"What about that needle in your pocket?"
"Needle? What needle? You mean like a syringe?"
The doctor nods.
"I don't have a needle in my pocket."
"OK. You can go back on the ward," the doctor says closing a binder in front of him on a desk in a room off a ward hallway.
Richard stands up, opens the office door, walks down the hallway and enters a common room where other patients are seated in all of the cushioned seats while the TV murmurs approved watching.
He stands between the nurse station desk and the lounge area where all the other patients are seated without a seat available for himself and he notices one patient sit at a table alone with one chair pulled up to the table, slumped: head and shoulders on the table while seated.
(She had been out on a day pass the same day as Richard and they had flirted in the gymnasium of the hospital on break from treatment the previous week, while staff observed. They had stretched on a basket ball court in the gymnasium while other patients shoot hoops).
"Wake up, Jen!" a nurse chimes from the nurse station desk.
"But, I told you. I didn't do it," Jen says perking up off of the table on which she is slumped.
"Yes, you did. Look at you! You are here two more days and then going with them."
"No. I told you. Someone must've slipped the needle in my pocket."
"Then, why are you like that?"
Richard retreats to his room. He leaves the florescent-lit, common room passing the office in a hallway on the ward where he had been interviewed by the weekend doctor upon reentering after a day pass: the same day that Jen takes for a pass and is back on the ward before Richard.
"Needle? What needle? You mean like a syringe?"
The doctor nods.
"I don't have a needle in my pocket."
"OK. You can go back on the ward," the doctor says closing a binder in front of him on a desk in a room off a ward hallway.
Richard stands up, opens the office door, walks down the hallway and enters a common room where other patients are seated in all of the cushioned seats while the TV murmurs approved watching.
He stands between the nurse station desk and the lounge area where all the other patients are seated without a seat available for himself and he notices one patient sit at a table alone with one chair pulled up to the table, slumped: head and shoulders on the table while seated.
(She had been out on a day pass the same day as Richard and they had flirted in the gymnasium of the hospital on break from treatment the previous week, while staff observed. They had stretched on a basket ball court in the gymnasium while other patients shoot hoops).
"Wake up, Jen!" a nurse chimes from the nurse station desk.
"But, I told you. I didn't do it," Jen says perking up off of the table on which she is slumped.
"Yes, you did. Look at you! You are here two more days and then going with them."
"No. I told you. Someone must've slipped the needle in my pocket."
"Then, why are you like that?"
Richard retreats to his room. He leaves the florescent-lit, common room passing the office in a hallway on the ward where he had been interviewed by the weekend doctor upon reentering after a day pass: the same day that Jen takes for a pass and is back on the ward before Richard.
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