Page 60 of The Wicker King

“You’re not allowed on this side of the hospital.”

August whipped around angrily, getting ready to argue.

Oh. It was just the kind orderly. The one with the soft hands and the soft voice. “Let’s get you back to your room.”

August let her lead him down the hall and down the stairs and through the corridor. She was gentle as she brought him to bed and tucked him inside, pulling the covers up to his chin. Before he fell asleep, he felt her hand brush over his hair.

“You poor thing.”

GINGHAM

The kind orderly was back. August sat up in his bed. She didn’t come with security, and she closed his room door gently behind her, and sat down at the foot of his bed. “I know I shouldn’t be doing this, but it’s very hard to watch from the outside and not want to help. I went to Mr. Rossi’s room today. He spoke about you.”

“Does he know I’m here?” August asked calmly.

She wrung her hands in her lap. “He … hasn’t been getting better. He has moments of lucidity, but most of the time he’s just … Anyway, he spoke about you. He asked for you. Quite rudely, I might add.”

August laughed fondly. “Yeah, yeah. He’s like that.”

They sat in silence. August picked at his sheets self-consciously. “Do you think you could … I don’t know … keep doing this for us? It’s important.”

After a moment, she nodded.

EIGHT MONTHS

The weather was nice, so they were allowed out today. The grass was crunchy and cold, but August lay down in it anyway. He closed his eyes and threaded his fingers through it, flinching as the frost turned to dew against his skin.

“You’re weird. You don’t belong here.”

August cracked his eyes open against the glare of the sun. “May I help you?”

The girl had tightly braided pigtails and was swathed in a pink bathrobe. “He screams about you at night. The boy they keep in that little room. He’s crazy. He’s crazy. He’s crazy.” Her face looked pinched and mean.

August covered his face with his arm. “Please, go away.”

She leaned over him. Her breath smelled like medicine and decay. “Poor little boy in his cage. Poor useless knight. You never come when he calls.”

August took his arm down and just stared at her. Stared at her because he knew she didn’t like to be looked at.

“Stop it! Stop it!” she shrieked. “You’re just jealous! You’re just jealous of me!”

He stared at her until the orderlies dragged her away.

PILLS

The orderlies followed him everywhere now.

He took his medicine now.

He slept for days.

It was like languishing in a cottony haze: cotton over his eyes, cotton in his ears, cotton in his mind. It was easier to take his medicine than to think about Jack trapped in his room less than five hundred feet away. It might as well have been miles.

Codependency, they called it.

co·de·pen·dent

[koh-di-pen-duhnt]