For The Pleasure of One Drink With You

Lucy moved restlessly in her bed, the sound of the siren was as a
saw in her ears, she wondered why no one put a stop to the awful sound.
It was the middle of the night, and this was a hospital.
Reluctantly she opened her eyes and looked at the door of her room, the
light in the corridor was on as usual to allow the nurses to see who
left their rooms. This was not a closed floor as were many of the other
floors of the hospital, but the patients were in a psychiatric clinic
after all even if they had signed the admittance papers
themselves.
A small ray of light shone into her room stopping just short of the
bed, in the opening she could just make out the silhouette of the
person who stood in the doorway. She was a little reassured, it was
just a nurse coming to check on her, looking in to see if the siren had
not disturbed her. Lucy hoped that she would hurry up and goes away,
she could not sleep with so much light in her room. She needed her
rest.
The noise of the siren seemed to be getting louder, it was in fact very
loud, her body stiffened in protest, she was definitely going to
complain to the floor sister in the morning. The siren was deafening,
she grasped her sheets and pulled them so hard around her neck that she
could barely breathe at all, when she thought that she would surely go
really deaf a familiar voice said softly "good evening Lucy." Lucy
strained her neck to try to see who had come to see her so late at
night, she had no idea why they had allowed her to come to her room,
but she had a very uneasy feeling about it. The figure in the doorway
stepped closer. The hairs on her body rose up like a cat before a fight
with his biggest enemy the dog, her stomach, luckily nearly empty so
long after dinner rose up in protest. She felt the sourness of the bile
in her throat. She knew that voice and the face that went with it even
though she had only seen it once. Since then she had prayed every night
to every saint she remembered from her childhood that she would never
have to see it again after that one time! Lucy reached over to press
the alarm button, but before she could move the visitor stood near her
bed, "that's not very nice Lucy, in fact that's no way to welcome an
old friend". Lucy lay defeated and helpless she could only wait for
what she knew without a doubt was going to happen next.
Lucy was by no means ugly, she had always been a very happy go lucky
person, and all the childhood diseases that her friends had experienced
had seemed to pass her by. She was quite tall for a girl but never
seemed to slouch as so many tall girls do as if to try to make them
smaller. She walked with an easy grace that made her stand out in a
crowd. Her hair was a thick dark brown with a healthy gloss and her
even features made her face quite attractive. She also had a friendly
disposition, which meant that she always had had lots of friends. With
her twenty years she still lived happily at home with her parents. She
was an only child and had been cherished as such but this had in no way
spoiled her. Her parents were very pleased to have her at home even
though she worked for enough money to pay for her own apartment if she
wanted to have her own place. When her parents had come to him for help
the family doctor had been pleased to help. He had known Lucy all her
life and when he had seen her again a week before had not been able to
believe his eyes. She had changed radically from the cheerful healthy
girl he knew to a nervous sickly wreck. He had done what he could to
have her admitted as soon as possible. They had been lucky enough to
have found a place for her in this highly recommended hospital when the
police had picked her up running through the shopping mall screaming,
her eyes wide opened in fear and with her underwear smelling of her own
wastes. She had seemed relieved to be able to lie in bed and have the
nurses take care of her.

Lucy had already changed into her new outfit when she left the girls
room that Friday evening, she had really not been in a very good mood
all day. She supposed that this was because it was a few days before
her periods. She felt a headache coming on but had not wanted to
disappoint Michael who had been looking forward to seeing the film for
so long. He was crazy about the sort of films with a lot of action and
when the hero was a girl he thought that it was the perfect film for
Lucy. She was just about to step outside when she saw that the rubbish
had not been put in the back, as it should have been. She would have to
do it herself because if she left it the boss would kick hell on
Monday, and she was the last person to leave. She cursed loudly, now
she would smell of rubbish all evening! Afraid that she would be late
she hurried away trying to avoid the puddles of water left by the rain.
It had been a wet cold day and it was no wonder thought Lucy that she
had been in such an awful mood all day. She hoped that she had not
missed the bus. It was a bit quiet in the streets today thought Lucy,
but she expected that that had something to do with the weather. It was
not even seven and it was already cold and dark, the park across the
street from the bus stop was deserted and there was a thick mist
hanging between the trees. Lucy stood shivering and tried to warm
herself by stamping her feet, which did not help much.
She had been standing at the bus stop for about ten minutes when she
heard someone approaching, she did not feel very comfortable standing
there in the lonely street all alone so she keep looking at the person
who came hurrying towards her.
The young man was a very attractive person with curling dark hair, he
was about her age, and when he greeted her with a pleasant smile she
wished him good evening quite happily
He was deeply tanned and was wearing the sort expensive clothes you
normally saw in those very jet-set magazines. She wondered briefly why
a young man so as he was standing in line for the bus but only briefly
because just then the bus approached with its usual noisy breaks and
they both searched for their tickets and got ready to step in.
Lucy walked immediately to a seat near the driver; her companion
stumbled his way through to the very back of the bus. There was another
young man already seated there but to Lucy's surprise he shifted to
make room for the new comer. Lucy looked again at the back of the bus
but then she settled into her seat and into her favourite pass time at
such moments. She let her mind travel to the meeting with Michael and
the film they were about to see. Ten minutes later she stood up to
leave the bus, Her eyes went to the back of the bus in an automatic
reflect of some one who wanted to say goodbye to someone the had just
met and had found to be a friendly person. Lucy could not believe what
she saw, the second young man was nowhere to be seen. The only person
in the back seat was a very attractive lady with thick curly black
hair. She was licking her lips with the pleasure of a person who had
just enjoyed a delicious meal. The other young man who first sat in the
back seat was nowhere to be seen. Lucy looked again and now the young
lady smiled and waved at her, she stepped out of the bus as quickly as
she could.
Michael was very surprised to receive a very big hug when he greeted
her at the snack bar.
For Lucy was the whole evening a complete disaster. Her mind kept going
back to what she had seen in the bus and she tried hard to make some
sense out of it. She was very happy that Michael found it such a good
film and the did not have to make out as they usually did in the
cinema, afterwards she pleaded a headache and for once Michael had no
problems with cutting the evening short. He was also very tired that
day because they had had a large shipment at the factory where he
worked a he was rather tired.

Lucy could not sleep. Each time she closed her eyes she felt a scream
bubbling up through her throat the next day at work she was so tired
that she made a lot of mistakes and was not very pleasant to the
customers so much so that the boss called her aside and asked her if
she was sick. She was after all one of his best sales persons. Her
behaviour became more and more erratic that week and finally her boss
had to let her go. At home her parents became more and more concerned
about her, she was rapidly changing from the pleasant balanced girl
they knew to a nervous stranger who walked the rooms at night
constantly peeking through the curtains and spent her days taking
cat-naps on the sofa. She did not let her parents out of her sight for
one minute.
When the police called that day to tell them how and where they had
found Lucy, they had immediately contacted their family doctor who had
been a very great help to them until now. He tried to make sense of
what Lucy told him but could only come to the conclusion that she was
having a mental breakdown. He arranged to have her admitted to the
hospital where she now was and which he knew was known as one of the
best in the district.
Lucy had just begun to feel save in the hospital and now she lay here
with the bile in her throat, the sound of the siren deafening her ears
and the thing she most feared standing at her bed. Lucy wanted
desperately to scream, but how can a puddle of liquid scream?