Bedlam Stories

by Christine Converse

  There’s that medication. Nurse Ball’s answer to quieting the unruly.

  Wendy smiled as she rocked back and forth.

  “I told you so, I told you so …” she said pointedly to Nellie before turning away. Weaving, she wandered away down the hall, singing loudly:

  Doctor wanted into her dreams,

  Alice can’t wait to hear your screams.

  And all of your nurses and all of your men,

  Won’t be able to put you together again.

  Wendy’s off-key notes echoed back to them. To Nellie’s surprise, it was Dorothy who spoke next.

  “She’s right, you know. Let’s not put ourselves anywhere near Alice.”

  “Dorothy, what do you know about Alice?”

  “Only that I can feel her. Same as you.” Dorothy’s face was pale as she looked away from Nellie. Nellie shook her head.

  “No Dorothy. It’s those pills. The pills they make us take.” She gently turned Dorothy’s face back toward hers. “They are causing us all to hallucinate.”

  Dorothy pulled away. “Alice is NOT a hallucination.”

  Again, Nellie was taken aback by Dorothy’s unexpected intensity. She tried a different tack. “Look, I know I’m not crazy. But if you stay here long enough, this place will drive anyone insane.”

  “Uncle Henry and Aunt Em say it will get me better,” Dorothy murmured.

  “I wouldn’t count on it. We need to get out.”

  Nellie thought for a moment. She suddenly sat straight up. “Is there a telephone? My editor can get us out. We need a telephone!”

  “There are some in the hallway, down there. But we’re not allowed —”

  Nellie put her hand on Dorothy’s arm. “Take me there. Now.”

  Dorothy peeked around the corner and watched for a good minute or two. When she was absolutely sure no one was coming, she slipped around the corner, pulling Nellie behind her.

  “I found them yesterday while you were still asleep in your room,” she whispered. “I wanted to try using one, but Nurse Murphy stopped me and told me we’re not allowed to go near them until we earn it.”

  A row of dilapidated phone booths lined the far wall. Nellie’s heart leapt with hope. She had been less than a week in the institution, but without any way to communicate to the outside world, and with all of the strange goings-on, she had had quite enough of being incarcerated. This was her chance to save herself, Dorothy, and, with the publication of her exposé, perhaps hundreds of lost souls.

  Nellie snatched up the receiver of the first phone and waited for the operator to come on the line. Nothing happened. “This one’s dead.”

  “I’ll keep a lookout. Go ahead and try the rest!” Dorothy motioned her toward the phones and took up her post, keeping an eye out.

  “This one, too.” Nellie quickly dropped the receiver back into place and moved to the next. The hope that had, just moments before, practically lifted her across the floor was now rapidly dwindling as she realized that this, like everything else in Bedlam, was most likely just a façade. She wondered if Dr. Braun wasn’t just a man behind a big, red curtain labeled “Bedlam Asylum.”

  Nellie worked her way through each telephone with the same result. There were only a couple left to try.

  “They’re all broken!” Nellie whispered, with despair.

  Dorothy looked over her shoulder to Nellie, her face awash with anxiety. Nellie reached for another telephone receiver, closed her eyes and listened. “Hello, how may I direct your call?” the operator’s nasal voice piped through the receiver.

  “Oh thank God!” Nellie nearly sobbed with relief. Dorothy flashed her a big grin and returned to her hall monitoring. “I need an outside line to Algonquian 42, please,” Nellie said in low tones, cupping her hand over her mouth.

  “I’m sorry, miss, can you please repeat that?” the voice on the other end replied.

  At the nurse’s station, the telephone operator sat before a switchboard panel containing a dizzying array of plugs, bells, sockets, circuits, and wires. She tapped her headset and frowned, concentrating her listening efforts on each word spoken on the other end of the line. She pressed her headset against her ear. “You need an outside line?”

  Nurse Ball, who stood on the other side of the counter, stopped organizing her paperwork and whisked around the counter. The operator put her hand over the receiver. “Someone is asking for an outside line but it isn’t the doctor or any of the staff. This woman isn’t using any of the code words.”

