Chapter 6. Our visit to the hospital
On our way to the hospital we dropped into a shop and bought a large chocolate bar and fruits. Plus Liz convinced us to buy a small bunch of lilies.
"Very poetically," Nick commented, looking at the flowers. "With best wishes from sympathetic Raven Hill kids."
"Sounds good. You'll tell him these words," Sunny nodded.
"By the way, if it hadn't been for Sammie Palmer, this guy would have been dead now," Tom pointed out with a so important look as if he himself helped Mr Palmer to do artificial respiration.
"I can imagine how much our Tangerine would have been happy in this case," Nick snorted. "Poor young ma-an! His death was so te-errible!" he drawled in a lugubrious voice.
The rest of us burst into laughter again. Giggling and joking we reached the hospital and stopped in front of the glass doors.
"Be serious," Liz said severely, turning to us. "Remember that we are here to visit a man in a serious psychic shock."
We put on important and solemn expressions and walked through the glass doors into the foyer.
"What do you want?" the nurse on the reception desk immediately asked us.
I stepped forward. "We want to visit…er… a drowned man…" my voice trailed off as I realised that I completely had forgotten the man's name.
The woman looked around at us with visible distrust. "Tell me clearly, where and when this man drowned."
"Of course in the bay, where else?" Tom muttered. "And anyway, are there a lot of drowned men here in this hospital?"
"There are no drowned men here in the hospital at all," the woman answered. "Drowned men are in the mortuary."
"But our drowned man is not in the mortuary yet, he's here in this hospital," Tom went on arguing.
"Are you kidding me!?" the nurse shouted.
"You misunderstood us," Nick shoved Tom aside and turned on his charm. "We've come to visit a man, who nearly drowned yesterday." As evidence he pointed at Liz, who was holding a bunch of flowers in her hands.
"What's his name?" the woman said more friendly. I don't know how Nick managed to do it, but she really seemed taken with him.
"Ross Adaskey," said Nick, smiling one of his best smiles. "We're his friends."
"Okay," the woman nodded, looking at Nick. "You can go. But before that I have to write down your names. The police's order."
We exchanged glances. None of us wanted to have our names written down in the hospital's visitors' book. The nurse, meanwhile, took a pen and was staring at us expectantly.
"So?" she drawled suspiciously. "Who's the first?"
"Me," Tom stepped forward. "Write. Urcho Kaleva Howshedied," he introduced himself.
The nurse stared at him, her jaw dropped. "Urcho what? What nationality are you, young man?"
"I'm an Egyptian," Tom said proudly.
Nick snorted. Liz and Sunny giggled.
"Egyptian?" the nurse raised her eyebrows, looking attentively at Tom. "You don't look like an Egyptian at all."
"It's because he's a half Egyptian. His father is an Egyptian and his mother is from Mexico," Nick chipped in, looking very serious.
"Well, anything can happen in this world," the nurse shook her head. "Okay, you," she glanced severely at Tom, "spell your name."
Stifling smile, Tom dictated his "name". "Next," she barked when she'd written it down.
"Matilda и Gerald Zeitunyan-Belous," Nick introduced himself and Richelle with a charming smile. "We're brother and sister."
"Brother and sister?" the nurse looked up at them doubtfully. "Are you?"
"Yeah. It often happens in our family. If one child is dark, the second one certainly will be fair-haired. And vice-versa," Nick explained.
The nurse shook her head doubtfully, but asked him to repeat their names.
"Matilda and Gerald Zeitunyan-Belous," Nick repeated. Richelle buried her face in her hands. I noticed that her face was bright pink.
"Some people think it's funny to give their children weird names," the nurse muttered, properly writing down "Nick and Richelle's names" into the visitors' book. "Next," she looked up at us.
"Christina Drisk-Haskell," Sunny said calmly.
Nurse took it with icy calm. I'd say she even was glad. "At least your parents gave you a normal name," she murmured under her breath. "Unlike some," she glanced sideways at Tom. "Okay, who's next?"
