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Chapter or Story 
Chapter or Story
Alicin Wonderland Part 8
By Lizz
Dream A Little Dream Of Me
Joanna was certain that she had left the nightlight on before leaving the room earlier. As her eyes adjusted to the dark she could hear rhythmic breathing across the room. She approached the chaise and stopped in her tracks halfway to her goal. She gasped. And then she strained forward to find she was looking at--. She let out a single quiet laugh, ‘This can’t be!’ she thought with a bent smile. She chuckled as she stood over Angelo’s sleeping form. For the next few minutes Joanna simply watched him. Legs bent to one side, his head resting on the cushion and surrounded by his arms, Angelo looked as if he had fallen asleep in the middle of a ballet lesson. Joanna giggled in spite of herself. She did not touch him, but bent close to his ear and softly whispered his name. He took in a deep breath and let it out with a smile, yet did not waken.
Joanna had first met Angelo a few years ago while she was head nurse in Maternity. He seemed drawn to the infants and had a weird and wonderful ability to calm the fussy ones. “Bawlies” he had called them. The department director found no harm in his presence, quite the contrary. After consulting with the chairman, the director had ordered Mr. Raines to allow Angelo’s visits. The nursing staff truly enjoyed having him around. His innocence was refreshing and by his very nature he was unintentionally funny at times.
“Well,” she calmly reflected, looking at Alicin cradled in the arms of the chaise with her visitor mere inches away, “Nice work, Security.”
Joanna didn’t want to wake him, yet knew she shouldn’t let him stay. As lightly as possible she laid her hand on his forearm and shook it gently.
Angelo stirred slightly, then jerked awake. He drew away from the hand on his arm, wide-eyed and panic-stricken.
“It’s Joanna, Angelo, Joanna!” she assured him in a hoarse whisper, “Remember the bawlies? I was the bawlies’ nurse, remember?”
He stilled himself and stared at her for a moment without blinking. A crooked smile spread across his face followed by the light of recognition. “Joanna helped the bawlies,” he whispered back, glancing across the upholstery at the figure asleep at the other end of the chaise.
“You do remember me!” she whispered, smiling and clasping her hands over her heart. “I’ve missed you since I came to Dr. Patrice. Do you still visit the babies?”
Angelo answered with a smile and a nod of his head.
“I know someone who would be very happy to see you again.” Joanna was aware that she had to tell her boss about him.
Angelo tipped his head to one side, “Who?”
“Dr. Patrice. She misses you. It’s no fun only seeing you when you’re sick. She’s right next-door. Would you like to see her?”
Another smile. Another nod.
Joanna crossed to the door, rapped on it quietly, and entered the doctor’s office when invited to do so. When Patrice had excused herself from her conversation with Sydney, she joined Joanna at the door. “Dr. Patrice, I think you want to see this,” she said softly and then opened the door fully to afford her superior a view of Angelo seated at the foot of the chaise, staring intently at Alicin.
Without another word to Sydney, Patrice motioned her assistant into the next room and followed close behind, shutting the door behind them. To Joanna she said, “This stays between us.” Then she crossed the room to where Angelo was kneeling. “Angelo!” The doctor smiled affectionately and spoke in a soft voice to match. “It’s so good to see you! I thought maybe you’d forgotten all about me. What are you doing here? Do you know her?”
“Maybe. Think so. Not sure.” He spoke slowly and deliberately and kept his gaze on Alicin while he answered. “She smells nice. Like the melted soap.”
The melted soap? Dr. Patrice and Joanna exchanged puzzled looks, trying without success to make a connection. “Where was the melted soap?” Joanna finally asked.
Angelo shrugged glumly. “Not sure.”
Just then Alicin stirred. The threesome at the foot of the chaise became very still and quiet as their conversation stirred the young woman’s dreams…
=====
“You guys are gonna love this,” the tour guide announced as three other youngsters crowded around to peer through the air vent at a large tiled room.
“Timmy, what is this place?” the pigtailed five-year-old asked. Pale blue squares covered the ceiling, walls and floor and she could hear water dripping somewhere inside.
“Smells like chlorine,” Jarod commented, wrinkling his nose.
“How’d ya find it, Timmy?” Eddie whispered.
“C’mon in. I’ll tell ya all about it.”
“I don’t think we should be here, Timmy,” Pigtails put in.
“We shouldn’t,” the older boy beamed and quickly assured her that no one would miss them during the extended sleep period he had chosen for their sortie.
