Read Online Low by Anna Quon - Free Book Online Page A

falling from them. If only she could sleep. The sunlight glittered on the surface of the harbour. To Adriana it was like a man cheerfully leering at her; the sun was so unreachable from the cave she inhabited, that its very existence seemed questionable. She closed her eyes and let the darkness of her own mind, a familiar darkness, shelter her.
    She woke to the sound of a telephone ringing in an empty room. Fiona stood at the foot of her bed. “I bet you’d sleep through an earthquake, what?” she said, smiling. Adriana blinked. The fire alarm was ringing. “It’s just a drill,” she said, “but we have to go outside.”
    Adriana got up and made sure her johnny shirt was tied in back. Fiona handed her another one to wear as a bathrobe, covering the gap in the back and took Adriana’s coat and boots, from the locker. “You’re going to need these,” she said. Adriana put them on. They were about all she had, until her father brought her things from home.
    The hallway was full of people. They gathered at the end of the hall near the fire exit. A nurse with a clipboard hurriedly checked to make sure all were present. “Okay, everybody, follow the dude with the red hat.” A male nurse wearing a red toque put his hand up and waved.
    Redgie, silent and stoned-looking, walked past Adriana without saying a word. The woman in the red parka clutching her purse, muttered something about the stupidity of the drill, and how she couldn’t even have a smoke, which was the only reason she’d even go outside. They were a motley bunch, Adriana thought, watching their strange, shuffling gaits in boots too big or two small, jackets open over their johnny shirts.
    They made their way downstairs and outside onto the back lawn. There were other groups of patients and nurses. Adriana could tell who the nurses were, sticking together in little groups, talking animatedly and laughing. The patients were the ones that seemed adrift, barely hanging on to the group. At the far end of the lawn was a swing set, where patients sat on the swings without swinging, their feet dangling on the ground.
    Redgie kicked at a tuft of grass. “Whatcha doing, Redgie,” a tall male nurse asked, his voice tinged with accusation. Redgie muttered something and walked away. “Stick with the group Redgie,” the nurse called, then started walking after him. Redgie broke into an awkward run, tripping and sliding down the grassy hill. At the bottom he stumbled, and ran again, as the nurse called for help. A couple security guards joined the chase and tackled Redgie when he got to the sewage pond.
    Adriana could hear the male nurse asking Redgie why he ran, and Redgie, sputtering with angry tears, shouting, “I hate it here. Why won’t you let me go?” A nurse nearby chuckled and said something in a low voice to Fiona, whose smile tightened. She didn’t say anything but moved away from the nurse to talk to the woman in the red parka.
    â€œMarlene,” she said. “Are you going to bake some more of those yummy oatcakes you made last week in Occupational Therapy?”
    Marlene thought about it for a moment. “Well, I was thinking of making brownies,” she said seriously, then smiled. “You liked my oatcakes, huh?” She puffed out her chest.
    Fiona nodded, her eyes big. “But I’d take a brownie!” she said and gave Marlene’s arm a squeeze.
    Adriana felt mildly uncomfortable. Something about the way Fiona gazed at her, as if to make her complicit in this exchange. Adriana was alert to condescension even in its most seemingly benign forms.
    Someone shouted “All clear!” and people began to filter back inside. Adriana noticed her little group was much smaller than the two other units’ crowds of patients. Redgie went straight to stand in front of the med room door, but the nurses ignored him. Marlene sagged into the rocker in front of the