Another Elizabeth

         The phone rang thirteen times before he picked it up. He slowly raised it to his ear. There was an unusual noise on the other end. A scratchy, hissing sound that worked inside his ear and wound itself around his brain like spider silk.
His lips parted and a delicate ‘hello’ escaped before he could stop himself.
         The hissing slowly dissipated and was replaced by a low-pitched whine. It grew in volume and became a woman’s scream that was contorted with agony. It rose in pitch and wavered there, holding him captive. His head shrank away from the receiver and then suddenly the scream stopped and there was no sound at all.
         He cautiously replaced the phone to his ear and listened intently for five seconds, but there was no more.
         He glanced about him as he replaced the black phone in its shiny chrome cradle. Carefully he looked above the small cubicle walls to see if anyone had been listening in. No one was paying him any attention, as usual. He wondered if they monitoring his calls. But wait, that wasn’t necessarily his call. He had just walked by and was the only one nearby when the phone starting ringing.
         Perhaps it was just a problem with the phone. He would check it to make sure it was operating properly. That was it of course, just a malfunction.
         He licked his lips and found that they were very dry. There was very little saliva in his mouth. He wanted to run. His hand reached out, a shaky, thin thing, and pulled the receiver off its hook.
         The phone felt warm as if it were carrying an enormous electrical charge. His fingers tingled as he brought the receiver to his ear again. Just as he thought he heard the familiar sound of the dial tone it was replaced by a rasping sound and a wet, uneasy sigh that carried on like a death rattle.
         He quickly hung up the phone and then realized he had his eyes shut so tightly he saw bright colors and stars when he opened them.
Turn away, he thought, turn away and be done with this phone forever. Just leave this one to the others.
         As he began to walk away a woman approached him. He had seen her before at several of the discussion groups. She had only been there for a few days he guessed. She had a baggy sweatshirt and loose jeans on. She had slippers that engulfed her feet and made it look like she was riding atop two hedgehogs.
         “Are you done with the phone?” She asked.
         He just looked at her for a moment. Her eyes were sad eyes, the kind of blue eyes that an angel would have as it looked down on all the pain in the world. He didn’t want to answer her. She would think he was crazy if he told her what he had heard. He was afraid to keep looking at her eyes.
She just gave a weak shrug and moved past him to the phone cubicle. He turned and watched as she picked up the phone and dialed. She turned and looked at him as she was waiting for whomever to pick up. A little frown crept onto her face and then she turned away and began talking. Obviously she wanted privacy and he didn’t want to think that the phone was really fine after all.
         A page came over the intercom and echoed down the hallways and through the common areas. “It’s medication time for the following people. Morris Appleby. Janine Hilling. Raul Atticus. John Baker. Rodney Rainer and Sheryl Keane. Please come to the nurses’ station now for your medications.”
         He backed away from the girl and the phone and headed toward the nurses station where he was expected. Sheryl was already there and the others were shuffling over as he arrived.
         “Thank you Sheryl. Now don’t forget to let us know how that feels ok? You might notice some slight nausea and dizziness.” The nameless nurse told her a few more things that he didn’t notice and then it was his turn.
         “Good afternoon Raul.”
         “The phone’s bad. It’s gone bad,” he said. He looked her straight in the eye so she would know he wasn’t kidding. He wasn’t even sure why he told her. It just seemed like the right thing to do, to protect the others from it, even though the new girl was using it satisfactorily at the moment.
         “That’s right Raul. That phone is bad. Now take these pills here and wash them down.” She placed the little plastic cup in his hand and handed him another plastic cup with water. He swallowed the pills in front of her and placed the cups in the waste can beside her.
         “That’s good Raul. Remember, that phone is bad. So keep away from it, ok? Let our people handle it.” She flashed him a reassuring smile and turned to the next person in line.
         That’s good that they know. It’s better to let them take care of it. He felt good that he had done his duty and they were warned that the phone was a problem. There was a half hour before dinner, so he went into one of the common areas to wait. It just so happened that he chose a seat on a couch that had a view of the phone.
         The new girl was still talking away with her back turned to him. He tried not to think about it so much. The situation was in control now and they were aware of the danger apparently.          Another patient walked in front of him and blocked his view of the girl and the phone for a split second. When his site line was restored she was facing him with an empty look on her face. She held the phone to her ear tightly. She was staring right at him, right into his eyes.
         She opened her mouth and that same horrible hissing noise erupted from within her. It filled the room and burrowed so deep into his brain that he thought he would pass out from the overwhelming sensation. Her mouth hung open and the hideous sounds continued to come. Her eyes were milky white orbs and her skin pale as an albino.
