âand there was a tree here in this lobby. Right there.â Jackie points to the empty spot beside the bench. She feels weird. The crutch seems to be sliding to the side, slipping out from under her.
The nurse shrugs her shoulders. âWe got rid of those when we redecorated,â she says. âYears ago.â
âWhat do you mean, got rid of them?â But now the nurse is picking up the phone. Jackie is chewing the inside of her cheek, trying to stay calm. Anger doesnât solve anything. Jackieâs father puts his hand on her shoulder from behind.
âIâm going to call someone to help you back to your room,â the nurse says. And Jackie lurches forward and wraps her arms around the old computer monitor on the nurseâs station. She canât stand properly. She wants to rip this screen off her desk and smash it on the floor. But she canât lift it.
All her arm hair is standing up. Her mouth tastes like blood. But she canât do it. Then her father is there, putting his arms around the computer monitor too, and they are lifting it together.
He is lifting it up with her, even though Jackie knows that he is worried. She knows that they will have to buy a new monitor. She knows that when this is over, she is going to have to talk to somebody, too. She is crazy. She is too violent. Anger never solves anything. She hasnât let go of her motherâs death. She hallucinates ghosts! She is crazy. How could her father not be worried? But right now he is helping Jackie, and they are lifting this monitor up over their heads. They lift it up over their heads, and Jackieâs muscles ache like gold. The sun is shining.
âAre you insane?â the nurse says. But even crazy people can be heroes.
Smash!
56
Charlie takes the elevator down with the ghost standing beside him. She makes the whole elevator cold. Even when sheâs not looking at him, when sheâs staring forward at the elevator doors, her black lips move silently, like sheâs given up on communicating and has simply gone mad in death.
The knife is cold in his hand. Charlie just keeps seeing Mitchie. Mitchie stuck in the corner. Mitchie trotting out of the woods, smiling. Mitchie flopping over on his side. The ghost will help him find Mitchie. This is something he has to do.
He knocks on the door of room 135 , but nobody answers. Inside, Martha Richards is probably sleeping. Itâs the middle of the night. Charlie knocks again. The ghost waits patiently.
After the third knock, it occurs to Charlie that he can just go in. Heâs here to wave a kitchen knife in her face. He doesnât need to politely wait for an answer. He can just go right in.
So he pushes the door open, and a cold gust of air comes out to meet him. A different kind of cold than the ghost makes. This was a natural cold, and Charlie can see glass all over the carpet by the window. Itâs been smashed in. The curtains are lifting slightly in the cold wind. Mrs. Richards is on the floor, already dead. Her face is pale in the light from the window. There are shapes crowded around her. Maybe people, maybe not. Thereâs black hair everywhere. They look like animals.
Charlie turns the light on, and a creature comes at him. It looks like a girl, but her face is all wrong. The eyes are young, but the mouth has too many teeth. Theyâre moving around in her mouth, sliding and grinding against one another. They grind against one another and crack and split, leaving shards and jagged edges, and the girlâs mouth is still opening wider. Charlie drops the knife. This is not right. The teeth sink into his shoulder. The pain is warm.
âSo this is how it happens,â Charlie says. Then there is a warm mouth on his neck. Thereâs a woman above him, much bigger than the girl. She pushes the girl aside with her face, like an animal might, and she leans down, mouth open, to take a chunk out of Charlieâs throat. The cold
The nurse shrugs her shoulders. âWe got rid of those when we redecorated,â she says. âYears ago.â
âWhat do you mean, got rid of them?â But now the nurse is picking up the phone. Jackie is chewing the inside of her cheek, trying to stay calm. Anger doesnât solve anything. Jackieâs father puts his hand on her shoulder from behind.
âIâm going to call someone to help you back to your room,â the nurse says. And Jackie lurches forward and wraps her arms around the old computer monitor on the nurseâs station. She canât stand properly. She wants to rip this screen off her desk and smash it on the floor. But she canât lift it.
All her arm hair is standing up. Her mouth tastes like blood. But she canât do it. Then her father is there, putting his arms around the computer monitor too, and they are lifting it together.
He is lifting it up with her, even though Jackie knows that he is worried. She knows that they will have to buy a new monitor. She knows that when this is over, she is going to have to talk to somebody, too. She is crazy. She is too violent. Anger never solves anything. She hasnât let go of her motherâs death. She hallucinates ghosts! She is crazy. How could her father not be worried? But right now he is helping Jackie, and they are lifting this monitor up over their heads. They lift it up over their heads, and Jackieâs muscles ache like gold. The sun is shining.
âAre you insane?â the nurse says. But even crazy people can be heroes.
Smash!
56
Charlie takes the elevator down with the ghost standing beside him. She makes the whole elevator cold. Even when sheâs not looking at him, when sheâs staring forward at the elevator doors, her black lips move silently, like sheâs given up on communicating and has simply gone mad in death.
The knife is cold in his hand. Charlie just keeps seeing Mitchie. Mitchie stuck in the corner. Mitchie trotting out of the woods, smiling. Mitchie flopping over on his side. The ghost will help him find Mitchie. This is something he has to do.
He knocks on the door of room 135 , but nobody answers. Inside, Martha Richards is probably sleeping. Itâs the middle of the night. Charlie knocks again. The ghost waits patiently.
After the third knock, it occurs to Charlie that he can just go in. Heâs here to wave a kitchen knife in her face. He doesnât need to politely wait for an answer. He can just go right in.
So he pushes the door open, and a cold gust of air comes out to meet him. A different kind of cold than the ghost makes. This was a natural cold, and Charlie can see glass all over the carpet by the window. Itâs been smashed in. The curtains are lifting slightly in the cold wind. Mrs. Richards is on the floor, already dead. Her face is pale in the light from the window. There are shapes crowded around her. Maybe people, maybe not. Thereâs black hair everywhere. They look like animals.
Charlie turns the light on, and a creature comes at him. It looks like a girl, but her face is all wrong. The eyes are young, but the mouth has too many teeth. Theyâre moving around in her mouth, sliding and grinding against one another. They grind against one another and crack and split, leaving shards and jagged edges, and the girlâs mouth is still opening wider. Charlie drops the knife. This is not right. The teeth sink into his shoulder. The pain is warm.
âSo this is how it happens,â Charlie says. Then there is a warm mouth on his neck. Thereâs a woman above him, much bigger than the girl. She pushes the girl aside with her face, like an animal might, and she leans down, mouth open, to take a chunk out of Charlieâs throat. The cold