buzzers, and the constant chatter on the PA system, and they all blended into a loud, insane cacophony.
The second year of residency was a rite of passage. The residents moved up to more demanding duties and watched the new group come in, feeling a mixture of scorn and arrogance toward them.
“Those poor devils,” Kat said to Paige. “They have no idea what they’re in for.”
“They’ll find out soon enough.”
Paige and Honey were becoming worried about Kat. She was losing weight, and seemed depressed. In the middle of conversations, they would find Kat looking off into space, her mind preoccupied. From time to time, she would receive a mysterious phone call, and after each one her depression seemed to worsen.
Paige and Honey sat down to have a talk with her.
“Is everything all right?” Paige asked. “You know we love you, and if there’s a problem, we’d like to help.”
“Thanks. I appreciate it, but there’s nothing you can do. It’s a money problem.”
Honey looked at her in surprise. “What do you need money for? We never go anyplace. We haven’t any time to buy anything. We—”
“It’s not for me. It’s for my brother.” Kat had not mentioned her brother before.
“I didn’t know you had a brother,” Paige said.
“Does he live in San Francisco?” Honey asked.
Kat was hesitant. “No. He lives back East. In Detroit. You’ll have to meet him one day.”
“We’d like to. What does he do?”