Liz and I exchanged glances. I guess we both were too shy to trick like that with natural smiles.
"Perl Plummer," Liz said, avoiding looking at the nurse.
The woman wrote it down and glanced at me.
"Jack Smith," I said, feeling my face getting red.
"Okay," she nodded. "You can go. The fifth room. Ground floor."
We walked down the corridor. When we went far enough from the nurse, we all burst out laughing.
"You should have warned us before tricking like this," Nick glanced reproachfully at Tom. "I thought I would have a stroke when I heard that you were Howshedied."
"See who's talking, Geraldine-Tangerine," Tom laughed.
"Hey, stop laughing!" Richelle whispered. "Have you forgotten where you are?! Because of your stupid jokes we didn't ask about Mr Adaskey's state."
"Go back, Matilda, and ask," Nick grinned.
"You go, Tangerine," Richelle pouted.
At that moment Urcho Kaleva Howshedied noticed a young man in a blue uniform, who was pushing a trolley with dirty bedclothes up the corridor.
"Excuse me," the fake Egyptian stopped him. "Do you know how Ross Adaskey from the fifth room feels?"
"Everyone here feels well, except for those who already are in the mortuary," the young man replied cheerfully and pushed his trolley further.
"Oh, great," Richelle muttered.
"Stop whingeing, Matilda," Sunny glanced severely at her.
"We'll see who's whingeing when Ross punch you in the eye," Richelle snapped.
We came up to the fifth room and stopped, glancing at each other.
"Who's the first?" Tom asked.
"Oh, Urcho Kaleva, you're such a coward," Sunny sighed and stepped forward. She twisted the door handle, opened the door and bravely stepped inside.
I craned my neck to see over her shoulder. Mr Adaskey was lying on the bed, staring out the window. When Sunny came in, he turned his head and stared at her inquiringly.
"Hello," Sunny said and politely smiled.
"How do you feel," Liz added.
Ross' lips twisted into a faint smile. "Fine," he croaked.
"See?" Sunny turned to us. "There's nothing to be afraid of."
"I'm not afraid," the man said hoarsely.
"Not you. I said this to them," Sunny pointed at us. "They were afraid".
"What were they afraid of?" the man asked a new question.
"Well, when we saw you yesterday on the beach, you looked so awful," Liz smiled. "That's why we were afraid of visiting you."
"But now you look much better, Mr Adaskey," Sunny added.
"It's for you," Liz held out a bunch of flowers to the man.
The man took the flowers, stared at them for a few seconds, twisting them in his hands, then he threw them onto the bedside table and stared at us expectantly.
"Er… We've come to see you... How do you feel?" Liz said uncertainly and turned to us.
"The doctor said that soon they'd let you go home," Sunny said with fake cheeriness.
"The bay is so beautiful," Tom grinned, taking a step forward and holding out a chocolate bar to the man. "It's also for you."
The "nearly-drowned man" automatically took the chocolate bar. For a while his eyes were darting from us to the chocolate. Then all of a sudden his eyes filled with blood. He sat up on his bed and screaming "I'll kill you!" he stabbed Tom in the stomach with the chocolate bar.
In astonishment and horror Tom began staggering backward and rammed into a drip stand, which crashed to the floor with a terrible noise. Tom fell down onto it and in no time they turned into an odd and quite indivisible thing.
"I'll kill you!" Ross growled again.
He jumped off his bed and darted towards Tom, who was rolling on the floor, struggling with the drip stand.
"Tom! Don't touch him!" Sunny rushed to the man. Ross glanced at her and saw Nick, who'd stood behind Sunny. Forgetting about Tom, he dashed across the room towards him.
"I'll kill you too!" waving the chocolate bar like a knife, he attacked the new enemy.
