Dark Beach - By Lauren Ash Page 0,14

head in. “She’s good. She looks fine, but she’s a bit confused. Come in, but I don’t think you should bring Kip. I’ll wait out here with her,” Ron said.

Jenny looked down at Kip, who was busy picking at something on the peach leathered bench. “Okay, I guess.” came her answer, despite the sense of terror welling up inside her.

With a deep breath in, and a fluff of her collar, Jenny opened the door to room 946. A lump lay still under the peach covers.

In the far corner was a small, rickety chair. Jenny took it, crossed her legs, and folded her arms. She was hiding, but from what or from whom she didn’t know. The pull-around privacy curtain was tucked back neatly behind the patient’s bed. Part of her wanted to go over there and pull it shut.

The lump moved.

Tightening up even more, Jenny closed her eyes, and said, “Gerry?”

There was no response.

“Gerry. I’m Jenny, your grandson Ron’s wife. He was just in here.” She opened her eyes to peek. Everything was still. The only sound was a dull ticking. Oh no, there is a clock in this room! Jenny thought. Who’d want to know the time in a place like this? This is no place for time. It’s a place to lose yourself in your thoughts, or in the ramblings of your failing memory.

There was a sudden movement, something at the head of the bed, just under the sheets.

“Gerry?”

It was killing her—the ticking; she couldn’t take it. Jenny tiptoed to the head of the bed.

“I know you’re under there. What are you doing under there?” She tried to sound nice, pleasant.

There was a fleshy snap.

Jenny backed up. A single drop of blood seeped through the pale apricot sheet.

There was a whimper, then another snap and more blood.

“Gerry?” Jenny pulled back the sheet.

The shrunken, white-haired woman’s face was smeared with crimson as she picked the stitches from her gums. Jenny stared, horrified, not even seeing the fist that came out from nowhere and popped her straight in the gut.

“Jesus Christ, you punched me!” Jenny yelled. “What are you doing?” Shielding her abdomen, she backed up further.

Gerry licked her lips.

Jenny frantically searched the room for the nurse call bell. “It’s got to be here somewhere!”

Gerry stared vacantly and kept picking at the stitches.

“Stop that, Gerry! You’re hurting yourself. Here it is, Jesus Christ.”

Jenny pushed the big red button and left the old woman to her fascinations.

* * *

“My God, honey. I’m so sorry you had to see that. She was fine when I went in. She just sat there looking out the window. I talked to her, told her about our lives a bit. I just don’t know what to think about all this.”

Ron backed the car out of Busy Bee Meadows and Jenny’s panic subsided a little. Ron was thinking of only one thing. “Chinese?” he asked.

“I have blood on my blouse.”

Ron didn’t even look. “How’d that happen?”

“Your Nana punched me, right in the ... here.” Jenny placed both hands over her belly.

“She what?”

“I know, right.”

Ron shook his head. He was driving, but he wasn’t particularly aware of the road. “Are you ok?”

“I’m fine; luckily she’s weak. I think everything will be okay. I mean in there. I think it will be fine.”

Ron accidentally crossed the yellow line and then swerved out of the path of an on-coming car.

“Watch out, where are you going?” Jenny looked back to check on Kip, who was just sitting there, staring out of the window.

Nervously, Ron shook his head. “Okay, okay. I just can’t get over it. When you left, the nurses tied my Nana to the bed. They tied her down so violently. I didn’t know they did stuff like that. I’ve only seen it in the movies—you know, when they put those insane people in padded cells and straitjackets. This is just a nursing home.”

“You didn’t see what she was doing. It was completely, utterly mad.” Jenny covered her face. All she could see were sharp teeth coming on.

“Stop it. Stop it. Go away,” she pleaded quietly. “I don’t want to see you … please.”

“I can’t go away; I’m driving. What are you talking about?” Ron asked.

“The teeth, I can’t get rid of them.” Leave me alone, she silently begged, but the mental image wouldn’t fade. In her mind’s eye, the whale turned, flipped its tail above the water and sucked her down, down into the dark with it.

“Jenny!” Ron pulled over and stopped the car. He got out and hurried