One at a time the children dropped onto the floor, their slippered feet causing a delightful echo off the tiled surfaces. Pigtails held on to Timmy and repeatedly tapped the hard rubber sole of one slipper against the floor tiles, smiling at the echoing resonance each time. The guide pointed over their shoulders and the children turned around to face a huge rectangular body of water that filled most of the room!
Pigtails let out a little cry of alarm that bounced around the room before finally fading to silence. She bumped into Timmy as she turned to run for the vent. He pulled her to him and wrapped his arms around her middle while she continued to struggle. “Whoa, Alicin! It’s okay, honest! You can stay here with me if you’re afraid.” She squirmed frantically for a few moments more and then started to relax in the older boy’s grasp.
Jarod and Eddie were cautiously reconnoitering the swimming pool. Jarod, tallest and oldest of the group, was flat on his stomach at the edge, his arm immersed to the shoulder as he tested the depth. “What’s it do?” Eddie queried.
“It doesn’t do anything.” Timmy stated. “People stand in it and slosh around in it and jump into it from that thing.” Timmy paused as his friends’ eyes followed in the direction he was pointing and saw the diving board. “I’ve seen some of ‘em go in head first!”
Cries of “Nuh-uh!” filled the room.
“Yuh-huh!” Timmy defended.
“Anybody we know?” came the challenge from Jarod.
“How about Sydney?” Timmy shot back. Jarod narrowed his eyes in doubt as the tour guide continued his recitation. “Sydney bounced on that board and while he was up in the air he touched his toes and then--PLOOSH!” He mimed the resulting splash with his arms. “Headfirst into the water.”
Jarod was about to interrogate Timmy further, but never got the chance.
“Why would he do that?” Alicin argued. “You’d get your clothes all wet if ya did that!”
“He wasn’t wearing his clothes,” Timmy explained.
Silence reigned while the mental portrait of Sydney, au naturale, knifing headfirst into the water formed in their young minds. Snickers and giggles quickly escalated into guffaws and fall-on-the-floor belly laughs. Timmy shook his head in mock disapproval and declared, “This is the last time I take you guys on a field trip!” Then he sat down next to his friends on the cold tile floor and laughed as hard as they did.
When everyone had recovered as much as they were going to, Timmy explained about swimsuits, triggering another round of laughter after a comment about Dr. Raines. And then he gathered them for one more surprise.
The three tourists entered a larger white-tiled room in awe. Alicin immediately made a little tap on the floor with her foot. Pleased with the extended echo that the new room afforded, she began to run in place, stamping her little feet as fast as she could make them go. Pigtails flew, arms pumped, her little fists were clenched.
“ALICIN!” the boys protested in unison.
“Wha-at?” she sing-songed, the picture of innocence once she stopped moving.
“Don’t do that!”
“Why-y?” she whined.
“Because it’s annoying, that’s why!” Eddie yelled out. “Geeze, I think I’m gettin‘ deaf,” he added, wiggling a finger in his ear for effect.
“I’m sorry, Eddie! I didn’t mean to get ya deaf!” Her worried eyes were swimming in tears.
“He’s okay.” Timmy hurried to explain. “He’s just tryin’ to scare ya.”
“Eddie’s okay?” She sniffled. Timmy didn’t think he could look at those eyes and keep a straight face much longer, even though he thought it was a mean trick to play on a little kid.
“Eddie?” She walked over to the taller boy shyly. “Are ya really okay?”
Eddie nodded, sorry now that he’d made her feel bad. That’s when she cocked her knee and kicked him in the shin so hard that he grabbed his lower leg and hopped around on the leg that didn’t hurt.
Jarod and Timmy were doubled over with laughter while Alicin stood with arms folded over her chest, a triumphant smile on her face.
=====
The three visitors stopped their conversation once again as Alicin stirred in her sleep, moving her legs and making a throaty noise that almost sounded like a chuckle. Angelo reached out and covered her feet with the blanket once she had settled and the dream continued…
=====
Eddie recovered and picked up a plastic bottle that had a pointed lid with a hole in the end to dispense the contents, liquid skin cleanser in this case. It was one of several sitting on the floor at various intervals around the white room. He squeezed it slightly, watching the contents rise into the nozzle. Then he looked across the room at that little pipsqueak Alicin and the two rats that were laughing at him.
He calmly approached the three and waited until he was within an arm’s reach to let fly with a stream of cold milky-white cream. Alicin squealed, the rats shouted, and all three scrambled across the floor in search of their own bottles to return fire. The next fifteen minutes were spent chasing each other and emptying most of the bottles in the room.