Nick adroitly dodged. Ross shot a look of pure rage at me. I leaped aside and ran across the room to the window. Ross left me alone and tried to catch Nick again. For some time Nick and I had been dodging and running around the room. Tom was still fighting with the drip stand. The three girls were standing in the doorway, looking at us with their mouths open.
At the very last Ross seemed to be getting tired. Tom, meanwhile, finally managed to tear himself from the drip stand and tried to stand up, clutching at the bedside table, which immediately crashed straight down onto him.
These new impressions made the "nearly-drowned man" distract from Nick and me. Besides, he noticed completely thunderstruck Tom, who'd been lying near the prostrated bedside table and drip stand. Obviously deciding that Tom was his enemy number one, Ross dashed towards Tom, holding the chocolate bar like a knife, intending to inflict a sledge blow.
I don't know what would happen if it hadn't been for Mr Palmer senior, who opened the door right at that moment and stepped into the room, widely smiling. He held a huge pineapple in one hand, and a plastic bag, full of juice boxes and food stuff in the other hand.
"Hello, dear Ross!" he shouted. "How do you feel today?"
Without noticing what was happening around him, the old man rushed towards Mr Adaskey, who's been towering over Tom with his chocolate bar in midair, ready to attack.
"Do you like pineapples, dear?" he asked, and without waiting for the answer, he solemnly handed the pineapple to Ross.
Ross disdainfully threw aside the already melted and shabby chocolate bar, and stared at the old man with almost mad, rapacious eyes. Hardly had we understood what was going to happen, when Mr Adaskey grabbed the lush green leaves of the pineapple, and letting out sacramental "I'll kill you!" he hit Mr Palmer on the head.
Completely thunderstruck by such development of events, the old man shrieked and using his bag as a shield, he began to back towards the door. Tom, who'd already fairly well adapted himself to the rough battle conditions, jumped to his feet and attacked Ross from the back. Nick sprang at him from the other side. The "nearly-drowned man" crashed down to the floor, Tom and Nick sprawled down on the top of him. Falling, Ross dropped the pineapple. It flew past my head and bumped into the big breast of a nurse, who'd come into the room to see what was going on.
A second later the nurse was pushed by Mr Palmer, who kept retreating in panic. They both screamed and fell. The plastic bag tore and the food stuff rolled all over the room.
"What's going on here?" suddenly a loud voice snarled. I looked back. A tall, strict-looking man in a blue uniform was standing in the doorway.
"I'll kill you!" Ross shook off Tom and Nick, and flung himself at the doctor.
"Pineapple! Don't let him pick up the pineapple!" Liz screamed.
I don't know how many victims there would be, if Ross hadn't slipped on a spilled yogurt. He fell. Two guys, probably nurse-aids, one of which we had seen in the corridor before, ran over to him.
"You told us he felt well," Tom said to him reproachfully.
"Well, doesn't he?" the guy panted, putting Ross into a straight-jacket. The other guy gave him a sedative injection.
They put Ross onto his bed and in a few minutes he sprawled on it with such an innocent expression on his face as though it wasn't he who'd caused this dust-up.
"What did I tell you?" the doctor glared at Mr Palmer. "Mr Adaskey needs rest. You shouldn't visit him until he feels better."
"But I want to know what happened on the beach," the old man said capriciously.
"He'll punch you on the head, then you'll know!" the nurse barked. "Don't you realise that he's in a shock? His head doesn't work properly!"
"But I saved his life!.."
"Mr Palmer, I'm grateful to you and your son for saving his life, but I beg you, don't come here," said the doctor. "I promise, I'll give you a call when you're allowed to visit him." He turned to us. "Who are you?" he asked severely. "What are you doing here?"
We exchanged glances. By the others' faces I could say they were rapidly thinking of what to answer to him when the nurse from the reception desk stormed in with the visitors' book in her hands.
"Mr Wemmel," she panted. "What did they do?"
