CHAPTER FIVE
Next Morning (Give or Take)
When Ganet woke up, she wasn't lying on the cute little four-poster Victorian featherbed in which she had fallen asleep at the Wayward Pines Inn. She was on a firm hospital bed with the side rails up. Also, she was no longer sweating from a gas furnace blazing away on a spring night. On the contrary, she was freezing.
What happened to me?
She tried lifting her head off the pillow but her muscles felt drained as though she'd been dancing the Eskista seven hours straight at a wedding feast. Helpless, she scanned the room until she saw a pudgy little man with a bald head and tiny black eyes like raisins in rice pudding. When she caught his gaze, he grinned. My doctor? No. He was holding a glass vase of daffodils—as if he were a family friend come to visit. But she'd never seen him before in her life.
"Good morning. I'm so glad we finally woke you. It's been a long, long time. I hope you're eager to get to work. I need you."
Ganet stared at him. "Do you know me?" Or think you know me?
His smile fell a little. "Aftereffects. Everybody experiences them. Don't worry. They'll wear off. Then your memories will come back, good as new."
Come back? They never went away—except for the part where I ended up here. "What happened to me? Was it the heater? Carbon monoxide poisoning?"
The man's frown deepened. Then he marched over to the door and yelled down the hall, "Pam! More fluids. Make sure they're warmed to forty-three degrees Celsius."
Turning back, the pudgy little man approached Ganet's bed and patted her hand. "Don't worry. Nobody expects you to start working today. Tomorrow is soon enough for that."
As Ganet tried to make sense of what he was saying, a nurse wheeled in an IV drip, but she wasn't like any nurse she'd ever seen before. With her fashion-magazine looks and tailored white uniform, she looked more like some porn film fantasy of a nurse.
The odd little man kept talking. "Abel and Candace came out first. I gave them a few months to get their bearings. They're doing well, all things considered. As soon as you're fully recovered, Pam will call Abel to take you home. Your clothes are already laid out on the chair."
"Abel?" Ganet murmured. "Abel Keefers?" She'd come to Wayward Pines to convince him to return to Los Angeles. Now he'd be taking her? Somehow, by getting laid flat on her back by a malfunctioning heater, she'd managed to accomplish what she'd set out to accomplish? That makes no sense at all.
The man's smile returned. "You're remembering." He stepped back as Nurse Pam moved in with the IV line. Ganet got a sharp whiff of alcohol as she swabbed the back of her hand. When the needle jabbed a vein, she winced.
"Things haven't developed as I'd expected." The little man sighed. "But isn't that always the way? It's time to put your special skills to use. You're going to be a big help to me, Saba."
Before Ganet could decide how to respond, the little man nodded and he and Pam left the room.
After Twenty Minutes
As the IV spread warmth through her body, Ganet relaxed, already seeing this whole experience as a funny story for her next get-together with her cousins. That silly old man thought I was Saba Iskander. Proof positive—to some Farenji, we all look alike.
Nurse Pam returned. She pulled an old-fashioned thermometer out of her breast pocket, gave it three shakes then poked into Ganet's mouth. "Under your tongue. Don't bite down."
Bite down? On a glass tube holding mercury? Afraid of cracking it and sending shards and poison into her gums, Ganet lay perfectly still.
When Nurse Pam seemed satisfied with her compliance, she picked up her wrist to measure her pulse. "You're taking a little longer to warm up than I'd thought. With most people I can spot that telltale gray tinge right away. With you, that's a wee bit harder."
Is she talking about what I think she's talking about?
Nurse Pam's smile spread. "I'm talking about your dark skin, of course. Not that we don't all love it. We've been needing a little biodiversity around here."
Ganet widened her eyes. Biodiversity? She stared at the nurse, aching for a witty comeback but afraid to risk a mishap with the thermometer. When at last the nurse removed it, she ventured, "May I have my phone?"
"Your phone?" Nurse Pam's eyes narrowed. "You mean, a hospital room phone? Don't worry. You won't be here long enough to have use for a phone. In a few more hours you'll have warmed up enough to get some rose back into that brown. Then you'll be on your way." She stepped back and ran her gaze down Ganet's arms and back up to her face. "I see it now. When gray's mixed with brown, it looks like mud."
A Minute Later
The way Nurse Pam fussed with the Venetian blinds made Ganet nervous. She watched her adjust the angle until the sun shone straight into her eyes. Not until Ganet raised her hand to shield them did the nurse say, "Is the light bothering you?" and slant them back the way they were.
When Ganet opened her eyes again, Nurse Pam was fluffing the daffodils. She did it so vigorously that one orange bloom broke off. She simpered over her shoulder. "Oops." Then she crushed the broken flower in her hand. "David thinks highly of you."
Of Saba, you mean. Wary of a confrontation, Ganet nodded. She suspected that the David's regard for who he thought she was might be the only thing keeping Nurse Pam from doing something meaner than wreck her bouquet. If she had her cell phone, she'd record the woman for YouTube. Without proof, convincing someone the nurse had menaced her might be hard to do.
"Don't let David down," Nurse Pam continued, "or you'll answer to me."
When it became clear that nodding would not make the intimidating beauty queen go away, Ganet began a slow series of blinks, at last lowering her lids and deepening her respiration until she was miming the rhythm of sleep—the same trick she and Rahel used when staying over at Auntie Tezeta's before sneaking out with their cousins to go clubbing.
It worked. Not only did Ganet hear the nurse's rubber-soled shoes squeaking across the floor, she even heard the door closing. Opening her eyes, she stared at her palm until she noted an encouraging pinkness. Good enough. She pulled out the IV.
Stay another few hours? In this creepy place? Uh-uh. I've got to go find a phone.