Waking Rose: A Fairy Tale Retold (40 page)

“I can’t get a signal anywhere around here,” Fish said.

“Drat. Well, we have to find him now.”

“Let’s try upstairs then,” Fish said with a grimace.

They hurried to the third floor, then up to the fourth floor, and scanned the long marble corridors. There was no sight or sound of Paul.

“What a pain. The staff is going to be annoyed with us,” Fish said. “Where could he have gone?”

“Anywhere,” Alex said with a groan. “That’s the problem with Paul and  medical facilities. He gets inquisitive and talkative. How much you want to bet he’s off in some corner charming some nurse and swapping stories about IV insertions and impactions? And I’ve already been reprimanded for being late to these stupid proctor meetings. Well, it’s going to happen again.”

They retraced their steps to the ground floor and hunted down the side passages, checking in the staff cafeteria and meeting rooms. They even found the basement, a rather sinister-looking area behind a bolted door.

“Paul?” Alex yelled down the steep wooden steps to the cavernous regions below. There was nothing but echoes. “Where could he have gone?”

“For someone so tall, he’s managed to lose himself pretty thoroughly,” Fish remarked, and all present nodded.

They were wandering back down the corridor. “I don’t even know where we are anymore,” Kateri said unenthusiastically. “I hope we haven’t gotten lost ourselves.”

Fish was looking around at the rooms. “We seem to be in the surgical section,” he said. “Those look like operating rooms.”

“Probably not at all where we should be,” Alex said. “Darn proctor meetings, darn Mercy College regulations, and darn Paul.”

They turned a corner and found their way blocked by two beefy male techs.

“What are you doing down here?” one of them demanded.

“We’re looking for our friend—a tall curly-haired guy,” Alex attempted to justify their position. “We were visiting a patient upstairs, and we seem to have lost him.”

“Visitors shouldn’t be down this hallway, and no one should be here after hours,” the one technician grunted.

“Sorry,” Alex said, retreating. “Like I said, we’re just looking.”

“We’ll get night security to bring you back to the exit then.”

“Right. No problem. Sorry.” And Alex and the others were escorted back to the visitor’s entrance by a mean-looking security guard, when a very fierce receptionist whose nametag said “Janet” landed on them.

“Are you still here?” she demanded curtly. “I thought you had left.”

“We were trying to find our friend,” Alex explained wearily. “Paul Fester. Tall guy with curly hair. Have you seen him?”

“No,” she said, even more irritated. “We can’t have visitors running all over the building without permission. It’s against our regulations. This is a private care facility, not a public hospital.”

 “I’m sorry,” Alex repeated.

Just then they heard a clamor of footsteps and Paul came bounding down the hallway towards them.  Janet the receptionist turned on him.

“You must be the missing one. Didn’t anyone tell you that you shouldn’t be wandering around without an escort?” she said with exasperation.

“But I wasn’t,” Paul said earnestly. “I was with Dr. Murray. She was showing me around the place. I’m a pre-med student, you see, and I asked for a tour, and she was kind enough to show me what you do here. It’s really impressive.”

Janet softened. After all, Paul had a terribly engaging manner. Plus, he was what girls termed “cute.” 

“Oh. Then that’s all right,” she said abruptly, raising her nose. “I didn’t know.”

“We didn’t know that either, or we wouldn’t have gone looking for him,” Alex added. The receptionist eyed him, still a bit stern. Obviously, he wasn’t as “cute” as Paul.

“I’ll show you all out,” she said.

The four college students hurried to their car in the cold winter night, feeling effectively bounced from the building.

“I hate their attitude sometimes. You’d think they didn’t want us to visit,” Kateri said, getting into Paul’s car.

“They just want us to respect their rules,” Fish responded mildly. “They have things they have to get done.”

“Yeah, Paul, and then you go and get us all in trouble,” Alex added. “We got caught in the surgery section, which we didn’t realize we had wandered into.”

 “Surgery section?” Paul said, surprised. “She didn’t show me that. Gosh, that must have been interesting. What was it like?”

“Peopled by goons who look like they beat up vagrant visitors when they don’t have anything better to do,” Alex retorted. “Which is what I’m going to do to you if I get chewed out for missing my proctor’s meeting. Thomas Aquinas on ‘the necessity of attention to one’s duty’ for you, lamebrain—in the snow, till midnight. You’ll be lucky if I let you sleep in the room.” He got into the car and slammed the door.

“Boy, he’s mad,” Paul remarked to Fish, getting into his car.

“See you, Fish,” Kateri said with a sigh, shutting her door.

Fish shook his head in sympathy, and got into his own car, grateful for some solitude at last.

Hers

Again she surfaced into the blue world, but this time she was forced to hover beneath the water, unable to rise to the surface.

Questions again?
She asked as the wavering figure bent over her.

I’m afraid so. Or we can just talk, if you like, until you fall asleep again.

She saw the serpent hover, then lower itself over her arm. There was the bite of silver she couldn’t feel.

Are you going to kill me now?

Such paranoia.  No, I won’t kill you.
The serpent was sweeping over her face again.
Relax. Last time we spoke, you were telling me about the old barn you visited the day you fell. Why don’t you think about that? How did you come to be interested in your father’s notes? Such an interesting story.

I don’t suppose you’ve seen Fish?

The Fish again. How do you know he’s not a figment of your imagination?

Laughter bubbled up deep inside her.

He’s far too uncomfortable to be a figment. If I had invented him, I would have created someone far more pleasant, and perfect, not to mention compliant.

So he is a disappointment to you. I hope you aren’t thinking of him as your savior.

Her heart skipped
. And what if I am?

You’re being foolish. Who can save you from a coma?

