Chapter 3 Nancy
THREE
NANCY
‘God damn,’ I groaned, hauling old Mr.Jenkins onto his side. My eyes watered with the smell of shit seeming to seep into my pores in the stifling heat.
My feet ached, screaming in protest from hours traipsing the corridors.
Some days were blissfully quiet on the low-risk wards, but not today.
No. Dr. Marney decided to amp up the experiments he’d been conducting in the basement, and while I tried my best not to let it stress me out, the state the patients were coming back in made me queasy.
Missing limbs.
Extra limbs.
Mouths sewn shut.
Usually, he kept the most vicious of his tests to the worst of the patients. The ones who didn’t have visitors. The ones who had well and truly fallen through the cracks into society and landed square in the pits of hell.
Most days I could ignore it.
That day had me near quitting.
Couldn’t even open the windows to clear the air. I could leave the room and take a breather, but poor Mr.Jenkins had no escape. Stuck in a sweltering room, sweating his bollocks off while inhaling the smell of his own acrid waste.
The conditions were criminal.
But money talked, and no one cared. Families were glad to be free of their burdens. Society preferred to crush down the nonconformities, locking them away to be treated worse than garbage.
Forgotten.
I escaped to the staff room, pouring myself a cup of bitter, tepid coffee and gulping it down. It tasted unpleasant, but I’d take anything to rid my nose of the pervasive stench of shit.
The clock ticked, and I counted down the minutes until home time. Washing my chipped mug, I dawdled, avoiding running into any last-minute duties.
Six o’clock. At last.
A weight lifted as I grabbed my bag and unpinned my hat, stuffing it inside. Sometimes it felt less like a headpiece and more like a mockery. I’d expected to go into nursing to heal people, not to extend their misery by keeping them alive when most would rather be dead.
The rec room doors stood open, likely to encourage air to circulate. A young woman sat on a chair near the window, looking lost. Who was she?
Dirty blonde hair, a little too long and in need of washing, grazed her stomach. Her swollen stomach.
Pain and longing hit me like a kick to the back.
Her petite frame was delicate, like a glass ornament. A pointed chin and big blue eyes rimmed red, puffy from where a sleeve had rubbed away a torrent of tears. Fingers fidgeted with the hem of her starched white nightgown. New to her, but worn a thousand times by those who went before her.
My heart snagged as I stared at her. So young. What did she do to get herself shut up in this hellhole?
She ran a hand over the swell of her stomach, cradling the babe hidden within. It wouldn’t be the first time some unmarried girl got shut away because of familial shame. If that was the case, the family chose badly.
Wellard was no place for the innocent, and despite society’s view that spreading your legs makes you a devil, locking away girls for getting pregnant was the real sin. I’d bet my year’s wage that the dad didn’t suffer the same fate.
Those big blue eyes shifted to mine, and it felt like she’d struck me. With the connection came a bolt that tore me open.
Stumbling back, I hit a person behind me with my shoulder, wincing at the contact.
‘Steady there, darlin’,’ Robert said, holding my waist.
‘Who is she?’ I asked him, directing a nod at the young woman.
‘Name’s Ginny. New admission.’ Robert took my hand and pulled me toward the exit, eager to get shot of the oppressive building for the day.
‘Why is she here?’ I pressed, feeling the urge to pull away. To go back and talk to her.
Robert shrugged. ‘No idea. Probably batshit.’
I flinched at his description. He sounded more like the other doctors by the day.
‘She’s pregnant. This is no place for a baby.’
Robert stopped and looked back at the now distant rec room before letting out a deep sigh.
‘I know.’
Biting my lip, I stared back down the yellow-stained corridor, murmuring and clanging filled the air with the asylum’s distinct, unsettling melody.
‘Take my bag,’ I said, thrusting it into Robert’s arms.
‘Nancy—’
‘I’ll be just a minute.’ I didn’t wait for him to grumble, heading back toward the rec room. Curiosity pulled me back to the bleary-eyed youth. Her soft demeanour contrasted starkly with everything else in the harsh confines of Wellard.
‘Hello. Ginny, isn’t it?’ I crouched beside her and offered a smile. Pale blue eyes fixed on my face, saucer-wide and watery. She graced me with an almost imperceptible nod. Thin arms wrapped around her stomach. A protective pose.
‘I’m Nancy. A nurse here at Wellard. Are you settling in okay?’
‘No.’ The word came as a strained whisper. Probably hoarse from crying. Anyone stuck in Wellard had plenty of reason to wallow. Or scream. Or jump off of the roof.
Wellard was more dismal than prison.
‘It’ll be okay.’ The hollowness was audible in my words. I was fooling no one. No amount of pleasantries would convince her she was better off locked up.
‘It won’t.’ Ginny leaned toward me, her eyes darting from the door back to me, tongue wetting her dry lips. Her hair fell about her shoulders, so soft and blonde. She looked like an angel. ‘I shouldn’t be here. They’ve put me in here to steal my baby.’
She cradled her stomach with the gentlest of touches. Poor kid.
‘When is it due?’ I asked.
‘Soon. Mama said a few weeks.’
‘Did your mother leave you here?’
Ginny’s lower lip trembled, and she nodded. ‘She says I’m too old to need looking after, and she can’t afford to feed another mouth. This time is one time too many.’
My chest constricted at the way her words almost crumpled in on one another. Each screamed of past trauma.
‘You have more children?’
‘Had.’ Ginny sighed. ‘They took them.’
‘Who?’
‘Mama and Pops.’
My brow creased as I placed a hand over hers where it rested on her stomach. ‘Where did they take them?’
Tears tipped down her beautifully freckled cheeks as she shook her head. ‘I don’t know.’
God damn, it wouldn’t have surprised me if she sprouted wings and flew out of the window and right up to heaven. Bar the swell of her belly. She looked every bit angelic.
Robert cleared his throat from the doorway, and I straightened, brushing my dress with my hands. Ginny flinched and stared at the floor. Shit. I lost any footing I might have gained in easing her in.
Scowling at Robert, I shooed him off.
He looked from Ginny to me, his brows knitting as though he wanted me to follow like a good little wife. After a dark glower, he turned and walked off.
‘Sorry about that. My husband works here too.’ I smiled, hoping it came across conspiratorial. ‘Like most men, he thinks he can order me around.’
Ginny gnawed at her lower lip again. ‘Will you be back tomorrow?’
‘I will.’
Heavy silence descended on the car, making the trip home as dismal as the morning’s journey. Not that I minded. The abandoned woman filled my head.
I needed to figure out why she was at Wellard, and try to do the impossible. To get her out of there before she gave birth.
My own babies might never come to fruition, but I could help protect hers.
I hoped…