“Okay, okay, okay,” Jarod panted as he leaned against a wall. “Enough, enough, enough.” He bent over and continued to gasp for air. Just then Timmy approached and turned the white porcelain knob that had been beside Jarod’s head. Jarod let out a yelp of surprise as ice-cold water soaked his back. Within minutes, water was flowing freely from every showerhead and swirling into the drain at the center of the room. The children danced around in it, screeching and laughing until they could barely stand. Suddenly, the lights dimmed.
“Time to go!” Timmy shouted. “The lights do that every day at the same time, about two hours before they wake us up.”
‘How does he track time?’ Jarod wondered to himself.
“You really had this thing figured out!” Eddie was impressed.
“Everything but the soap fight,” Timmy snickered, throwing an arm around his friend’s shoulder.
When they had turned the water off and wrung out their pajamas as best they could, Timmy showed them the wall-mounted hot-air driers. They were positioned at just the right height for Alicin to take an “air shower.” Older and taller, the boys did the best they could. When they were all reasonably dry, tourists and guide helped each other back into the air vent and headed for their cells.
Timmy always guided Alicin back to her cell. She was too young to be in the ducts by herself; nevertheless she enjoyed the excitement and didn’t seem to fear what would happen if they ever got caught. “Thanks, Timmy,” she chirped. After she gave him a quick hug, Alicin popped out of the air vent and landed with a soft thump in the middle of her bed. Within minutes of burrowing under the covers, she was asleep…
=====
Angelo seemed to embrace Alicin with his gaze, Joanna noticed. Neither did the tenderness with which he tucked the covers around the young woman go unobserved. She wondered what memories he held, and if he experienced them the way other people did when he called them into awareness. She also wondered how Alicin fit into his unusual life so significantly that he would risk discovery to be with her.
“Angelo?” Dr. Patrice intoned, leaning forward to make eye contact with him. “I can see that Alicin is special to you. You’re welcome to stay with her for a while. We’ll need to check on her a few times but, other than that, you won’t be disturbed. Would you like to stay?”
Angelo could scarcely believe what he was hearing. “Yes! Angelo stays …with Alicin! Yes!” To Dr. Patrice’s surprise, the young man stood and placed his arms around her. As she returned the embrace, he pressed his face against her shoulder and uttered a muffled, “Thank you,” before pulling away.
Joanna held an index finger to her smiling lips, signaling Angelo to keep his voice quiet. “I’ll let you know when it’s my last visit before I go off duty. That’s in about four hours.”
Before withdrawing to the adjoining office, doctor and assistant turned to see Angelo kneeling at the foot of the chaise, arms folded on the cushion, chin on hands, watching Alicin, reminiscent of a guardian angel.
=====
“You’ve met Joanna, Sydney?” Patrice asked by way of introduction as the two women approached the sitting area.
“Yes,” the Belgian doctor replied, rising. “Good to see you again, Ms. deBeer,” he addressed her with a smile. “Will you be joining us?” His gaze shifted to Patrice, as did Joanna’s”
“If you would,” Patrice responded and directed her assistant to take a seat opposite Sydney. The doctor seated herself next to her friend and for the next half hour the two physicians listened intently to Joanna’s description and impressions of what had just transpired in the room next door.
“I don’t know what the connection is here, but I believe Angelo knows Alicin. True, he doesn’t seem sure of himself, but there’s something in the way he’s studying her that makes me think that he’s trying to retrieve memories that are just out of reach. I mean… he sniffed her.”
“I beg your pardon?” Sydney interjected with a slight chuckle and a tilt of his head.
“It’s as if he’s using all of his senses to take in as much information about her as he can. He touched her feet when he covered them. Then he straightened the blanket around her shoulders. That’s when he sniffed her hair. He closed his eyes and he just…well…inhaled…slowly. Then he ran his hand over her scalp very gently and finally drew his fingers across her face. It was like…” Joanna was searching for the right word and was hesitant to use it when it finally came to mind. “A caress,” she finished. “He barely looked at us while we were talking to him just now; his eyes were on her. I believe he has memories of her. “
“Interesting theory,” the psychiatrist observed, though he thought her assumption of higher cognitive and sensory skills was a bit of a stretch. “Any other impressions?”
