Dirty Secrets

Part 16

Behind Maisie, Lyla stood in line, a towel draped over her arm, bottles of shampoo and conditioner in her hands. Her jaw lazily dropped and a long yawn spilled out. In the shower line, drowsy girls rubbed their sleepy eyes. It was too early in the day for napping brain neurons to coordinate the full functionality required for speech.

Everyone knew the repetitive daily routine. Wake up and get in line at the bathroom for a super-quick shower. Then line up at the nurses' station for pill-popping time. Then stand in line at the cafeteria while trying to determine if there's anything on the menu that's remotely edible. The only variable was activity time. 

Would it be music today? 

Art therapy? 

Yoga? 

Dance? 

Please not role-playing. 

Lyla cringed at the thought of it. Role-playing was worse than group therapy.

The day nurse knocked loudly on the bathroom door, then yanked it open.

"Gimme a minute to pull my freakin' pants up," Natalie growled as she lurched out of the bathroom, her wet hair encased in a towel turban.

"Let's go," said the nurse, waving Maisie into the shower room. Maisie scratched her scalp through her pink hair then entered.

Lyla looked over her shoulder when she heard Shaniece exiting their room then trotting up the hall to the end of the line. She let out a disgusted sigh. Lyla turned away so her roomie wouldn't see her grinning.

Same thing every day.

"Hey, girl," Shaniece called past the four girls that separated her from Lyla. "Forgot my shampoo."

"I'll leave it in the shower for you."

Shaniece signaled her appreciation with a thumbs-up.

A few minutes later, when Maisie exited, Lyla entered the shower room, thick with steam. 

"Make it quick," the nurse grumbled as she shut the door.

Lyla turned on the shower and hastily shed her sweats, hoodie, and undies, then draped them over the towel rack.

She skated her feet beneath the straps of her flip-flops, then advanced into the shower stall fully aware that in less than five minutes, the shower would automatically turn off. That was non-negotiable. She squeezed a dollop of shampoo into her hands and worked them through her hair. While rinsing her head, she soaped her body with the diluted shampoo that drizzled from her shoulders.

She was startled by someone standing just outside the shower. With suds coating her face, her view was obscured. Nurses occasionally did shower checks to ensure that patients weren't injuring themselves or doing drugs. But Lyla didn't hear the door open or close.

"What?" she called, wiping the lather from her face. She raised her hands to demonstrate that she wasn't concealing anything. "See? All good."

No nurse. 

Lyla peeked out of the shower. She was the only one in the room.

Water in the stall rose quickly, animating long hairs trapped in the drain that tickled her ankles.

"Ew, gross." She grimaced, stepping further from the drain.

The ceiling light flickered and then dimmed. She muttered while struggling to open the cap on the bottle of conditioner. The light flashed then faded, the room now noticeably darker.

"What the hell," she grumbled through clenched teeth.

SPLOOSH.

The bottle slipped from her hands into the rising water. She bent down to retrieve it, startled when the drain gurgled then suddenly belched opened. While the pool of water emptied, something accessed the shower through the drain pipe. Some creature skimming the bottom of the stall circled her feet.

She burst out of the shower stall, desperately flailing for the towel.

The light pulsed then the room went black. In that dark moment, she heard thrashing in the water.

When the light briefly flickered on, she caught a horrifying glimpse of the glistening body of a snake escaping the shower onto the tiled floor. She heard the muscular body of the serpent slithering in her direction.

She wrapped the towel around her body with one hand, her other hand frantically feeling for the door handle. She shouldered the door open then tumbled into the hallway, wide-eyed and dripping wet.

"Where are your clothes?" the nurse howled.

Lyla pointed to the bathroom.

"The light's out. It's pitch black."

"There are boys out here. You can't be running around naked!"

The nurse's loud voice attracted male onlookers from the other end of the corridor.

"Who's naked?" someone asked.

The nurse pulled open the bathroom door. In the well-lit room, she discovered the shower still running. She found Lyla's wet clothes on the floor, bunched them up and thrust them at the shivering girl in the hallway.

Lyla shook her clothes, worried that the snake had taken refuge in them.

"They're all wet," the nurse huffed. "Go back to your room and find something dry to wear."

"You okay, girl?" Shaniece asked as Lyla loped past.

"Uh-huh."

She scurried down the corridor, towel clenched around her wet body. 

Tell them that the light went off. But that's all. Don't say anything about the snake. If you even mention the snake, you're never getting out of here. Keep it to yourself. Play the game.

                                                                                        ........

That evening in the Common Room, the regulars were stationed in their usual places. Lyla rested her head on Shaniece's shoulder as they curled in the overstuffed chair looking at the television. Natalie picked at her nails, leaning against the side of the chair.

Across the room, an intense game of Crazy Eights was in progress. At the other table, Maisie, the Seroquel hoarder, seemed hypnotized by the Pop-O-Matic die roller in the center of the Trouble game board.

"Six," Chip shouted with delight. He counted as he moved his game piece. "One, two, three, four, five, six."

"NO!" AJ wailed.

"Back to the pit of despair with you." He taunted, moving her game piece back to the starting line.

Packer laid on the floor, covering his ears with his hands. "SHHHHHHHHH!"  He was ignored.

When The Discovery Channel's "Building Off the Grid" came on, Bo complained. "Holy shit, nobody watches this."

"Language, please," the night nurse admonished him.

"Why can't we watch "Man Verse Bear" or "Naked and Afraid?" They blur out the butts and boobies."

"Language, Bo!"

Kids cracked up.

The nurse stood, her overly-plucked eyebrows furrowed, and announced, "TV time is a privilege. I could just as easily turn it off and send you to your rooms early. Is that what you want?"

"Just wanna watch something decent," Bo moaned.

"How about ESPN?" Packer raised his lanky arm. "Anybody ever hear of sports?"

"One more complaint and I'm turning off this television."

That was the end of the discussion. She plopped back onto the couch.

"Why she gotta be so extra?" Shaniece whispered.

Lyla glanced over her shoulder at the couch where the night nurse sat. Conspicuously absent were Eric and Clover. She knew the terrible reason that Clover wasn't in her seat but what happened to Eric? The whole situation was so tragic. They were a cute couple.