  “Where is the call coming from?” the nurse fired the question at the operator.

  “The Fantasyland Wing, ma’am.”

  “Keep her on the line. I’ll take care of it,” Nurse Ball said and swept back around the counter and down the hall. Her shoes made the distinct clomping sound that the rest of the staff recognized as Nurse Ball on a mission. The staff and patients had two choices in that situation; either to try to keep up with her or to get the hell out of her way. In this case, the patients who saw her striding their way, skirt swinging out behind her, made efforts to side step as hastily as their clumsy feet would allow.

  Nurse Ball wordlessly motioned to a group of orderlies to follow her.

  The Operator pulled her hand away from the headset receiver.

  “I’m sorry, ma’am. That exchange does not exist,” came the voice from the other end of the line.

  Nellie could have spit nails. This was not the time for her salvation to rest on the shoulders of the insipidly stupid. “What do you mean it doesn’t exist? It DOES exist. It’s the offices of the New York Tribune!”

  “I show no such listing, ma’am.”

  Her heart sank like a stone. Even worse, the line began to snap and pop with static.

  Dorothy gasped, spun around and tugged at Nellie’s sleeve. “We have to go now, Nell. Really and truly!”

  “Miss, I don’t know who you are, but please listen to me,” panic crept into Nellie’s voice. “This is an emergency. I absolutely have to reach someone to let them know where I am. I need to speak to the Editorial Department at the New York Tribune newspaper. It really is a matter of life and death!”

  “Are you sure you don’t want to try a different exchange?” the nasal-toned operator said, with absolutely no emotion.

  “LISTEN to me! I NEED to SPEAK to my EDITOR!“ Nellie shouted into the receiver. The sound on the other end was that of the operator speaking, but it was masked behind crackling and popping. “Hello? Are you there?” Nellie stomped her foot. The receiver hissed in her ear like someone turning up the volume on a static-filled radio. Nellie pressed the receiver to her ear, making the greatest of efforts to make out what was happening on the other end of the telephone.

  Barely audible behind the static and hissing, Nellie listened to the sound of a Victrola playing a warbling tune. She pulled the receiver away from her ear and looked at it. Was this happening, or was this another hallucination?

  “Hello?” A voice she could not place as female or male spoke so softly that she could barely discern the words. “ … do not go …”

  “We need you …” said another voice, this one deep and scratchy. “ … to keep Dorothy ….” a raspy, high-pitched voice finished.

  Nellie’s heart began thumping uncontrollably. She glanced over her shoulder to the young girl in braids who was scanning up and down the halls.

  “Who is this?” she whispered.

  Meowwwwww …. A tomcat’s long, irritated howl crawled through the receiver and into her ear, raising the hair on the back of her neck.

  “We’re all mad here,” another voice whispered.

  The clomping sound was rapidly growing louder in the hallway.

  “Nell!” Dorothy pulled on Nellie’s arm.

  The receiver was abruptly yanked from her hand and slammed back into the telephone’s cradle. Nellie spun around and came nose to nose with Nurse Ball. A team of orderlies formed a wall behind her. Dorothy had backed up against the wall as if wanting to blend int
o it.

  “Patients must earn telephone privileges, Miss Bly. Until then, a telephone call is strictly off limits.” Nurse Ball stood upright and peered down her nose at Nellie, almost daring her to say something back.

  Nellie’s eyes narrowed. She stood up to her full height. She wasn’t as tall as Nurse Ball, but she had had it with her “big and imposing” act. She wanted to make it clear that it didn’t work on her anymore.

  Nellie made herself as big as possible and leaned in to Nurse Ball. “You have no right to keep us isolated like this!”

  It was Nurse Ball’s turn to lean in. “We have rules here, Miss Bly. And you are to obey them or we will be forced to —”

  “To what? Send me home?” Nellie interjected.

  “To REPRIMAND you,” Nurse Ball glowered. “Let me remind you that you signed a piece of paper, which has been filed with the court. That piece of paper says that we can keep you here as long as we see fit. And right now, Miss Bly, it looks like it may be a LONG time before we ever revisit the idea of your being well enough to reenter society.”

