Acid Rain by R.D Rhodes (ebook reader txt) 📕

floor and even up the bottom of the walls, and over the same bits two or three times.

“Mornin.” I said, as I past him and the reek of bleach.

He stopped, and stared wearily at me. He really does look like Pete Townsend in his mid-thirties, I thought. The long nose, the sad eyes. “Morning.” He grunted, his chest rising in and out. I went on down to the nurses’ station, passing Sanders inside scribbling at paperwork, and went into the common room. Only half the number of patients were in there. No Nina. No Sandy, or Larry either. Shiny yellow tablecloths had been laid on the tables where half the room sat. Take Me Out played on the TV.

Something else was strange. I counted six staff speeding in and out of the room, and Sanders, Dale and Liz were along the corridor too. They were all busy cleaning, clearing plates, running up and down the hall, taking patients back and forward to their rooms. It was tiring just watching them.

“Morning Aisha,” Jean greeted, “Here’s your breakfast. And your pills.”

She watched me swallow and I went to join a table. I carried the tray high, close to my chin, and spat the pills into my porridge. I sat down and chopped up my banana with my plastic knife and added it to the bowl, spooning the tablets to the side and eating around the middle. The porridge was good. I savored the sweet, salty aftertaste.

Down the table was a slobbering guy, a stoned woman and a vacant-eyed girl not much older than myself, wearing headphones. She tapped at her iPod. “Excuse me.” I said.

She didn’t hear, but saw me looking, and reluctantly pulled off her headphones. “What ish it?” she said crossly. Her speech was a slurred drawl.

“Do you know where everyone is?”

She shook her head. “No. Shorry.” She plunked the headphones back on.

I finished my porridge whilst watching the others chew their food like cattle.

“RIGHT EVERYONE. LISTEN UP!”

Sanders stood, looking as immaculate as ever, in a pencil skirt and black crop top that revealed ample cleavage. Her toned, bare arms were folded as she eyeballed everyone one by one.

“There’s an inspection on today, for those that don’t already know. Now, I expect everyone to be on their very best behavior. No playing up!”

Her eyes held for few seconds on each of us. “I mean it. No carrying on. Or you will be going in with Harry.”

She let the gravity of the words sink in. The others seemed vaguely to understand.

Sanders lowered her tone. “Okay, back to breakfast. Everyone just enjoy their day.” She turned quickly and clack clack clacked over to one of the nurses.

I stared at the girl with the headphones, and mimed “Who’s Harry?”

She whipped them off irritably, and dropped them on the table.

“What?”

“Sorry. Who is Harry?”

Her stare wasn’t vacant with drugs. I guessed she had some sort of learning difficulty. “One of the patients.” She slurred. “They put him in the hole. Four days sholitary.”

“What for?”

“How should I know?”

“I didn’t even know there was solitary here. Where is it?”

“Shecond last door, at the end on the hall. Go and look. Now, can you leave me in peash please?”

She put the headphones back on and tapped at her iPod.

Chapter 18

W e were sent back to our rooms, and then to another therapy session- art therapy for me. Some folks seemed to get into it, but it was largely another waste of time. After hours of it we were led back to the ward, where two of the staff were waiting to take us straight into the common room. The two tables had been joined together, and what seemed like the whole ward was engaged in a game of cards.

The room was spotless, the floor sparkling, and for the first time the TV was switched off. I had only been there two days, maybe this was what they did every Tuesday afternoon? I doubted it.

Everyone had to join in. We didn’t have a choice. Kev was at the bottom end of the table, Jean in the middle, and another two nurses sat at the top. I was the last to take my seat.

A nurse called Theresa opened a fresh pack and dealt two cards each round the table. Some people seemed to be enjoying it, perking up more than usual. Some were even smiling.

I kept looking towards the entrance. I didn’t know if the inspector had already been, or was yet to come. I pulled my chair out and stood up.

Jean’s head snapped round.

“Where are you going?”

“Toilet.” I said.

I pushed my chair in and walked away, stepped out into the corridor, and peered back around the wall at them. I knocked softly on the door of the nurse’s station.

“Yes?” came a muffled voice within.

“Can I come in?” I said quietly.

“Hmph, wait a minute…alright.”

I pushed open the door. Liz was slouched over the desk, munching her way loudly through a packet of crisps, reading a copy of Hello. Her humongous breasts were supported on the desk as she slowly turned her fleshy face towards me. She didn’t bother closing her mouth and stared at me gormlessly while the gluttonous yellow mush mashed up and down the cave-like hole.

She really was disgusting. She was the fattest, laziest slob on the whole ward. I was astonished she had been allowed to become a nurse in the first place, she wasn’t exactly role model status for any patient to aspire to. But she was the perfect person for me…

“What do ye want, sun-shine?” Her jowls gyrated and her cheeks wobbled. I could see right through the enforced kindness her voice tried to carry off.

“Can I go to the library please, Liz?”

She looked at me suspiciously through her