Alice & Dorothy (8 page)

The Royal Court. The Queen of Hearts. Alice had never seen so much blood in all her life. She’d never imagined the level of brutality the woman was capable of. And utterly, completely, insane. It was as though the Red Queen flipped a coin every time she opened her mouth.

Heads. Lucidity.

Tails. Chaos.

But more than the wet stink of the butchered bodies, shit and vomit on pressed silk smells and stark contrasting colours, ripped flesh and blood puddling around their feet and the sweaty grunting of the queen’s servants as they cleared a path for their Bitch Goddess to her throne—more than all of that was the voice of the queen, when she opened her mouth and insanity poured from behind her teeth. Her parched, whisper dry voice screeching and chanting:

Meat is murder!

Meat is Murder!

Meat is Murder!

Meat is Murder!

The lines overlapped when Alice thought back to the Courtyard. She’d looked up at the Queen of Hearts, and the woman had looked back down, eyes wide and electric with her insanity. Her red hair splashed out away from her face like a crooked halo. Her mouth ripped across her face in a snarl, revealing crooked, yellow teeth. Hundreds of them, maybe. Jammed into her mouth haphazardly, angling this way and that way, and behind them her forked black tongue. And as she screamed in Alice’s upturned face, her hot meat breath washed over Alice like an infernal baptism:

MEAT IS MURDER! MEAT IS MURDER! MEAT IS MURDER!

Alice had thrown herself at this woman’s mercy.

It was hard to tell who was crazier.

Alice turned a corner and two darkened forms caught her eye. She looked up, tried to focus. Two pigs with white shirts. They wore black pants and shuffled along the floor, as though they were unsure of themselves on two legs. They had flashlights. Some sort of security? Did they work for the queen? A thought occurred to Alice, that any door she opened in this place may lead back to the Courtyard, and since she was totally lost she could have been walking in circles for hours and been walking back toward the Queen of Hearts without knowing it. Were these two of her soldiers?

“Easy
Miss
,” one of them said, putting a hand up. They were walking slowly toward her, eyes sharp and alert behind piggy faces. “You’re Alice, aren’t you?”

“How did you know that?” Alice said.

“Relax,” the other one said. “We’re here to take you back.”

Alice’s heart plunged in her chest. She shook her head. “No,” she said. Her jaw shook, and she began to cry. “
NO!
”

“Now, now,” the first one snorted. “That’s no way to behave, is it? You’re just a little confused. Let’s get you back to your room. The Doctor would like to see you still.”

“
GET THE FUCK AWAY FROM ME!
” Alice screamed. Her voice strained and cut out on her, forcing her next breath to come out like a walrus barking at its mate.

“Calm down,” The first pig said. “You need to go back, you can’t stumble around in the halls all night leaving blood smears everywhere.”

“Not going back,” Alice said. “Not ever.”

“Well, we have to take you back Missy,” The first pig said. “We’re
going
to take you back.”

“
I’ll rip your fuckin’ balls off if you come near me, pig
,” Alice said. They wavered for a moment. The first pig took on the shape of a man in his 20’s with a crop of curly red hair. The other pig looked shorter. Darker. She shook her head, trying to clear the cobwebs. She could focus on the creatures in front of her. It was enough, for now.

“Real fuckin’ nice,” the second pig said. “Boy, I bet your mom is real proud of that mouth you have.”

“I’m gonna drag you back to that room by
your hair
if I have to,” the first one said. He had his hands up in front of him, and had stepped in front of his partner. In a lower voice, he said, “
But I bet you’d like that, wouldn’t you
?”

Alice put her hands up, Balled into fists. The second pig snorted at her.

“
Aww come on
,” he said. “Can we just do this without any bullshit please?”

“Too late,” the first pig said. He made a grab for Alice’s hand; and for a moment was surprised when it wasn’t there. Alice slapped his hand down and away from them. Too late the pig noticed Alice’s other fist pulled back like a spring on a hair trigger.

Alice hit the pig in the face with a perfect left cross, catching him just to the left of his nose and hitting his cheek. It was enough to cause his nose to angle off to the right; a subtle shift that only he and Alice were aware of. A moment later his face was gouting blood, and he fell back away from her holding his broken nose in his hooves.

“
Fuckin bitch!
” he screamed. “
Ahh Jesus Jackson she broke it!
”

Alice turned to the other pig. He had his flashlight out like a club. His head swiveled between his partner and back to Alice, as though he was unsure which one needed his attention more.

“I told you,” Alice said. “I’m not going back to the courtyard. I’m not going back so she can cut off my goddamn head.”

“What?” said the second pig. “What are you, high?”

“
I’m not going back!
”

“I have no idea what you’re talking about lady,” he said. “There’s no fuckin’ courtyard here. That’s at
Barker
General Hospital. They have that big garden where you used to be able to smoke.”

“Just let me leave,” Alice said. “Please.”

“
You’re nod goin’ anywhere, you fuckin bitch!
” the first pig squealed from behind his hands. Blood and snot was all over his face. It dripped from between his fingers like warm paint.