“I first encountered Angelo when I was assigned to Maternity. He had quite a way with the restless and colicky infants. He calmed children no one else could comfort. I have a very strong sense that he and Alicin know each other. Perhaps they met as children. But whatever the connection—or even if there were no connection—I believe Angelo’s presence will be good for Alicin. He’s drawn to her and is attentive to her in the same manner I saw with the infants. But it’s more than that. I’m sorry I can’t put a finer point on it for you, Doctor. I just believe that he is good for her. And God knows she could use someone like that right now. ”
“Your assumption of Angelo’s capacity for—“
“I’m sorry to interrupt, Sydney,” Patrice cut in, remembering Angelo’s parting embrace. “But I agree with Joanna’s assessment of this situation. “There’s a relationship here and much we have yet to discover about those two. I’m inclined to permit the contact. Mr. Broots will have video surveillance in place tomorrow. Earl is overseeing that part of it. Security can monitor them from the desk. Sam informs me that he has three others with him now on 24/7 shifts at her door. A visible reminder that she’s being guarded, so to speak. Which reminds me, I think it’s odd that Raines hasn’t contacted us yet. You’d think someone put the fear of God in him or something,” she concluded with an ironic smile.
“Or something,” Sydney replied plainly.
“If I’m no longer needed here, Doctors, I really should return to do rounds.” Joanna stated.
“Go,” Patrice assented. “And thank you for your insights. You’ve been quite helpful.” Then, with a little smile, she added, “Tell Angelo I said ‘Hi’.” Joanna returned the smile and exited to the hall.
“What is it, Syd? I’ve seen that look on your face before and it cost our study group a good night’s sleep on more than one occasion!”
“What look?”
“Oh, don’t shovel it, Syd. You’re not buying Joanna’s assessment of the Alicin-Angelo connection.”
“Knowing Angelo’s history, you’ll forgive me if I have some doubts about the abilities your assistant attributes to him. He’s as much a mystery to medical science as to psychiatric studies. I seriously doubt his capacity to retain a long-term relationship of any kind. His empathic abilities may make him appear to have contiguous memories surrounding a person or event, but to say that it constitutes true memory is quite a leap of faith, not science.”
“You used to be a man of faith, Syd. What’s so hard about this?” Patrice was smiling, fighting the urge to offer him a shovel to clean up his own theory.
“Not hard, from where I stand. I’m just not so eager to accept what you both seem to believe is the reality of the situation. I simply do not agree with your assumptions or conclusions.” Sydney was not smiling.
“Do you think Angelo is a threat to Alicin?”
“We don’t know that.”
“Would he hurt her?” She pressed.
“We can’t say that with certainty, no.”
“Has he ever shown aggression or harmed anyone in the past?” Her frustration was growing.
“Not to my knowledge.”
“Just what do you know about his behavior, or his inner life for that matter?” She was trying to keep her voice calm.
Sydney was beginning to feel as if he were under attack. “We know—“
“You, Syd! What do you know about his inner life that makes you so sure he doesn’t have a meaningful one?” She wasn’t trying to hide her impatience with him any longer. She left his side and took a seat across from him once more. “It’s obvious that Angelo doesn’t use his brain the way the rest of us do, but I suspect he’s more sentient than he gets credit for.”
“Based on what? Intuition?”
“Try anecdotal data, Syd. Objective analysis is necessary, foundational if you will. But you can’t discount a subjective approach to the interactions he has in a natural setting. Or as natural as it can get and still be the Centre. Despite his treatment by Raines, Angelo still seeks out human contact. Why do you suppose he spends time with screaming infants? With his sensitivities, that young man should be running in the opposite direction. But instead he scoops them up and moments later they’re cooing in his arms. He’s no stranger to this place, either. This winter I admitted him for bronchitis. After he left, patients were asking for him, wanting to see him, especially the younger ones. Why is that, Syd? If he has nothing to offer, other than what his empathic abilities can gain for the Centre, then why are my patients drawn to him and he to them?” She paused and, hearing no comeback from Sydney, continued.
“And then there’s his interest in Alicin. Syd, look what he risked just by being in that room with her. You of all people can imagine Raines’ reaction to his little expedition. And then he falls asleep next to her! Syd, when I told him he could stay with Alicin, he thanked me. Yes! Before you ask, yes, he said the words. He embraced me and then he said the words. Unlike you, my dear friend, I believe that Angelo has a rich inner life full of thought and emotion, just like the rest of us. Until someone proves otherwise, I’m going to assume that there is a competent mind at work in there.
He knew better than to pick a fight that she had no intention of letting him win. Besides, she had raised a few good points to ponder. Sydney rose to leave, taking steps toward the door. “It would be an amazing revelation, if you were right.”
“I am right, Sydney. Good night.”