         He put his hands over his ears and shut his eyes trying to tighten his mind so the sounds couldn’t get in. Then as suddenly as the sounds had come, they stopped. He slowly opened his eyes and her back was to him again. His hands still covered his ears so he took them down and looked around him. All the others in the common room were still staring at the television or going about their own business.
         He rushed up to the main desk.
         “Excuse me,” he said, “did anyone just hear that noise?”
         He looked back and forth at the people behind the oak semi-circle that separated him from them. They were busy with paperwork, updating charts, dividing new meds for the next round after dinner. Finally an older nurse looked up from her papers, at Raul.
         “Raul, what is it you’re talking about? The only noises I hear are you and the television.” She glared at him with a ‘you-got-anything-else’ look. He didn’t have anything else. They knew about the phone already. His redundancy could quickly get on their nerves.
         He walked back to his seat on the couch and watched television with the rest of them until dinnertime. His face was pointed at the screen, watching Quantum Leap, but his mind was elsewhere. That wasn’t that hard to do for him. He came around when the intercom buzzed and announced dinner in the cafeteria.

         The new girls name was Elizabeth. He heard her talking to one of the lifers. He liked that name, it sounded old fashioned but it still had style. Not that he knew much about style and that sort of thing, but it sounded good to him.
         She got her tray and sat down next to him. He looked up at her and met her blue eyes. Sadness dwelled there, but for the moment she managed a smile. His lips surprised him by smiling back.
“You should really try to eat that. You look very skinny. I bet you hate that when people tell you to eat, don’t you?”
         She was attempting conversation. He was unsure about what to do. He had tried before but it had never gone very well. He remembered specifically that there were several arguments directly following his attempts at talking civilly with the others.
         He hated disagreements.
         “I don’t like food.” He replied as he pushed a biscuit around on his tray with a fork.
“You don’t like this food? It’s not that bad actually. This is better than the other place I was at. At least here they give you a choice and you can drink as much juice as you want. It’s way better here.”
         “No. I mean I don’t like food.”
         “Oh. I understand. I went through that too.” She stirred her salad and started to eat, eyeing him move his food around in a strange little pattern.
         “How long have you been here? She asked after wiping her mouth with her sleeve.
         “I don’t remember. Maybe five years. I don’t know.”
         “Do you get to leave when you want?”
         “Yes.”
         “They put me in here for at least a month this time. My parents are so sick of me that they wanted me to be here longer. I hope I never have to see them again. They don’t understand anything. I can’t remember how many times they sat in with my therapist during a session. They are so dense that they never picked up on anything she said. I might as well be a terminal case. Fuck, it makes me so mad.”
         “My mother gave birth to me here.”
         “Whoa. That’s intense. She was a patient too?”
         “A nurse.”
         “Oh. I’m sorry about that, I just assumed that…”
         He looked at his tray intently. The others started to walk out of the cafeteria leaving just him and Elizabeth.
         “Elizabeth.”
         “Yeah?”
         “That’s a nice name. You have a nice name.”
         “Thank you. My parents call me Betsy, but I don’t like it. You’d think that would matter, but they still call me that anyway.”
         “My name is Raul,” he said, “It’s the only name I have.”
         He didn’t reply but looked up and noticed they were alone. She just finished and crushed her juice container and put her tray back on the rack. He turned to where she was, expecting her to come back and sit down, but she was gone. He didn’t hear either of the doors open or close.
         The lights began to flicker slightly, just subtle patterns of less power, then a sudden jolt of electricity and brighter light. The rows of fluorescent bulbs glimmered above him on the high ceiling. He hadn’t eaten a thing from his tray but he got up and put it away with the others and walked to the door. He looked through the small window and saw that everyone was out in the common area. It looked like they were all talking with several of the nurses.
         Elizabeth was there too. He stepped back and opened the door. As it swung inward and he stepped through he noticed the room was empty now. The lights were low as if it were sleep time. He swore he just saw all those people out there.
         They were gone. He came out of the hallway and looked over at the nurse’s station. No one there either. He didn’t hear a sound. Elizabeth was gone.
         Although he was starting to get scared he had to find out what was going on. He knew they were just in their rooms or something. Lots of the others took naps after dinner. Don’t go near the phone though, he thought. Just stay away from the phone and everything would be ok.
         When he rounded the first set of couches he saw the black receiver lying on the ground in front of him. The shiny metal cord stretched way down the corridor, impossibly long. The lights were flickering on and off and he thought he heard the faintest of sounds further down the hall.
         He didn’t really care to find out what was down that hallway. He wasn’t even really concerned about what happened to everyone. Even the nurses and doctors were gone, and that never happened. But he had enough for today.
         He trudged back down the other hallway, away from that hideous phone and the lights and the noises. The only sound here was the whisper of his pajamas as he climbed into bed and looked up at the ceiling, counting the seconds until he would sleep. Tomorrow would be a new day, with another Elizabeth.