I certainly can’t do it myself.
She writhed against the twisted serpent coils pinning her in place.
So I suppose I’m waiting…for him.

Why him?

He has an extraordinarily good track record, when it comes to me. I know it’s foolish…but I’m waiting for him.

Ah. Tell me more about this Fish of yours.

Rose, aching at the memory of Fish, needed no further encouragement.  She spoke for a long time about Fish, how she had first met him while playing her violin in Central Park, how she had known his brother Bear, and then, there was that dire day when she had descended into an old man’s cellar and found Fish beaten, bleeding, and bound to a post… She shivered in her bonds, but kept talking. The serpent seemed interested in the story, and asked questions: who was the old man, and why was Fish there, and what had happened to him… and before Rose had quite realized it, she had told the entire story, including the depth of Fish’s suffering and humiliation.

Tears ran down her face and she turned her head and sobbed. Her tears were mixing in with the waters around her, turning them gray. She couldn’t believe what she had just done: revealed Fish’s secret. The words had slid out of her carelessly and effortlessly, as though she had no inhibitions to stop them.

Why are you crying?

Because he trusted me. The one thing he trusted me with, and I told you.

Were you supposed to keep this all a secret?

Parts of it.  Oh, I wish I hadn’t said anything! What is wrong with me?

Don’t be so upset.
The serpent brushed against her cheek, its coils seeming like the spread of human fingers.
You’re a very sweet girl. But you must remember, you can’t communicate with the outside world, nor they with you. Your friend will never know that you told anyone.

But will you keep my secret?

Your secret will be safe with me. All your secrets.

H
IS

“Ben, have you finished with those notes I gave you last week?” Dr. Anschlung queried as she came in the door.

Fish rubbed his hair, which was getting too long again, and winced. “No, I’m sorry.  I forgot.  I had meant to do them over the weekend, but things…cropped up.”

“Oh,” his boss hovered between his desk and hers.  “I’m sorry. I know you have a lot going on right now, with your sister-in-law…”

“No, I’m sorry,” Fish said. “I shouldn’t have forgotten.  I’ll have them for you by tomorrow.”

He chastised himself after she left. This wasn’t the first time he had let things at work slip. Visiting Rose took a large chunk of his evenings, and now this extra investigation work…and he needed a haircut, he hadn’t cleaned his apartment in weeks, and it certainly was a good thing that Dr. Anschlung was patient as well as brilliant.

His cell phone rang. “Mr. Denniston?”

“Yes?” he checked the number, and didn’t remember it.

“This is Sister Veronica from the hospital. I wanted to let you know that Sister Genevieve just returned from Rome and said she would be happy to meet with you. She asked me to set up a time.”

“Thank you, Sister,” he said, grabbing a pad and paper.  Regardless of the toll it was taking on his normal life, he had to continue investigating. For Rose’s sake.

When he met her on Saturday, he found Sister Genevieve to be a pleasant thoughtful nun in a modern white habit, quite upset to hear about Rose’s accident. She told him as much as she could remember, and answered all his other queries as best as she could. She didn’t seem to mind that Fish asked some rather strange questions.

“Would you have spoken to anyone at Robert Graves Memorial Hospital about your interview with Rose?” Fish asked, just to cover his bases.

“No, I don’t think so,” she said. “There’s not much interaction between us. They’re quite a different kind of hospital from us.”

“So I understand,” Fish said wryly. “Some of Rose’s friends protest outside the hospital every Saturday.”

“Oh, I’m not sure that’s such a good thing,” Sister Genevieve said, blinking. “I think that’s a bit too confrontational. I’m not certain it actually does much good.”

“I suppose it keeps human rights violations in the public eye,” Fish said. “It helps that the protestors are firmly committed to non-violence.”

“Well, I can certainly appreciate a non-violent witness,” the nun said, seeming relieved. “I suppose we are in some ways to be a scandal to the world—in a good sense, that is.”

Out in the car, Fish realized he had come to a dead end. After staring at the cold night beyond his windshield, he tried not to feel discouraged. After a moment, he dialed his brother’s number, and Blanche picked up.

“Hi, Blanche. How are you?”

“I’m okay. The baby seems to be fine,” she said, and he could feel the pain in her voice. “How’s Rose?”

“She’s fine, too,” he said, knowing how inadequate a word it was. “Is Bear home yet?”

“No. Something wrong?”

“Just trying to find our mysterious suspect in the barn, and I ran into a dead end.”

“How so?”

“Well, I just spoke to the last person that Rose interviewed the day she fell, a Sister Genevieve, and found no connection. I’ve done everyone else, and I can’t think of where to go next.”

Blanche paused. “What about that nurse she interviewed, Lucille Johnson?”

“I didn’t know about her,” Fish reached for his notebook. “Who is this?”

“When I was up visiting with Bear during the play, I went with Rose to interview this nurse who was working in a private home. She was—well, she was a little strange.”

“Do you remember where the house was?”

“Somewhere in the town where the college was. Let me see——I think it was on Brown Street.”

“Do you know where she got the contact from?” Fish was writing rapidly.

“I’m not sure—did you check her notes?”

 “They’re missing.”

“Then check with her professor. I think Paul was in her class. He would know the teacher’s name.”

“Blanche, you are a lifesaver,” he told his sister-in-law.

“I’m glad,” she said, with irony. “I hope it helps, Fish.”

“I have a funny feeling that it may,” he said.

19
...From time to time, young men would try to get through the hedge of thorns, but none succeeded...

H
IS

It took a few days before Fish found the information and set up an interview with the nurse, Lucille Johnson. He met her in the private home that Blanche mentioned. Nurse Johnson seemed a little agitated, bouncing her foot while she talked to him.