=====
End Part 8
Alicin Wonderland
TBC
By Lizz
Dream A Little Dream Of Me
Joanna was certain that she had left the nightlight on before leaving the room earlier. As her eyes adjusted to the dark she could hear rhythmic breathing across the room. She approached the chaise and stopped in her tracks halfway to her goal. She gasped. And then she strained forward to find she was looking at--. She let out a single quiet laugh, ‘This can’t be!’ she thought with a bent smile. She chuckled as she stood over Angelo’s sleeping form. For the next few minutes Joanna simply watched him. Legs bent to one side, his head resting on the cushion and surrounded by his arms, Angelo looked as if he had fallen asleep in the middle of a ballet lesson. Joanna giggled in spite of herself. She did not touch him, but bent close to his ear and softly whispered his name. He took in a deep breath and let it out with a smile, yet did not waken.
Joanna had first met Angelo a few years ago while she was head nurse in Maternity. He seemed drawn to the infants and had a weird and wonderful ability to calm the fussy ones. “Bawlies” he had called them. The department director found no harm in his presence, quite the contrary. After consulting with the chairman, the director had ordered Mr. Raines to allow Angelo’s visits. The nursing staff truly enjoyed having him around. His innocence was refreshing and by his very nature he was unintentionally funny at times.
“Well,” she calmly reflected, looking at Alicin cradled in the arms of the chaise with her visitor mere inches away, “Nice work, Security.”
Joanna didn’t want to wake him, yet knew she shouldn’t let him stay. As lightly as possible she laid her hand on his forearm and shook it gently.
Angelo stirred slightly, then jerked awake. He drew away from the hand on his arm, wide-eyed and panic-stricken.
“It’s Joanna, Angelo, Joanna!” she assured him in a hoarse whisper, “Remember the bawlies? I was the bawlies’ nurse, remember?”
He stilled himself and stared at her for a moment without blinking. A crooked smile spread across his face followed by the light of recognition. “Joanna helped the bawlies,” he whispered back, glancing across the upholstery at the figure asleep at the other end of the chaise.
“You do remember me!” she whispered, smiling and clasping her hands over her heart. “I’ve missed you since I came to Dr. Patrice. Do you still visit the babies?”
Angelo answered with a smile and a nod of his head.
“I know someone who would be very happy to see you again.” Joanna was aware that she had to tell her boss about him.
Angelo tipped his head to one side, “Who?”
“Dr. Patrice. She misses you. It’s no fun only seeing you when you’re sick. She’s right next-door. Would you like to see her?”
Another smile. Another nod.
Joanna crossed to the door, rapped on it quietly, and entered the doctor’s office when invited to do so. When Patrice had excused herself from her conversation with Sydney, she joined Joanna at the door. “Dr. Patrice, I think you want to see this,” she said softly and then opened the door fully to afford her superior a view of Angelo seated at the foot of the chaise, staring intently at Alicin.
Without another word to Sydney, Patrice motioned her assistant into the next room and followed close behind, shutting the door behind them. To Joanna she said, “This stays between us.” Then she crossed the room to where Angelo was kneeling. “Angelo!” The doctor smiled affectionately and spoke in a soft voice to match. “It’s so good to see you! I thought maybe you’d forgotten all about me. What are you doing here? Do you know her?”
“Maybe. Think so. Not sure.” He spoke slowly and deliberately and kept his gaze on Alicin while he answered. “She smells nice. Like the melted soap.”
The melted soap? Dr. Patrice and Joanna exchanged puzzled looks, trying without success to make a connection. “Where was the melted soap?” Joanna finally asked.
Angelo shrugged glumly. “Not sure.”
Just then Alicin stirred. The threesome at the foot of the chaise became very still and quiet as their conversation stirred the young woman’s dreams…
=====
“You guys are gonna love this,” the tour guide announced as three other youngsters crowded around to peer through the air vent at a large tiled room.
“Timmy, what is this place?” the pigtailed five-year-old asked. Pale blue squares covered the ceiling, walls and floor and she could hear water dripping somewhere inside.
“Smells like chlorine,” Jarod commented, wrinkling his nose.
“How’d ya find it, Timmy?” Eddie whispered.
“C’mon in. I’ll tell ya all about it.”
“I don’t think we should be here, Timmy,” Pigtails put in.
“We shouldn’t,” the older boy beamed and quickly assured her that no one would miss them during the extended sleep period he had chosen for their sortie.
