RED
NIGHTS
573
"He'll be back in a minute."
There was movement behind his back. I watched from the
corner of my eye, afraid to look directly. A naked man slipping into
the room, hunched over like a beaten dog; a shiny thread of spittle
hanging from his jaw. He cruised silently along the wall, limp fingers
touching the plaster, turned and stopped, his shaggy head facing the
blank wall one inch away. Without even looking Olsen raised his
voice and said "Back to bed."
The creature lifted one leg and touched his toes to the surface
of the wall as
if
it was a ladder he was about to climb. Below the
tangle of black hair in
his
crotch, almost halfway to the knee, his
veined penis and scrotum hung limply against the inside of
his
thigh.
It was as
if
they'd been grabbed and stretched like soft taffy. His toes
scratched the wall. Olsen took a step towards him, leaning over
slightly, and clapped his hands smartly. "Back to Bed!" The creature
scurried along the wall and disappeared through an open doorway.
For the first time I noticed there were no doors. Doorways without
doors. From each darkened passageway the noises rushed at us. Sud–
denly, the sound of a crash. Olsen knew just where it came from.
"Back in a second," he said.
Alone in the room, I stood by the door, my hand touching the
knob. I could hear Olsen shouting in another part of the building.
Far back in the corridors half-visible figures were moving in the dim
light. I supposed that Guy was with them.
An
old man appeared, hesitating at the edge of the room.
When he saw me he froze instantly, like some highly trained hunting
animal. His watery blue eyes were fuzzy spirals and his cheeks sank
into his head making hollows the size of Ping Pong balls. He wore a
kind of diaper from which his skinny legs, all tendon and finely
wrinkled skin, emerged, half bent with age. He took a step forward .
"Back to bed!" I said. "Back to bed!" For a moment he didn't
move, then, leaning his head back he opened his mouth and revealed
two gleaming pink gums, toothless, looking like wet rubber. His thin
shoulders shook with laughter. When his fuzzy eyes found me he
shouted across the room.
"Sonny, I've been here since before you were born. I don't even
belong here. I belong in a mental hospital. Everybody knows that."
He turned and left the room.
