CHAPTER 6 – On my way to the factory
I don't remember walking all the way to the hospital, but I do remember blacking out...again. I woke up, and the sight that met my eyes wasn't as comforting as waking up in the Miller's house. The place smelled a little musty but it wasn't that bad. I looked around and saw that my bed was the only one in the room. I noticed that my breathing was a little heavy and I soon discovered why.
Stuffed in my nose was slightly slimy orange peel. I was grossed out and tried to yank it out but my arms felt weak and numb. There was no one in the room and I couldn't see much of my little cabin as it was very dark. Prompted by the dimness of the room, I decided to sleep a little bit more as my eyes were shutting down.
I woke up with a start as a petite woman in a clean white and blue uniform, pushed the door open. It screeched with every jolt and sudden stop. I blocked my ears of the sound as she marched in with a wooden tray. She laid it on a small table near my bed that I hadn't noticed before. My eyes were still blurring from all the sleepiness and pain.
"How are you feeling deary?" she asked me, she sounded tired, clearly it was because of the depressing work environment.
"Um...I am a little better after that nap, although I do get this pain in my chest when I cough." I informed her.
She was busy opening up a package, I expected her to say something but she didn't reply for a long time, as soon as it was undone, she gave a little content sigh. I turned my head to see what it was, but I did it slowly as I didn't want her to think that I was prying, I saw that it was leaves.
Literally a package containing just leaves, I sunk my head back into the pillow and watched as she took a handful of the leaves and shoved them into her mouth like a kid trying to hide a batch of newly discovered candy. She munched it happily for a couple of moments before she finally spoke.
"Yes, the Millers were telling me that you had pneumonia." The tone of her voice was much more energized now, she was probably happy from all that chewing.
"Now," she said, her mouth full with the thoroughly munched up leaves, "do you feel often feel tired, nauseous or shortness of breath?" she asked me.
I nodded. She took out a little notebook and jotted something down. She proceeded to then ask me some questions and then took my weight and my height. I then heard footsteps nearing the room where I was in, and then voices made themselves clear.
"Oh, the Millers are here! And so early, did they stay in the hospital?" I asked the nurse. She didn't bother to grace my question with an answer but ran to the corner of the room as if she was afraid of the timid women.
She spat the leaves in the brown paper in which they were packed and threw it into the bin. She then poured some water in a bowl and dipped her towel in it and started dabbing my forehead.
Just then, the Millers opened the door, as always Miss Prudence came running to me and kissed me.
"Oh Sister Catherine, dost excuse me for my fondling." She said abashedly. I smiled warmly at her. The whole hospital may have just become brighter with her cheery light heartedness.
"It's okay, Miss Prudence, I missed you too."
Miss Miller went to the window and drew the curtains.
"Jenna, why dost thou not care to draw the curtains? It's so dark in here my child." She shook her head.
"Sorry Miss Miller, I just came two seconds ago." She lied. I didn't say anything, I didn't even mind, but there was something funny about this nurse Jenna, the way she acted was like as if she was afraid of the Millers, and that was peculiar because they would be the last people I would expect someone to be scared of.
"Oh, I thought thou hath arrived some time ago. How is Sister Catherine?"
"She is feeling much better." She smiled, another white lie. "I will just change this." She said, pointing to the orange peel in my nose. She yanked it out and threw it. She took out another one, but this time, it was much more fresh and cold.
She folded it and put it in my nose, all the while smiling.
"I don't think the orange peel seems to be helping me, Miss Jenna. This remedy must be for a common cold." I notified her, (which drained the blood out of her cheeks for a second) if this even was a remedy.
She gave a nervous laugh and said, "Youngsters! The cheek of them." She then turned to me, with her back facing the sisters. Her eyes glinted with a dangerous steely look as she silently told me to shut up. I said no more and just sunk deeper in the bed, but I gave her an icy look. I did not like this nurse one bit.
"Perhaps Sister Jenna, Sister Catherine art right? I seem to think that thy medicine dost not work." Miss Prudence seconded me.
"Well, this is a treatment for the first stage of any cold, if it has no effect, I will have a word with the doctors and change the prescription." Jenna chuckled.
Miss Miller raised an eyebrow but didn't say anything. The nurse gave another nervous chuckle and kept silent for quite some, still looking like a guilty person trying to convince someone that she was innocent.
"Well...uh...if you'd be so kind as to leave uh...visitors can't stay for long unless with a doctor's permit. Patients are better off when alone, they uh... get healed much faster." She informed.
"Oh," Miss Prudence sighed, "well yes, I dost not suppose that we can spend too much time in gathering." She said bitterly.
I smiled at her, "Don't worry Miss Prudence, I'll be fine."
"Oh and uh...Sister Catherine, this art for thee." She said holding up a basket." Miss Miller pointed out. "Use it judiciously."
"I will," I replied, "thank you."
"Goodbye." She nodded and with that all the sisters departed in obedience.
When the door was slammed shut, Jenna turned to me, her face inches from mine,
"Don't you dare spill the beans, you little roach."
I looked at her suspiciously, my temper flaring up a bit , I would scream at her and demanded what she had meant by it, but the fact was I already knew what she was talking about, I had figured out what she was chewing when she spat them out in haste as the Millers were approaching.
Yet I held an innocent face so she wouldn't press me anymore, I was tired of defending myself, I wanted to save my energy to get the hell out of this place and back into the warmth of the Sparrow's Nest.
"Now...let's see what we have here," Jenna coolly said as the little pickpocket rummaged about the contents of my basket. She picked up and inspected a bottle of red jam and cackled like a witch.