One at a time the children dropped onto the floor, their slippered feet causing a delightful echo off the tiled surfaces. Pigtails held on to Timmy and repeatedly tapped the hard rubber sole of one slipper against the floor tiles, smiling at the echoing resonance each time. The guide pointed over their shoulders and the children turned around to face a huge rectangular body of water that filled most of the room!
Pigtails let out a little cry of alarm that bounced around the room before finally fading to silence. She bumped into Timmy as she turned to run for the vent. He pulled her to him and wrapped his arms around her middle while she continued to struggle. “Whoa, Alicin! It’s okay, honest! You can stay here with me if you’re afraid.” She squirmed frantically for a few moments more and then started to relax in the older boy’s grasp.
Jarod and Eddie were cautiously reconnoitering the swimming pool. Jarod, tallest and oldest of the group, was flat on his stomach at the edge, his arm immersed to the shoulder as he tested the depth. “What’s it do?” Eddie queried.
“It doesn’t do anything.” Timmy stated. “People stand in it and slosh around in it and jump into it from that thing.” Timmy paused as his friends’ eyes followed in the direction he was pointing and saw the diving board. “I’ve seen some of ‘em go in head first!”
Cries of “Nuh-uh!” filled the room.
“Yuh-huh!” Timmy defended.
“Anybody we know?” came the challenge from Jarod.
“How about Sydney?” Timmy shot back. Jarod narrowed his eyes in doubt as the tour guide continued his recitation. “Sydney bounced on that board and while he was up in the air he touched his toes and then--PLOOSH!” He mimed the resulting splash with his arms. “Headfirst into the water.”
Jarod was about to interrogate Timmy further, but never got the chance.
“Why would he do that?” Alicin argued. “You’d get your clothes all wet if ya did that!”
“He wasn’t wearing his clothes,” Timmy explained.
Silence reigned while the mental portrait of Sydney, au naturale, knifing headfirst into the water formed in their young minds. Snickers and giggles quickly escalated into guffaws and fall-on-the-floor belly laughs. Timmy shook his head in mock disapproval and declared, “This is the last time I take you guys on a field trip!” Then he sat down next to his friends on the cold tile floor and laughed as hard as they did.
When everyone had recovered as much as they were going to, Timmy explained about swimsuits, triggering another round of laughter after a comment about Dr. Raines. And then he gathered them for one more surprise.
The three tourists entered a larger white-tiled room in awe. Alicin immediately made a little tap on the floor with her foot. Pleased with the extended echo that the new room afforded, she began to run in place, stamping her little feet as fast as she could make them go. Pigtails flew, arms pumped, her little fists were clenched.
“ALICIN!” the boys protested in unison.
“Wha-at?” she sing-songed, the picture of innocence once she stopped moving.
“Don’t do that!”
“Why-y?” she whined.
“Because it’s annoying, that’s why!” Eddie yelled out. “Geeze, I think I’m gettin‘ deaf,” he added, wiggling a finger in his ear for effect.
“I’m sorry, Eddie! I didn’t mean to get ya deaf!” Her worried eyes were swimming in tears.
“He’s okay.” Timmy hurried to explain. “He’s just tryin’ to scare ya.”
“Eddie’s okay?” She sniffled. Timmy didn’t think he could look at those eyes and keep a straight face much longer, even though he thought it was a mean trick to play on a little kid.
“Eddie?” She walked over to the taller boy shyly. “Are ya really okay?”
Eddie nodded, sorry now that he’d made her feel bad. That’s when she cocked her knee and kicked him in the shin so hard that he grabbed his lower leg and hopped around on the leg that didn’t hurt.
Jarod and Timmy were doubled over with laughter while Alicin stood with arms folded over her chest, a triumphant smile on her face.
=====
The three visitors stopped their conversation once again as Alicin stirred in her sleep, moving her legs and making a throaty noise that almost sounded like a chuckle. Angelo reached out and covered her feet with the blanket once she had settled and the dream continued…
=====
Eddie recovered and picked up a plastic bottle that had a pointed lid with a hole in the end to dispense the contents, liquid skin cleanser in this case. It was one of several sitting on the floor at various intervals around the white room. He squeezed it slightly, watching the contents rise into the nozzle. Then he looked across the room at that little pipsqueak Alicin and the two rats that were laughing at him.
He calmly approached the three and waited until he was within an arm’s reach to let fly with a stream of cold milky-white cream. Alicin squealed, the rats shouted, and all three scrambled across the floor in search of their own bottles to return fire. The next fifteen minutes were spent chasing each other and emptying most of the bottles in the room.
