ESCAPE
Chapter Five
When she first came to the asylum, she fought
and resisted everything in bitter rage. Rose now knew what a mistake that had
been. All the nurses, assistants, and doctors could easily believe her to be
unstable after she put on countless episodes.
*****
After three months of imprisonment, Rose
simply got worse and worse. The medication given to her did nothing, and Cal’s
threats were empty to her.
*****
And then one day, just like every other day
for the last three months, she was led outside to get fresh air and exercise.
It was a chilly day, and the sky was gray as she was led to the small field of
grass surrounded by gates. And if you should manage to scale that set of gates,
there was another. And another. And another. And another. And by the time you scaled
the last set of gates security was aware of the break and guards captured you
and you were led back to your room. And if the security system should fail you
would then be in the world’s own imprisonment because around you would be
nothing but empty, cold mountains with steep, spiky sides. And if Rose wanted
to get to the nearest town, there were men there hired by Cal to stop her. And
the nearest train station had Cal’s men there too, each day, twenty-four-seven.
So there was no joy in getting her daily
dosage of exercise and fresh air. She did her regular exercises to insure that
if she ever had to make a run for it, her body would be in unbeatable
condition. On finishing, she flopped down on the grass.
Her eyes fell on the nurse that was keeping
an eye on her--part of the security plan. Since she didn’t recognize her, she
concluded that the girl must be new. By then she had had enough of childish
fits and fights with the staff. She walked over to the oval-shaped rock the
nurse was sitting on and said, "Hello."
The girl had been calmly reading a newspaper,
not really paying attention to Rose, and was deeply startled to find her so
near. "I-I’ve heard about you. I am a trained nurse. I can deal with you.
Your threats are nothing to me."
Rose was taken aback. "Look, I’m sorry.
I didn’t mean to startle you. I won’t harm you, really."
"It’s all right. I guess I did
overreact." The girl stood up and put her hand out. "Hello. I’m
Alice. I’m new here."
Rose looked the girl up and down and realized
that she couldn’t be any older than sixteen or seventeen. She was petite with a
round face, rosy cheeks, and long, braided dark hair.
"It’s nice to meet you. Oh, and here’s a
little tip--never ask a patient for a handshake and never, ever tell them that
you’re new."
"I don’t mean to meddle, but it doesn’t
seem like you really belong here. As a patient, that is."
"I-I don’t." For the rest of her
days Rose could never really explain what it was about the girl, but something
in her polite manners and caring gaze made Rose break down and tell her the
whole story. She told her that she was on the Titanic with her heartless
fiancé. And then she told her about Jack and how she lost him and then how Cal
had gotten back into her life. Then, she told Alice about how Cal had turned against
her and how she had ended up at the asylum.
When she was through with her story, Alice
looked at her with a curious gleam in her eye and said, "What was the
man’s name again? The one on the Titanic?"
"Who? Jack?"
"Yes. What did you say his last name was
again?"
"Dawson. His name was Jack Dawson."
"And you say he had shaggy blonde hair,
blue eyes, and he was about this tall?"
"Yes. Why?"
"Well, if I’m not mistaken, Jack’s
alive."