poems, the ones that almost fell on the floor when it slammed Derek on
the table. It made the scissors go into Derek and bring the blood out
of him, into Derek who wouldn’t hurt no one himself, except
himself,wouldn’t know how to hurt anyone. And the Bad Thing get the
scissors go in again and bring more blood out of another place in Derek,
and in again, and again. Then blood was coming Out of just four places
on Derek’s chest and belly who the scissors had been made to go in, but
out of his mouth a nose too. The Bad Thing lifted Derek off the table,
the scissors still sticking out of his front, and threw him like he was
just a Pillow. No, like he was a garbage bag, threw him like the
Sanitation Men threw the garbage bags onto their Sanitation Truck. Derek
landed on his bed, on his back on bed, with the scissors still in him,
and didn’t move and
gone to the Bad Place, you could tell. And the worst thing was it all
happened so fast, faster than Thomas could think what to do to stop it.
Footsteps in the hall, people running.
Thomas yelled for help. the doorway. Pete saw Pete, one of the aides,
showed up in Derek on the bed, scissors in him, blood coming out
everywhere, and he got afraid, you could see him get it. He turned to
the Bad Thing and said,
“Who-” The Bad Thing grabbed him by the neck, and Pete made a sound like
something was stuck in his throat. He put both his hands on the Bad
Thing’s arm, which seemed bigger than Pete’s two arms together, but he
couldn’t make the Bad Thing let go. The Bad Thing lifted him by his
neck, making his chin turn up and his head bend back, and then took hold
of him by the belt, too, and pitched him back out the door, into the
hall. Pete hit a nurse who came running up just then, and they both
went down on the floor out there in the hall, all tangled up, her
screaming.
All of this in a few clock ticks. So fast.
The Bad Thing made the door shut with a bang, saw you couldn’t lock it,
then did the funniest thing of all, funny-weird, funny-scary. He held
both his hands out at the door, and this blue light came from his hands
the way not-blue came from a flashlight. Sparks flew from hinges and
around the knob and all around the door edges. Everything metal smoked
and turned all soft, like butter when you put it on mashed potatoes. It
was a Fire Door. They said you had to keep your door closed if you ever
saw fire in the hall, not try to run in the hall, but keep your door
closed and stay put. They called it a Fire Door because fire couldn’t
get through it, they said, and Thomas always wondered why they didn’t
call it a Fire Can’t Get Through It Door, but he never asked. The thing
was, a Fire Door was all metal, so it couldn’t burn, but no* it melted
around the edges, and so did the metal frame, they melted together, it
didn’t look like you could ever get through that door again.
People started pounding on the door from out there in the hall, tried to
make it open, couldn’t, and shouted for Thomas and Derek. Thomas knew
some voices and who they belonged to, and he wanted to yell for them to
help quick because he was in trouble, but he couldn’t make a sound any
better. Poor Derek.
The Bad Thing made the blue light stop. Then it turned looked at
Thomas. It smiled at him. It didn’t have a nice smile it said,
“Thomas?”
Thomas was surprised he could stand up, he was so scared He was against
the wall by the window, and he thought maybe making the lock open on the
window and push it and get out, which he knew how to do because of
Emerge Drills. But he knew he wasn’t fast enough, no way, because the