“Okay, okay, okay,” Jarod panted as he leaned against a wall. “Enough, enough, enough.” He bent over and continued to gasp for air. Just then Timmy approached and turned the white porcelain knob that had been beside Jarod’s head. Jarod let out a yelp of surprise as ice-cold water soaked his back. Within minutes, water was flowing freely from every showerhead and swirling into the drain at the center of the room. The children danced around in it, screeching and laughing until they could barely stand. Suddenly, the lights dimmed.
“Time to go!” Timmy shouted. “The lights do that every day at the same time, about two hours before they wake us up.”
‘How does he track time?’ Jarod wondered to himself.
“You really had this thing figured out!” Eddie was impressed.
“Everything but the soap fight,” Timmy snickered, throwing an arm around his friend’s shoulder.
When they had turned the water off and wrung out their pajamas as best they could, Timmy showed them the wall-mounted hot-air driers. They were positioned at just the right height for Alicin to take an “air shower.” Older and taller, the boys did the best they could. When they were all reasonably dry, tourists and guide helped each other back into the air vent and headed for their cells.
Timmy always guided Alicin back to her cell. She was too young to be in the ducts by herself; nevertheless she enjoyed the excitement and didn’t seem to fear what would happen if they ever got caught. “Thanks, Timmy,” she chirped. After she gave him a quick hug, Alicin popped out of the air vent and landed with a soft thump in the middle of her bed. Within minutes of burrowing under the covers, she was asleep…
=====
Angelo seemed to embrace Alicin with his gaze, Joanna noticed. Neither did the tenderness with which he tucked the covers around the young woman go unobserved. She wondered what memories he held, and if he experienced them the way other people did when he called them into awareness. She also wondered how Alicin fit into his unusual life so significantly that he would risk discovery to be with her.
“Angelo?” Dr. Patrice intoned, leaning forward to make eye contact with him. “I can see that Alicin is special to you. You’re welcome to stay with her for a while. We’ll need to check on her a few times but, other than that, you won’t be disturbed. Would you like to stay?”
Angelo could scarcely believe what he was hearing. “Yes! Angelo stays …with Alicin! Yes!” To Dr. Patrice’s surprise, the young man stood and placed his arms around her. As she returned the embrace, he pressed his face against her shoulder and uttered a muffled, “Thank you,” before pulling away.
Joanna held an index finger to her smiling lips, signaling Angelo to keep his voice quiet. “I’ll let you know when it’s my last visit before I go off duty. That’s in about four hours.”
Before withdrawing to the adjoining office, doctor and assistant turned to see Angelo kneeling at the foot of the chaise, arms folded on the cushion, chin on hands, watching Alicin, reminiscent of a guardian angel.
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“You’ve met Joanna, Sydney?” Patrice asked by way of introduction as the two women approached the sitting area.
“Yes,” the Belgian doctor replied, rising. “Good to see you again, Ms. deBeer,” he addressed her with a smile. “Will you be joining us?” His gaze shifted to Patrice, as did Joanna’s”
“If you would,” Patrice responded and directed her assistant to take a seat opposite Sydney. The doctor seated herself next to her friend and for the next half hour the two physicians listened intently to Joanna’s description and impressions of what had just transpired in the room next door.
“I don’t know what the connection is here, but I believe Angelo knows Alicin. True, he doesn’t seem sure of himself, but there’s something in the way he’s studying her that makes me think that he’s trying to retrieve memories that are just out of reach. I mean… he sniffed her.”
“I beg your pardon?” Sydney interjected with a slight chuckle and a tilt of his head.
“It’s as if he’s using all of his senses to take in as much information about her as he can. He touched her feet when he covered them. Then he straightened the blanket around her shoulders. That’s when he sniffed her hair. He closed his eyes and he just…well…inhaled…slowly. Then he ran his hand over her scalp very gently and finally drew his fingers across her face. It was like…” Joanna was searching for the right word and was hesitant to use it when it finally came to mind. “A caress,” she finished. “He barely looked at us while we were talking to him just now; his eyes were on her. I believe he has memories of her. “
“Interesting theory,” the psychiatrist observed, though he thought her assumption of higher cognitive and sensory skills was a bit of a stretch. “Any other impressions?”
