Dirty Secrets

Part 8

Lyla was disoriented, jostled from deep sleep when her bed shook in the middle of the night. Someone crawled under the covers beside her. Someone with wild eyes and a half-painted face. A blue stripe ran horizontally across the cheekbones and red stripes were drawn from the blue longitude down her cheeks, converging at the chin.

This wasn't a nightmare. This was real. She didn't recognize Clover until she spoke.

With stormy eyes, Clover whispered, "That was our mistake. Our mistake. That was our mistake from the jump. We shoulda never told them that we know."

She pulled the scratchy blanket up over her head.

"But now it's too late. Shit. They know we know. That was our mistake. And that's why we're in here. You know that, right?"

Lyla nodded, her anxiety rising. It felt like an unstable homemade explosive device lay beside her threatening to go off at the slightest provocation.

"They know we see it. So they have to take it away from us." She licked her dry lips. "That's what they do." She peeked out over the edge of the blanket.

"Your face," Lyla whispered.

"Camouflage. I got some markers from the art room. You want me to do you?"

Lyla shook her head "no."

"You can't tell them, right?"

Again Lyla shook her head.

"Promise."

"I promise."

Clover stunned Lyla when she kissed her on the mouth.

"Good. You're still real," she said. "They didn't put you away yet." She looked over her shoulder at Shaniece who was in deep sleep.

She continued her intense rambling. "They're taking her. At night. That's how they do that shit. They're taking her when she sleeps. And we can't do anything about it. It's too late for her."

Clover covered her face with her hands.

"Oh, God. We should never have told them that we know."

She clamped the top of the blanket and pulled it up to just beneath her eyes. Her pupils were huge.

"That was our mistake. And now it's too late. They can see it in our eyes. We can't hide it. And they know. They know all our secrets."

A bare breast brushed Lyla's arm.

"Clover! Where are your clothes?"

"Can you feel this over here?"

Before Lyla could respond, Clover clamped Lyla's hand and forcefully pressed it against the back of her head.

"Can you feel it? Can you feel where they put it?"

"I don't feel anything."

"It's there. I can feel it. It's right there." She became increasingly agitated.

Lyla cringed. Where the hell is the night nurse?

"Clover," Lyla whispered with concern, careful to prevent her bedmate's detonation. "You better put your clothes on and get back in your bed."

"No freakin' way. I'm not going near that window. Where they can watch me. They'll take me."

"You're gonna get yourself in trouble."

"Don't tell them."

"They're gonna see you when they do their rounds."

"Not with this," she gestured to her colored face. "They can't see through this."

The night nurse appeared in the doorway. She quietly entered the dark room, pacing like a cat toward the empty bed at the window. She squatted, peering beneath the bed. When she stood, she had Clover's jeans in her hands. She dropped them onto the bed, then looked around the room.

It didn't require high-level surveillance to notice an extra body in Lyla's bed.

"Clover," she said with authority. "Get back in your bed."

Clover buried her face against Lyla's head.

"Clover," she ordered. "Get back in your bed. Now."

Clover didn't move a muscle. 

Lyla thought certainly the nurse's voice would awaken Shaniece. But she continued sleeping, seemingly unaware.

The nurse departed. It felt to Lyla like an eternity until she returned with Petie.

"Come on. Let's go." The nurse raised her volume.

Clover refused to move.

"Get her legs."

When Petie seized Clover's ankles she screamed and thrashed wildly. Lyla's eardrums were nearly blown out of her head. A bony elbow struck the side of her face.

Shaniece awoke and sat up in her bed, watching the commotion as the nurse and the orderly struggled to carry the screaming naked Clover out of the room. Her scrawny body twisted violently providing a view of assorted tattoos punctuated by scars and pink lacerations.

Lyla's eyes met Shaniece's as the fight furiously escalated.

Clover's shrieks echoed while they scuffled, transporting her down the hallway.