Page 94 of Bobby Green
The bay to the ER was a relief, because Reg opened the door and the noise stopped. He helped get Bobby into a wheelchair and said, “I’ll find you.”
As the nurse wheeled Bobby into check-in, he heard V’s screaming, and then he realized he heard the most disturbing thing of all.
Reg’s silence.
Reg’s absolute and complete silence as he dealt with that rage, that confusion, that misplaced hatred, and tried to fix someone who had been broken before he’d been born.
TWO HOURSlater, Bobby’s hand was wrapped, his shoulder was stitched, his upper arm ached with tetanus shots and antibiotic shots and vitamin shots, for all he knew. He sat in his cubicle in the ER and wished desperately he could grab Reg’s hand or his shoulder or something and calm him down, because he was becoming unglued.
“They took her off!” he raged, pacing the thin strip between the curtain and the bed. “They took her off her meds. That’s why she put them back in the bottle—so I’d think she had a full prescription when we weren’t gonna get no more this next time. She went in two months ago and said she hadn’t been taking her meds for a week! And the doctor, who’s probably more retarded than me, goes, ‘Yeah, sure, you seem fine. We’ll just not give you any moreanti-fucking-psychoticsand let you back into the world with your brother, who doesn’t know!’ Because… because I got no idea! Why the fuck would they do that, Bobby? Why in the holy mother of fuck would they do that?”
Bobby stared at him, at his red eyes and his complete confusion. A ball of rage hit Bobby’s chest, and he stood up, grabbing hold of the IV tower and taking the papers Reg was waving right out of his hands. “Where am I going, whose ass am I kicking, and who do I have to fucking kill to figure this shit out?”
Later, he’d wonder at his luck, because the overworked intern who’d fucked up two months ago was actually working that night. He shouldn’t have been. Bobby didn’t know which time the guy was out of his element, filling in for a position he wasn’t qualified for in the least, but he didn’t actually care either.
“You took her off her meds?” he snarled, catching the guy by surprise as he did his charts. After stalking through a maze of corridors that Bobby was already lost in, Reg had gestured to the man, a young, thin thirtyish guy who looked like he hadn’t slept in months.
The guy closed his eyes. “She reported that she’d been off them for some time—”
“And you believed her?” Bobby asked, his voice shaking in anger.
“There was no reason to doubt—”
“No reason?” Bobby’s voice rose. “No reason? Do you have any idea what happens when you send her home like that?Do you have any idea what we’ve been through?”
“The hospital can’t afford to have patients on drugs that aren’t necessary,” the doctor said primly—but he couldn’t meet Bobby’s eyes, and his hands shook as he ran them through his unruly dark hair. “I didn’t know. I had no way of knowing—”
“Her brother has her conservatorship papers,” Bobby said. “You didn’t think maybe you should discuss this withhim?”
“Well, you know, she said she’d tell him….”
Bobby just stared at him and shook his head. “Jesus. Everybody looks up to you people, and I’d rather be in porn. At least when you’re fucking with someone, they know why and they get something out of it. What happens now?”
“Well, f-f-first we assess the situation—”
“The situation is that she’s been terrorizing her brother since September, and she finally ran out of the house and into the night in a T-shirt and bare feet. We’re exhausted,” Bobby said, looking apologetically at Reg. “We can’t fucking sleep. I keep trying to fix their house, but I can’t, because if I leave so much as a hammer behind, I’m afraid she’s going to drive it through my skull. Her brother hasn’t left the house for longer than a day’s work inyears. Andyouthought it was a good idea to wean a woman who has been on antipsychotics since she was a teenager without even a how-de-fuckin’-do. Have I assessed the situation?”
Bobby was snarling in his face, and the guy was almost in tears. It wasn’t fair—Bobby wasn’t proud of himself, but fucking Jesus.
“She needs… she needs to be admitted,” the guy muttered.
“No!” Reg protested. “No—Bobby, I promised!”
“For how long?” Bobby said, holding his hand up to calm him down. “How long will she be in captivity or whatever?”
“She’s not a zoo animal!” the doctor protested. “It’s a perfectly reputable mental health facility that’s designed to get patients to respond to a schedule, take their medication regularly, and function in the outside world.”
“It’s a filthy place that stinks of cigarettes and pee!” Reg retorted. “And you never fucking feed her there! She says so!”
“Reg?” Bobby intervened. “I mean, your sister isn’t exactly a reliable witness. Maybe ifwetake her food once in a while….”
“Bobby!” Reg had reached the end of his rope, and Bobby had nothing in him for appearances. This time, when he held up his hand, it was to pull Reg forward so they could stand, forehead to forehead, and Bobby could be real.
“Baby,” he rasped, “you need a break. A month’s break. To see what life is like when you’re not trapped in the house with your sister. And your sister needs someonenot youto drug her up. To test her levels. To get her into a routine that doesn’t include the goddamned news channel. It’s not forever.” He turned reluctantly from Reg, who was openly crying now. “Right?”
The doctor nodded, gnawing on his lip. “No. Not forever. We can admit her for a month, reassess her then, and see if she can go home.”
“Okay?” Bobby asked, nodding,willingReg to say yes. He felt weak and stupid. He hadn’t predicted this. He’d done nothing to prevent it. He couldn’t protect Reg from this decision. And right now they were exhausted from other people’s problems, from the storms of their own hearts, and from just a goddamned awful two days.