“I first encountered Angelo when I was assigned to Maternity. He had quite a way with the restless and colicky infants. He calmed children no one else could comfort. I have a very strong sense that he and Alicin know each other. Perhaps they met as children. But whatever the connection—or even if there were no connection—I believe Angelo’s presence will be good for Alicin. He’s drawn to her and is attentive to her in the same manner I saw with the infants. But it’s more than that. I’m sorry I can’t put a finer point on it for you, Doctor. I just believe that he is good for her. And God knows she could use someone like that right now. ”
“Your assumption of Angelo’s capacity for—“
“I’m sorry to interrupt, Sydney,” Patrice cut in, remembering Angelo’s parting embrace. “But I agree with Joanna’s assessment of this situation. “There’s a relationship here and much we have yet to discover about those two. I’m inclined to permit the contact. Mr. Broots will have video surveillance in place tomorrow. Earl is overseeing that part of it. Security can monitor them from the desk. Sam informs me that he has three others with him now on 24/7 shifts at her door. A visible reminder that she’s being guarded, so to speak. Which reminds me, I think it’s odd that Raines hasn’t contacted us yet. You’d think someone put the fear of God in him or something,” she concluded with an ironic smile.
“Or something,” Sydney replied plainly.
“If I’m no longer needed here, Doctors, I really should return to do rounds.” Joanna stated.
“Go,” Patrice assented. “And thank you for your insights. You’ve been quite helpful.” Then, with a little smile, she added, “Tell Angelo I said ‘Hi’.” Joanna returned the smile and exited to the hall.
“What is it, Syd? I’ve seen that look on your face before and it cost our study group a good night’s sleep on more than one occasion!”
“What look?”
“Oh, don’t shovel it, Syd. You’re not buying Joanna’s assessment of the Alicin-Angelo connection.”
“Knowing Angelo’s history, you’ll forgive me if I have some doubts about the abilities your assistant attributes to him. He’s as much a mystery to medical science as to psychiatric studies. I seriously doubt his capacity to retain a long-term relationship of any kind. His empathic abilities may make him appear to have contiguous memories surrounding a person or event, but to say that it constitutes true memory is quite a leap of faith, not science.”
“You used to be a man of faith, Syd. What’s so hard about this?” Patrice was smiling, fighting the urge to offer him a shovel to clean up his own theory.
“Not hard, from where I stand. I’m just not so eager to accept what you both seem to believe is the reality of the situation. I simply do not agree with your assumptions or conclusions.” Sydney was not smiling.
“Do you think Angelo is a threat to Alicin?”
“We don’t know that.”
“Would he hurt her?” She pressed.
“We can’t say that with certainty, no.”
“Has he ever shown aggression or harmed anyone in the past?” Her frustration was growing.
“Not to my knowledge.”
“Just what do you know about his behavior, or his inner life for that matter?” She was trying to keep her voice calm.
Sydney was beginning to feel as if he were under attack. “We know—“
“You, Syd! What do you know about his inner life that makes you so sure he doesn’t have a meaningful one?” She wasn’t trying to hide her impatience with him any longer. She left his side and took a seat across from him once more. “It’s obvious that Angelo doesn’t use his brain the way the rest of us do, but I suspect he’s more sentient than he gets credit for.”
“Based on what? Intuition?”
“Try anecdotal data, Syd. Objective analysis is necessary, foundational if you will. But you can’t discount a subjective approach to the interactions he has in a natural setting. Or as natural as it can get and still be the Centre. Despite his treatment by Raines, Angelo still seeks out human contact. Why do you suppose he spends time with screaming infants? With his sensitivities, that young man should be running in the opposite direction. But instead he scoops them up and moments later they’re cooing in his arms. He’s no stranger to this place, either. This winter I admitted him for bronchitis. After he left, patients were asking for him, wanting to see him, especially the younger ones. Why is that, Syd? If he has nothing to offer, other than what his empathic abilities can gain for the Centre, then why are my patients drawn to him and he to them?” She paused and, hearing no comeback from Sydney, continued.
“And then there’s his interest in Alicin. Syd, look what he risked just by being in that room with her. You of all people can imagine Raines’ reaction to his little expedition. And then he falls asleep next to her! Syd, when I told him he could stay with Alicin, he thanked me. Yes! Before you ask, yes, he said the words. He embraced me and then he said the words. Unlike you, my dear friend, I believe that Angelo has a rich inner life full of thought and emotion, just like the rest of us. Until someone proves otherwise, I’m going to assume that there is a competent mind at work in there.
He knew better than to pick a fight that she had no intention of letting him win. Besides, she had raised a few good points to ponder. Sydney rose to leave, taking steps toward the door. “It would be an amazing revelation, if you were right.”
“I am right, Sydney. Good night.”
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End Part 8
Alicin Wonderland
TBC