  Her fingertips came to rest on one of the syringes hanging from her belt. Nellie stared back at her with hate-filled eyes, clamping her lips shut.

  Nurse Ball smirked. “Go ahead. Say one more word.”

  Dorothy cowered against the wall, away from the impending fray, biting her lip so hard that a drop of blood welled up on her lower-lip. “Nellie, no!” she whispered.

  Nellie smirked up at the tall nurse, arms folded defiantly on her chest.

  “Word.”

  “Right.” Nurse Ball pulled the syringe from her belt, and the orderlies surrounding her leapt forward to grab Nellie and hold her still.

  “Oh, Nellie!” Dorothy’s eyes filled with tears as she helplessly watched Nurse Ball jab the syringe into Nellie’s right arm and her form crumple immediately into the arms of the men in white.

  “I recommend you choose better friends, Miss Gale. This one is a bad influence.” Nurse Ball wiped the needle of the empty syringe on her sleeve and deposited it back onto her belt.

  “Yes, ma’am,” Dorothy replied softly, her lower lip quivering and her eyes filling with tears.

  Nurse Ball lifted Dorothy’s chin to look her in the eyes. “Now you get out of here before I put you in seclusion too.”

  Dorothy said nothing and scrambled off down the hall toward the common room, tears flowing freely. She stopped to look back over her shoulder searching for Nellie, but they had taken her in a different direction. Crushed, Dorothy turned back, biting her lip again.

  As she entered the common room, she felt a warm trickle run down her chin. She wiped her finger over the spot and realized, as she pulled it away covered in red, that her lip was bleeding. She had anxiously bitten her lip deeply enough that it had split. With nothing else to clean her face, she used the inside edge of neck of her dress.

  As she cleaned her face, she became aware that it was deathly quiet. Dorothy looked up from the neck of her dress to find that every inmate in the common room now stood facing her and staring, mouths agape. Each set of eyes stared at her as if she were a murderer caught red-handed.

  Dr. Braun and his orderlies arrived in the common room from the opposite entrance. Surmising what might be about to happen, David moved to intervene.

  Dr. Braun put his hand on David’s arm and whispered, “Wait. Let’s observe.”

  Dorothy took a step backward, looking from inmate to inmate. They all just stared at her, arms hanging limply at their sides.

  “Alice warned us about you,” a patient said, pointing to Dorothy and stepping toward her.

  Dorothy took another step back.

  “You are dangerous,” another intoned, also moving toward her. They each began to step toward the wide-eyed girl in braids.

  “You must be stopped,” said a bug-eyed woman. She raised her arms and lunged toward Dorothy. Before she could get away, several inmates had Dorothy’s arms, and they grabbed and scratched at her relentlessly.

  “No!” she cried out, “Let go of me!”

  Dorothy yanked her arm forcefully out of the grasp of the bug-eyed woman. The woman’s long, sharp nails rent Dorothy’s skin as she pulled away, and blood welled up into the scratches. Other inmates grabbed at both of Dorothy’s arms and pushed in, mobbing the young girl. She was being crushed by a pack of lunatics, and no one would come to her aid.

  Panic bubbled up from her stomach and into her chest like a spark bursting into flame. “GET AWAY FROM ME!” she screamed and, with a mighty effort, crossed her arms in front of her face.

  The inmates flew backward through the air away from Dorothy. Some smashed against and slid down the wall, loosening bits of plaster as they went. Others landed in the center of the room, smashing through tables and chairs. Some moaned and nursed their injuries while others cried and wailed.

  “It’s amazing …” Dr. Braun breathed, the beginnings of a smile playing at the corners of his mouth. The orderlies left his side to rush to the aid of the wounded. David knelt beside Dorothy, who lay curled in a fetal ball on the floor, weeping and shuddering. She was repeating the same thing over and over to herself.

  “What are you saying?” he put his hand gently on her shoulder.

  “ … not again … not again …” Dorothy kept whispering, holding her knees to her chest and keeping her eyes squeezed shut.

