Page 11 of Unwell
SIX
GINNY
‘Ginny? Larry?’
Nurse Nancy called out for us, and Larry gave a giggle that made him sound much younger than he was. The high-pitched noise drew a smile from me.
‘Gotta be gentle with old Marge, she can get a bit bitey if you touch that back leg of hers.’ Larry passed me a large crumb of stale bread which I held in front of the plump, raggedy rat that filled my lap. She snatched it up, holding it in her little paws as she nibbled it down. The moment it disappeared, she began searching for another.
‘She’s a greedy lil’ thing,’ I said with a laugh. For the first time since I’d gotten myself stuck in the asylum, I felt something other than pure dread.
Larry lacked something. But whatever he lacked, it wasn’t heart. He’d happily bleed for his furry friends. I couldn’t quite figure out why the other patients avoided him. It seemed to me he was the sweetest guy around.
‘Ginny!’
Nurse Nancy darted in, all in a tizzy, and shooed Marge from my knees. ‘Lord, girl, you’re pregnant. You cannot be risking yourself with the rats.’
‘I ain’t been a stranger to rats my whole life, and it didn’t stop the babies from coming before.’ Plenty of rats ran about our farm. We shared the hayloft on dark nights while Mama and Pops screamed.
‘It’s not sanitary to be around rats at the best of times, especially not when you’ve got a baby coming.’
Nancy bit her lower lip, looking very much on the verge of saying something until she noticed the way Larry’s chest rose in great heaving breaths.
‘Larry,’ she soothed. ‘I’m sorry, Larry. I didn’t mean to shoo your friend away. She’s okay.’
The rat was most definitely not okay.
Marge lay on the floor, her leg jerked out to the side, her little nose all scrunched up. The way her eyes bugged made me ache on Larry’s behalf.
‘You hurt her!’ Larry cried, standing to his full, gigantic height as rats scattered around him, disappearing into crumbling walls.
Nurse Nancy stumbled back, flattening her back to the wall as Larry dashed his chair against it, splintering the chipped wood into sharp pieces. Covering my face just in time, I cringed beneath the shard-shaped rain.
‘Larry,’ I whimpered. His eyes were wide and glazed, like someone had pulled a plug loose in his brain. Reaching out, I grasped his pyjama bottoms, working to tug him away from the nurse.
‘Go,’ I told her, urging her to escape.
A meaty hand caught my cheek. My vision blurred as I landed on the broken chair. Nausea swept through me, bile filling my throat.
Dr. Marney burst through the doorway, the crash piercing my aching head.
‘Larry. Put her down.’
He was brandishing a syringe, analysing the scene with quickly moving eyes.
Nancy’s arm was in Larry’s fist, crushing into the starched white fabric as she winced.
‘She hurt Marge,’ Larry said, sounding like a forlorn child.
‘The rat?’ Dr. Marney glanced down at the twitching pile of fur, closer to him than to Larry. ‘All this is over a rat?’
‘Please, Larry,’ Nurse Nancy begged. There was an undeniable fear beneath the words. Larry had always been sweet to me, but there was no doubt the staff were afraid of him.
Footsteps dragged my attention back to the doctor, who now stood beside the injured rodent. In one swift movement, he lifted a shiny black shoe high and dashed it down on the poor creature’s head.
Marge’s skull popped like a bloated container of milk, and blood oozed from under leather.
Larry immediately dropped Nancy, turning to face the doctor and letting out a wail so filled with anger that my stomach heaved. The acrid smell of death hit me as the doctor moved, his bloodied shoe sliding on the pine flooring.