"Lina, tell me," the doctor glared at her. "Why did you let these kids in? I told you that no one should disturb Mr Adaskey. And the police forbade any visits."
"But they said… they said that they'd helped to save him," Lina mumbled. "And I did everything what you'd said. I wrote down their names. See? Here they are."
She opened the book and held it out to the doctor. He glanced. His eyebrows shot up until they were almost hidden in his hair.
"Urcho Kaleva How... how... ham... how...," he murmured, squinting to read Lina's scrawl. "What have you written here?" he growled, glaring at her.
We went quiet. We couldn't say our fake names in front of Mr Palmer, could we?
"Howshedied," the doctor had finally read. "What?" his eyes widened again. "Father is an Egyptian and Mother is a Mexican? Which one of you is this Urcho Kaleva?" he glanced at us.
"It's him! This tall boy," Lina helpfully jabbed her finger at Tom.
"Tom?" Mr Palmer snorted with laughter. "Egyptian? If he's an Egyptian, I'm an African! It's Tom Moysten, my old friend Brian's stepson."
"Madhouse," the doctor summarized. "Egyptians. Africans… Do you know these young people?" he asked Mr Palmer.
"Of course I know! Very nice kids. I was much worse in their age. And I still am!" he grinned proudly.
At that moment Ross half opened one eye and longingly whispered "I'll kill you!"
"Now. Mr Palmer, you take these kids away from here," the doctor ordered. "Deal with them on your own, which of them is Urcho Kaleva. I personally have had enough with one Mr Adaskey. Come on, get out!"
We had no choice but to leave the welcoming health institution. Together with Mr Palmer we went outside.
"It was funny, huh?" Mr Palmer grinned as we walked down the path towards the road. "By the way, Miss Vortek told me that the police had interrogated people who knew Mr Adaskey. Neighbours and his friends describe him as a very calm, intelligent man."
"Now he looks more like a crazy maniac," Richelle muttered.
"I'm sure he'll get well soon," Mr Palmer said in his usual optimistic way. "Listen," he said confidentially after a little pause. "Please, don't tell anyone that I was here. You know, my wife's crazy about my health. If she learnt that this guy hit me in the head, I won't be able to leave even my bedroom."
"Don't worry, we won't tell anything," Liz assured him.
"And you in turn don't tell anyone about us," Tom demanded.
"About Egyptian father and Mexican mother?" the old man laughed.
"And that we were here," Nick put in quickly.
"I won't," Mr Palmer grinned. "Don't worry. I'll be as silent as a grave."
I doubted that this man, who loved gossips more than anything in the world, would be as silent as a grave, but I had to rely on him. He shook our hands and hurried away. We started slowly walking down the street.
"I will never go to see this guy again," Nick said in the gloomiest voice.
"Relax," Sunny grinned. "No one will ever let us see him again."
"Even if they let us, I won't go," Nick went on. "Even if we lose this case."
"What about the reward, Nickers?" Tom reminded him.
"What's the point in reward if this guy kills me?" Nick muttered.
"Sammie will give you a posthumous reward," Tom jeered.
"I don't want posthumous," Nick snapped.
"How can you be so selfish?" Tom shook his head reproachfully. "Can you imagine how much our Tangerine would be glad! She would be telling around how you were dy-ying by maniac's hands!"
Liz and Sunny burst into laughter. Nick gloomily glanced at them.
"Okay, listen," Sunny said, stifling giggles. "I think we should search the coast again. I know it's quite late already, but the last piece of the picture frame might be there. We can't let the Work Demons find it!"
"Sunny, you haven't forgotten about the tests, have you?" I grumbled in an old wise woman's voice. "We're having tests the day after tomorrow. We should go home and prepare."
"When we were little kids I used to wonder why Elmo didn't have a grandmother," Nick drawled spitefully. "Now I know the answer. Elmo is a grandmother for himself."
"Drop dead," I muttered, glaring at him from under my eyebrows, but didn't mention about the tests any more.