Alice & Dorothy by Jw Schnarr Page B

slightly to the side like a puppy. She wondered if anyone had ever looked at her that way before; the look of someone who was so into you that they would sit quietly by your bed for hours, careful not to disturb your sleep but barely able to wait until the moment you opened your eyes and came back to them.
     
    And she barely knew the girl beside her now. But her face was welcome. Softly magnetic.
     
    “Good morning!” Dorothy said. “Sleep well?”
     
    “I feel like a truck load of ass,” Alice said. She tried to sit up but found she was strapped to the bed. She rolled her eyes. Sighed heavily. “ Again? What the fuck .”
     
    “Yeah, I hate them,” Dorothy said. She reached up and rubbed her finger along the strap holding Alice’s hips down. She bit her lip and looked into Alice’s eyes. “I had them on me before. When I first came in. I kept trying to get off the ward. Every time the elevator opened.”
     
    A moment of silence passed between the girls. Alice tried not to think about the past few days a moment longer than she had to, focusing instead on keeping the mental dikes in place. Already, they were springing leaks all over her mind. On the other side of the wall was an ocean of guilt and remorse. An ocean filled with sea monsters that had tea parties and had their heads blown off in late model sedans.
     
    “What are you doing?” Alice looked down at Dorothy’s hand, still rubbing the strap on her hip. She looked back into Dorothy’s eyes.
     
    Dorothy smiled again, but pulled her hand back. “I can probably loosen them for you.” Her eyes danced. “If they’re hurting you, I mean.”
     
    “ Hell yes ,” Alice said. “Get me the fuck out of here.”
     
    Dorothy stood up, eager to please. After a moment’s consideration, she reached across the bed and began to undo the strap on Alice’s chest. She tugged on the strap, but the buckle didn’t move. Dorothy pressed her breasts against Alice’s for a moment, seemingly needing to get leverage on the buckle. It was an obvious grope; in spite of herself
     
    Alice laughed. “Oh God. Just get off me. You’re worse than a guy.”
     
    “What do you mean?” Dorothy said. “That was an accident.”
     
    “Uh huh.” Alice smiled, but the smile withered when she saw the look on Dorothy’s face. “Look, I was just fucking around. Can you undo these straps please? My back is really starting to hurt.”
     
    “I guess,” Dorothy sulked. She went back to work on the buckle, this time flicked it open with one hand and pulled the strap loose with the other. Wordlessly she did the same to the other straps, and Alice stretched out, a soft groan escaping her lips.
     
    Dorothy sat again, deflated, and hugged her stuffed dog close to her chest.
     
    “What’s wrong?” Alice said.
     
    “ Uhh , nothing,”
     
    “I didn’t mean nuthin’ by it. Just, you know , it was pretty obvious. Believe me. I know a lot about this stuff.”
     
    Dorothy looked at her with dark eyes.
     
    “ I didn’t say it was a bad thing ,” Alice said after a moment. “Just obvious.”
     
    This time Dorothy smiled. She rolled her eyes, put a hand up on her face. Toto slipped down between her thighs.
     
    “Oh God,” she said. “I’m such an idiot.”
     
    “You’re not an idiot. That doctor in there is an idiot. You’re not an idiot.”
     
    “Doctor Weller?” Dorothy smiled. “Uhh, he’s okay. Just a little tired maybe. He always shuffles his papers when I’m in there, like he has something else he’d rather be doing than listen to me rattle off about my life.”
     
    Alice could hear the Midwest dripping off her voice as she spoke. It was most obvious when she said things like mah lahhf , but it was always there. It gave the sound of her words a welcome, soothing lilt; something Alice could listen to and actually hang on to as they streamed out of her mouth. She found herself smiling again, almost to herself, watching Dorothy speak. The way her