“Look, try to stay calm,” the second pig said. “Doc just wants to take a look at you. That’s it. Then I’m sure they’ll let you do whatever you want.”

Alice looked into his face. A moment too late she realized he was looking over her shoulder. It made her a moment too late to look behind her.

A third pig had come in behind her while the second one was talking. Now he hit Alice like a tackle dummy, ramming his shoulder into the small of her back and taking her to the ground. The air rushed out of her as she fell. She tried to twist her way around to face this new enemy, but then she was on her back and her skull bounced on the floor.

There was a wave of alternating blue and black behind her eyes, and sparks as the world bounced in her vision. Then things got very slow.

“Nice job, Mike,” the second pig said somewhere above Alice. “You coulda played for the
Giants
.”

“Yeah, keep your hands up next time
Chuckles
,” second pig said.

“Okay, hold her arms. Let’s get her to observation. Go get that thing looked after, Charlie, your bleeding like a stuck pig.”

“
He is a pig
,” Alice said. “You’re all pigs.”

“What’s that honey?” the Mike-Pig said. “Hey you’re a real sweetheart, you know that? You think my friend here could get your number?”

“Yeah, thanks,” Jackson-Pig laughed. “I bet my mother would love you. You kind of remind me of her.”

The two men picked Alice up. She could feel movement, but she couldn’t get a handle on where she was. The world was fracturing into shards of memory, as though she was observing her life a moment after it had taken place. Polaroids in a pile, shuffled like cards. The two pigs talking about football. The chimes of the Red Queen’s Court somewhere in the distance. Her head black and foggy. She shot a man in the face because he was sodomizing her.

“
Fuckin killed him
,” Alice said. “
His face asploded.”

“You busted his nose,” Mike-Pig said. “Take a lot more than that to kill Charlie though.”

“She’s on crack or something,” Jackson-Pig said. “Said she wasn’t going to the garden. You know that one in Mercy? She doesn’t even know where she is.”

“Hell,” said M ike-Pig. “Come the weekend, I don’t know where I am half the time either.”

Jackson-Pig laughed. “Amen to that,” he said.

The two men arrived at a small interview room a few minutes later. Dr Weller was waiting for them. Alice had slipped into unconsciousness. The two security guards laid Alice down on the couch and stepped away from her. Dr Weller checked her vitals, then shone a light in her eyes and felt the lump on the back of her head.

Dorothy was sitting on the couch watching two men play pool When Alice was brought onto the ward. It was cloudy outside. Mid-April weather being what it was, that could have meant either rain or snow. She toyed with the idea of going downstairs and breathing in some fresh air, and then she’d know for sure. A single breath would give her all the information she needed to know. If there was rain in the air, she’d be able to taste it. She decided it was too far to go. It looked like rain, and that was fine for now.

Toto sat haphazardly on the couch beside her, his scratched plastic eyes watching her with sympathy? Boredom? Sometimes it was hard to tell with that little dog. Maybe she’d go down in a little while and check the weather.

The two men at the pool table were discussing a shot. In another room there were rows of reclining chairs, and the only television available on the hospital floor. Ward 9 was essentially two large box rooms with many small double-occupant rooms lining them. In the rec room, where Dorothy sat, there were couches and a pool table, and a punching bag hanging from the ceiling. There was also an air hockey table, but the nurses hated the noise it made and left it unplugged. The rec room also contained the nurses’ station, and the only way off the floor via elevator. There was an emergency stairwell exit beside the elevator, but that door was alarm sealed. Behind the nurses’ station was a small hallway with offices and storage space, and where Dr Weller had his sessions with patients. The other room was off limits to Dorothy; it contained the television and rows of comfortable chairs. If she’d been allowed near the T.V., she’d be able to flick on the weather channel and see what the forecast was for the rest of the week. Instead, she had to do it the old fashioned way; look out the window and take a guess.

And there were so many windows to choose from! As though the sight of the city surrounding them from the ninth floor of the City General Hospital would somehow calm their inner demons and make them feel sane again. Like it wouldn’t make them aware of every single moment of their life ticking away. Dying, moment to moment. Like beach sand in the crack of their asses washing away in the shower. Like other things, too, but Dorothy was bored and didn’t feel like coming up with them. It was cold; maybe it was snow after all.

When the elevator dinged, Dorothy looked up. The doors swung open and two security guards stepped out. Between them, a disheveled blond girl about the same age as Dorothy, her face a mix of anger and embarrassment. She looked like she’d been at it with someone. There were bruises on her face and a big lump over her eye. One of the security guards whispered something to the girl, and she shook her head.

She looked around the room. Her eyes fell on Dorothy. The pair looked at each other until the blond girl scowled and Dorothy looked away. She looked back out of the corner of her eyes, but the blond girl was speaking with security again.

“Look Toto,” Dorothy said. She lifted the stuffed animal so that its head was peeking up over the back end of the couch. Toward Alice. “We have a new neighbour.” She moved the dog’s head back and forth, and with her other hand wagged its little black tail. Then she picked him up and hugged him. “Yes,” she whispered. She is very pretty.”