Page 27 of Fever Dream

Chapter Sixteen

Grace

After the incident in the cafeteria, I do not see Elizabeth again for two days.When she’s finally brought back to our room, she looks mostly like herself, if not a little tired.I ask her what happened, where she’d been, and she only shook her head and told me not to worry.

“Maybe it’s better if you told me,” I say.

“It’s nothing.Dr.B is mad at me.Not a big deal.”

I think I know why, but I’m afraid to ask.“Is it my fault?”

“No,” she says.“It’s mine.”

Elizabeth doesn’t elaborate further.She only smiles and says, “Hey at least it got me out of those restraints.”

I smile sadly.It is my fault.Three days ago, Elizabeth suggested that I flirt with Dr.Branson and see where it got me.“There’s no harm in it,” she said flippantly.

“I’m a married woman,” I told her.

She looked around the room.“Well, you let me know if you see a man riding in on a white horse, and I’ll do the same.”

“Why would I want to flirt with him?”

She shrugged.“You know nothing about men, Grace.”

“I know enough.”

“Well, for one, he’s handsome.Two, he’s in charge around here.If you haven’t noticed, he’s the one who calls the shots.”

“So?”

“So, you do what you gotta do…”

“Which is what, exactly?”

“Seduce him.”

“I’d rather die.”

“You just might.”

My mouth gaped open, and I wasn’t sure what to say.I was at a loss for words.“Is that why you’re so popular around here?Because you seduce your therapist?”

“It’s seduce him or kill him,” she said.“I’m trying to stick to the former.”

“You’re crazy.”

She shrugged again.“That’s what everyone keeps telling me.”

So I tried what she suggested, and lo-and-behold, it worked.I was granted shower privileges.That’s where I get to use an actual shower instead of washing myself in this room with a bucket of soapy water and questionable and damp cloths.That’s where I don’t have to go for two weeks without washing my hair properly.Sure, I had a strange woman watching me the entire time, and sure, the concrete floors and frigid water were less than desirable, but a shower is a shower.

“I got shower privileges,” I say to Elizabeth, testing the metaphorical water.

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yeah.The water was chilly.It steals through your skin to your bones, creeping up and over your body, chilling you to your core.”

“You’ll get used to it,” she tells me without looking up.“Like all the other bullshit around here.”