"My! I haven't seen such a delicious looking jam like this in years!" she unscrewed the lid and stuck a nosy finger in the sticky condiment.
"Hmm...even tastes delicious, tastes like those jams my mother used to make at home." I would have been saddened at the nostalgia that thickened her voice, but the only problem was that that emotion was disguised with a very thin layer of thievery. My only concern was if her hands were clean or not.
She continued her rummage and after the wooden basket was thoroughly searched, she ended up with some silverware, a loaf of bread, some fruits, the jam and two blue knitted sweaters. She grinned like a lunatic at her 'find'.
After she was left with the contents, I snatched the basket and inspected its remains, there was nothing much left, except for some napkins and neckerchiefs. I immediately wrapped the neckerchief and stuffed the napkins in my sewing bag. It might not be much of what I had, but I wasn't going to let her rob me of this, in case she changed her mind later.
I sighed and slumped down in my bed, this place drove me crazy, all my emotions were getting the best of me and I was angry and depressed, from the time I escaped with the help of Johnny, leaving Syd to be at the mercy of Billy, I hated myself for thinking that Billy could be stronger than Syd and I hated the fact that I was weak and couldn't even help myself.
I felt like a coward and a burden to the world, without a single use in the world.
Without thinking I got up with such force, picked up the basket and smashed it. Not stopping there, I picked it up again and began tearing it up apart and only stopped when I had splinters on my hand. With a small smirk, I was satisfied, but it didn't calm my anxiety down, I started pacing back and forth.
I was surprised at myself, I was never the one to act violently or irrationally. This was the first time, that I acted on my anger, and the momentary satisfaction only served as fuel.
I began to think about everything that had happened, ever since Syd had decided to ditch Billy and go ahead with his instinct, the way Johnny acted when I asked him, who we really were trying to save, his face paled for a moment and then regained its colour. I began to think about Syd's concerned face and the constant slip of the tongue that the victim wasn't Randall. It wasn't even a boy, it was a girl. I racked my brains to contemplate who this person could be and it took me a moment to finally stumble upon the fact that there was really no one that important in my life who was a female, except the Millers.
But they were right here with me, they couldn't possibly stuck, working in a factory. My mind then recoiled to the night that Billy sent Narg and Steve after us, it never hit me immediately, but Narg and Steve weren't even armed, they couldn't really threaten me to return.
And then it hit me, Narg and Steve weren't chasing me, it was more like they were directing my path, and I fell straight for it.
Right into the lion's den. It was almost impossible to rid them, as I realized they already knew my next move, it was already pre-calculated. They knew my destination, but they always wanted to shift it towards somewhere.
Where, exactly? Well I wasn't sure of that, but I had somehow managed to escape and take refuge under the wings of the Millers.
But I wasn't safe, they would be after me, they always were. They have been chasing me for a whole complete day, and I knew deep down in my gut, that I was staying with the Millers. Maybe, that was the place that they had intended me to go to.
I shrieked in horror as my mind was racing with a million possibilities quickly narrowed to the one and only.
There was no way on earth that I could outrun two grown men, regardless of their stupidity as I was weak. They made me weak. They purposely prolonged chasing me, so that I would possibly get pneumonia, seek help from the Millers, (as I had done before) and then end up here, in this miserable hospital, away from the watchful eyes of the sisters. Vulnerable and weak, kidnap me at my prime, but what was the motive? If they wanted to kidnap me, why not get the job over with?
I lay there in my pool of thoughts, but it seemed like I was going around in circles, I couldn't arrive at a conclusion. And it was driving me insane. At one point I was getting too frustrated that I knew I would throw another fit, unless I walked it off.
I jumped off the bed and looked at the pathetic mess of the basket I had just ripped apart. In my opinion, I wish I had picked something else, probably something that belonged to the nurse. I was pretty mad at the fact that she took everything, but I would get it all back, no doubt about that.
I was planning on running away, now that I had figured pretty much the gist of Billy's wretched plan for me, but not his motive. I so desperately wanted to know what he was driving at.
He had always looked down at me for my predictability, he accused me of being an easy person to figure out. I wanted to change that. I wanted to counteract whatever plot he had designed for me.
He knew that the first chance I would get, I'd come back to Drury Lane, to help Syd. In all truth, that was what I wanted to do, but I couldn't, because I knew the second I would step in Drury Lane, he would capture me. I couldn't just step in casually and try to find out about Syd, I had to sneak in.
I cautiously opened the door and peeked out, the corridor contained just a handful of people. The Millers weren't kidding when they said that visitors weren't allowed to stay in for the night. I was about to walk outside when I spotted the nurse that attended to me, make a sharp right, allowing herself to be completely visible.
I immediately shut the door, before she could see me and looked around in my room. I would have to change out my hospital attire.
I walked over to the little wooden chair where my clothes were folded. I picked out the shirt, trousers and before I left, I eyed a small brown cloche, it must've probably belonged to the nurse. I put it on and hoped that I was disguised enough. I didn't know what my plans were just yet, whether to stay in the hospital to get better or to escape the hospital.
I walked out with more or less confidence now that I was disguised. I tucked my red hair under the cloche and avoided eye contact with anyone who sent me suspicious glances. The hospital was like a maze of long corridors and different rooms, the hospital was quite clean but frankly it had a ghastly aura, ironically, this place looked like it was sick. Like it needed someone to tend to it and renovate the entire building. I stopped walking when I spotted a window. Standing on my tippy toes, I opened the drapes and I peeked out, there wasn't much of a view, as there was another building facing the hospital.
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