  “She’s just like Alice.” Dr. Braun grinned.

  The keyhole clicked to the door on the sixth floor. When the door swung open, Dr. Braun hurriedly wheeled a cart into the room and locked the door behind him once more.

  He hit the switch and the light bulb cast sickly yellow light on the woman’s pale face. She lay on her pillow, utterly still, just as she always had.

  “We’re going to try a different method today,” he said and parked the cart alongside the gurney. Dr. Braun slid a bite-down into the woman’s mouth and secured her mouth shut.

  He pulled the cart’s wooden box closer to the woman’s bed and cranked the handle until the box hummed. Dr. Braun swiped up a dab of jelly onto his fingertip and touched some to either side of her head.

  He flipped the box lid open and removed two wood handled metal paddles. With a flip of a switch, the device’s needle jumped to the right and into the red zone.

  “Fully charged,” Dr. Braun muttered. Holding the small paddles carefully, he brought them to the woman’s temples and touched them to her skin.

  The smell of ozone wafted upward as the current traveled through the woman’s brain. Her eyes danced beneath their lids and her body stiffened with the current. He counted out loud, “1…2…3…4…5…and release.”

  He removed the paddles. She fell back to the mattress. He quickly lifted her eyelids, checking the dilation of her eyes. No response came. He put his stethoscope to her chest and listened. Her heart rate remained slow and steady. Her breathing was unchanged. The only notable difference with the woman was that her temples were now red and burnt.

  “DAMN IT!” he bellowed.

  His anger boiled over and he lashed out. Dr. Braun upset the entire cart, spilling its contents across the floor.

  CHAPTER 13

  Nellie found herself standing in the long, dark corridor, in the stretch where the shadows were darkest and the musty air hung, still and thick. Something had changed since she had been there last. The shadows … they were different somehow. She examined them more closely. What had changed? Were they lighter somehow?

  One of the shadows moved.

  Nellie’s knees trembled and she took a step back against the wall. A young girl stepped out of the shadows, toward Nellie. But this girl, she was very little, with soft brown curls and a modest gray dress like Nellie’s. She smiled up at Nellie, revealing dimples beneath her rosy cheeks and large blue eyes.

  “Are you … Alice?”

  The little girl shook her head and smiled, drawing a half circle in the dirt with her toe. Nellie watched her with trepidation. She was simply adorable, but
that only added to the mystery. Not only did a little girl not belong in Bedlam, but why would she be in this dark corridor born of nightmares? Nellie cautiously knelt down to the small girl’s eye level.

  “Are you okay? What’s your name?”

  “My name is Rose.” She pulled one of her ringlets out, spring-like, and watched it bounce back into place.

  “Hello Rose. That sure is a pretty name.” Nellie smiled and brushed a curl from the girl’s forehead. Rose nodded bashfully, and grinned.

  “What are you doing down here, Rose? Did you lose your mama?” Rose looked at her with big, blue eyes and shook her head. She pointed to the end of the hall where the dim light bulb cast a sickly, yellow light on the grimy vault door.

  She brushed Nellie’s cheek with her small soft fingers. “Please don’t let the bad men hurt me.”

  Her words tore straight through Nellie like a knife through tissue paper, and she could not fathom why this feeling of sorrow was so profound. Tears cascaded down Nellie’s cheeks and, more than anything, she needed to protect this little girl. She put her arms around the small shoulders and pulled her close. Beneath her fingers, the diaphanous feeling of Rose’s dress disappeared, and Nellie’s arms closed on nothingness.

  She was gone.

  Nellie knelt on the gray dirty floor and wept with a depth of grief she had never known before, yet couldn’t understand why.

  CHAPTER 14

  Nurse Ball glided into Dr. Braun’s office to find him scribbling away with chalk, adding to his cluttered blackboard. She silently crossed over to the window and threw open the dusty shutters, instantly flooding the room with sunlight.

  “Gah!” he threw his arm across his squinting eyes. “I didn’t ask for more light, Nurse!” He whipped a handkerchief from his pocket and proceeded to sneeze repeatedly.