Alone Together
Not a Star, Not a Rose: Episode 23
- Kalmia? So soon?
- I hear there’s such a thing as a virgin margarita.
- There is, but it’s gross.
- I don’t care, I’ll have one. I might like it, you know.
- Well, you are a weirdo. . . . Here. I won’t be insulted if you gag on it.
- It’s not so bad.
- So. You’re back.
- So. You visited me.
- Was that you? I sat in a smoky little patio area with this wide-eyed redhead who hardly said a word. Couldn’t have been you.
- I am so sorry. After you drove all that way —
- Don’t worry about it — my aunt lives in Lake Elsinore, it wasn’t that much farther to —
- Eeeeyeah, but it was still pretty far.
- Well, like I said, my aunt —
- Just let me say I’m grateful and it meant a lot.
- Okay.
- So yeah — six days was long enough for me. I had to charm my way out.
- You definitely looked charming.
- Oh?
- You were the only person wearing lipstick, real clothes, and shoes. You looked terrific. Strangely healthy.
- That’s generous, considering I barely slept the whole time.
- The drugs again?
- My roommate screaming in her sleep. And then . . . the Vampire.
- Was that another patient?
- No — the guy that used to come into people’s rooms and draw blood in the middle of the night for some reason.
- Wow.
- You know, they put you in the Intensive ward at first if you’ve ever expressed suicidal thoughts.
- Had you . . . ?
- Once or twice in the past. Cady wrote a poem about it. Thought you knew that.
- Nooooo. Kalmia. That poem was about you?
- Yeah . . . but let’s not get into it. All I know is I shouldn’t have been so honest with the psychiatrists.
- You never told me you’d had those thoughts . . .
- Well, thoughts are one thing — I was in that ward with people who’d attempted suicide.
- Oh.
- Yeah. After I got settled into my room, I stepped out into the hall and this naked guy went sprinting past me — they were chasing after him — just a kid about seventeen. When they managed to catch him they walked him back and . . . I could see these rope burns on his neck . . . plus his wrists were bandaged . . .
- Christ.
- See, it’s stuff like that I couldn’t tell you when you visited. If you’d been all nice about it I’d have lost it, and they’d have thought I was actually breaking down and then they might’ve straitjacketed me.
- That’s kind of extreme . . .
- They did it to this lady in group therapy — that was the craziest — ugh, I don’t wanna use that word — that was the scariest thing. We came in on the same day and she looked fine, nicely dressed and groomed and all that, and by day four she was shuffling around in her robe and slippers with her hair all fuzzy . . . well, that day she started cussing everyone out in the group . . . and they just pinned her and bundled her up and out she went.
- And then?
- Group just carried on. But at my one-on-one therapy I said I was ready to leave.
- And they just said okay?
- Oh, they said some crap about wanting to try another medication, but I said no.
- You said no.
- Yep.
- So did he come get you?
- No, I called Grandma and she sent Uncle Ray. Got back this afternoon . . . and here I am.
- Why didn’t your fiancé — I mean, tell me he at least came to visit you.
- No, he doesn’t like hospitals.
- So he wouldn’t even wait outside one for you to come out?
- It’s okay. I’m gonna surprise him tomorrow morning, so it’ll seem like I stayed a week. He’d be mad if he knew I left early. But if I stay at Uncle Ray’s tonight, I can wash the hospital off me and show up at home good as new—or whatever.
- How do you feel?
- Well, tired, but pretty clear-headed for once. I’m not even on anything right now—I’m supposed to see the psychiatrist on Monday, but . . . I don’t know.
- I’m really glad you’re feeling better. I hope your fiancé will be glad too.
- Of course—and I can’t wait to see his face when I show up tomorrow. . . . What are you looking at me like that for?
- Like what?
- Well, you just—oh! Hey! Did you read my play?
- My plan was to read it tonight before Tiff comes over.
- Oh.
Concluded in Episode 24: Let’s Get Lost
