22. Olly #3
Reasoning with her, now that I could try.
“Dr. Bell, may we talk about the restraints one more time?” She nodded while coughing, so I forged ahead.
“In my time here, I have never seen anyone put into restraints. I didn’t think that was an acceptable method of practice in our day and age, considering the cruelty they can lend themselves to.
I think while technically they may be legal, there’s got to be another option for patients you can’t hold down.
I assume it is drugging them to oblivion?
I’d heard the phrase chemical restraints, so that’s what I’m thinking.
Look, all I’m asking here is that you don’t restrain me chemically.
I already know that Bea is groggy, tired, and foggy from whatever drugs I’m getting now.
When I touch her mind, it scares me because 80 percent of the time, she’s asleep.
Restraining me physically will cripple me psychically because I will not be able to draw my visions.
It’s why I always carry a sketchpad with me in the world, out there, you know?
Because if I can’t get my vision down on a piece of paper, I start to feel like I’m going crazy.
I know, we’re not supposed to use that word, but it’s the truth so I’m using it.
Is there anything else you can do? And may I have my sketchpad and markers back? ”
She looked at me like I was a strange creature she had never seen before, her shoulders straightening, her eyes locked right on mine. “Well, I don’t know, Olive. What are you willing to give up?”
“I...I don’t know. No one has asked me that before.
” Then I thought of the obvious. “You can read my mind—don’t pretend you can’t—so you can tell if I’m lying when I tell you I will not be stabbing you dozens of times like in that damn picture.
I’m sure I’ll have another vision about this event, which means, if my hands are free, another image to possibly identify the attacker. ”
Just then, I heard a knock on the door, and Dr. Bell managed a “Come in.” Nurse Elizabeth and Organization Nurse Lily stepped inside, with Elizabeth stating the obvious, but for my benefit, I was sure. “We’re here to escort Olive to her seclusion.”
I had a feeling that all of the answers to my silent questions would make themselves known in due course, and I didn’t want to ask a bunch of questions in front of Dr. Bell, anyway.
As Nurse Elizabeth gently smoothed down my long, flyaway hair and held on to one of my hands, and Nurse Lily kept a firm hand on my back, I was led to a room I had never seen the inside of before.
It was actually right next to mine, but I didn’t know it was a patient room.
It looked like all patient rooms, except it was decked out as a single, not a double, and the bed was outfitted with menacing brown arm and ankle bindings.
It was also a room with what looked to be once-white padding on the walls, now a rather depressing grey, and stripped down to the essentials.
There wasn’t even a closet or chest of drawers like the other rooms, no reading light above the bed, no cafeteria tray table.
I bet there was no safety mirror in the bathroom, either. So what was this all about?
“You said seclusion earlier. Does that mean I live here now?”
Nurse Elizabeth let go of my hand and head, looked at me in the eyes, and nodded.
I knew what she was driving at. That I could do this.
That I could handle whatever extreme that bitch wanted to put me through.
Nurse Lily was quicker as she peeled back the blankets and told me to take off my clothes.
I knew it was pointless to argue. Maybe my spirit just was beaten down, and perhaps Nurse Elizabeth’s faith in me was misplaced.
I was as big as a house with my six-month baby bump, and tired, just so tired.
Maybe I couldn’t do it, after all. But as the three of us stood there, I sighed and pulled off my pants and underwear, then the sweater that was baggy everywhere but in front.
Naked and cold, Nurse Lily helped me into hospital clothing.
Green scrub pants, a johnny shirt, and a housecoat.
She then lowered the bed with the electronic footpad, making it so I could get in and out easily with my expansive stomach and ample roundness.
That the bed was electric surprised me, until I noticed there was a place where the footpad detached from the plug to the wall, and the nurses could take it with them.
The fewer electrical cords, the better—as in, none.
Nurse Elizabeth brought over the vitals machine and started with my blood pressure.
“Deep, even breaths now, Olly,” Nurse Elizabeth said.
She reached for my arm and gently placed it in the cuff, and I extended my hands for my oxygen monitoring and blood sugar test. My vitals were good, just my O2 was a little low, and then it was Nurse Lily’s turn.
She was a bit rougher with my other arm and I was sure my wrist would bruise where she pulled it.
Nurse Elizabeth explained, “We have to get these IVs into you, and it will be much simpler if you don’t try to move around.
I know that’s easy for me to say, but really, we don’t want to accidentally hurt you. ”
I nodded, tears brimming, but I refused to let them fall.
The hated IV pole was back, and I didn’t know what was on it.
I asked, and Nurse Lily cut Nurse Elizabeth off, saying, “That’s between you and your doctor.
We’re just here to run the lines. Now, please stay still.
We want to get these into you right the first time, and the veins on your hand are tiny. ”
Elizabeth held my left hand, as Nurse Lily began to poke and prod at my right arm.
By the time she was done, I had cannulas in my hand, halfway up my forearm, and inside my elbow.
The usual places, I guessed. She hit the buttons on the pumps, informing me that they were alarmed, and they would immediately know if I attempted to change any of the settings.
As soon as the medication hit my blood stream, I knew this was quite a different cocktail than I’d been on before.
I felt instantly stoned, and exhausted. I hated feeling stoned.
It honestly was terrifying to feel like the walls were moving, or the floor wasn’t holding still, or to hallucinate people or worse, insects, which didn’t exist.
Before the duo left, images filled my mind and I called in my slurred voice, “Wait. Dr. Bell, someone is going to attack her. Very soon. I can see it. He stabs her. Prison style shiv made from a pen and lighter. So much blood. Won’t be me, because here I am.
Let her know she’s still in danger. Mean old spider still doesn’t deserve... I mean it’s just so much blood.”
Nurse Lily pursed her lips. “And just how do you know the details of this attack if you weren’t involved in planning it? Who is your partner in this?”
“S’not me,” I slurred even more this time, and wasn’t sure if she’d be able to interpret what I was saying. “I saw it because I’m psychic but can’t draw it for you. I have to talk it out. The Jolly Jesus Man thinks she’s Satan. He does it. Soon. She needs help!”
“Jolly Jesus...who?” Lily asked, annoyed.
“She means Gabriel, who is always watching those doomsday televangelist shows.” Nurse Elizabeth filled in. “We have to go check on her, now. His room is right across from her office.”
“And why is that? Because she says so? Are we working for the patients?” Geez, Nurse Lily was really copping an attitude.
“No, but if we can stop an attack on our unit’s doctor, we have an obligation to do so. Olly is never wrong about things like this.”
I swear I meant to reply, but instead floated away, down into the depths of my own ocean, lost to both past memories and current calamities.
Was there always a coral reef down here?
And schools of little strange turquoise fish that glowed a green light, like the moon moth, providing illumination in a dark world?
No, there hadn’t been. Who else could access this part of my mind and make changes?
Then I felt the fluttering and tugging in my belly and realized it was Bea.
She had somehow been here. I wondered if she’d be able to do everything I could do, just better.
I thought I heard, “Olly, we’re coming back to explain the rules to you, your rights and responsibilities.
Right now, we’re going to Gabriel. Please just rest, and don’t worry about anything.
” I touched some of the reef, and the last thoughts I had before the medication did its dark trickery were of teeny glowing green fish and a beautiful daughter I wouldn’t ever get to meet.