The Aperture

Chapter 25

Alyndia Has a Visitor

It was around noon when Alyndia got the call from the head nurse that a visitor had arrived who was not Will MacGregor. She quickly touched up her make-up, something she had bartered from another patient for a couple of tablets of Valium that she’d managed to procure from one of the orderlies for a small favor.

Once she was ready, the orderly named Sam led her down a stairwell to the meeting room on the first floor that was put aside specifically for meetings between the patients in her ward and visitors from the outside. As they approached the room, her heart began racing. In reality, this would be the first time she’d ever met Connie’s sister, Faith. She hoped she would be able to convince Faith that she was her sister.

Once they got to the room, the orderly unlocked the door for Alyndia and let her pass through. “Have a nice visit,” he said.

“Thank you, Sam.”

That was when Connie first laid eyes on Connie’s second oldest sister, who was two years younger than Joy and four years younger than herself. She was a short woman with a pleasant face, green eyes, and long chestnut hair, which she allowed to flow freely over her shoulders. She looked very little like Connie, except for a passing resemblance in the eyes and the bridge of the nose.

“Faith!” she said. Connie ran to her and embraced the woman, who embraced her in return. “I’m so glad to see you after so many years.”

“Hi, Connie. Wow! Joy was right. You look good!”

Both women sat down on one of the plush couches. They were the only two in the room except for three others sitting at a table at the far side of the room: a younger female patient whom Alyndia recognized from her ward and what appeared to be her parents. They spoke in hushed tones that could scarcely be heard from where they sat.

“Although I was glad to hear from you, I’m not so happy to hear they’ve got in a mental ward,” Connie’s sister began. “Joy said you had some sort of accident. You hit your head, or something.”

“Yes, there was an accident. But, to be perfectly honest, I was having a nervous breakdown even before that.”

“Why?”

“It was a lot of things: stress from my job, problems with my boss, problems with the guy I was living with. And basically, I was living an unhealthy lifestyle. Eventually, everything crashed down on me at once, and I couldn’t cope.”

Alyndia gave Connie’s sister a tale of woe made up from what she could recall about Connie’s personal life, embellishing it with the kind sordid details she'd gleaned from the lives of some of the patients in her ward whom she’d gotten to know. The sister nodded thoughtfully as she listened.

“Sounds bad. How are you feeling now?”

“Much better, I think. I want to get out of here as soon as I can. More than anything, though, I want to see mom. How is she doing?”

“Not well, I’m afraid. She doesn’t have long.”

The sister described Connie’s mother’s medical condition; Alyndia didn’t understand everything she told her, but what she did understand didn’t sound good. Alyndia recalled the deaths of her own parents, and it brought tears to her eyes. Connie’s sister seemed genuinely moved by Alyndia’s tears.

“You’ve changed quite a bit,” she said.

“Let’s just say I’ve become wiser.”

“You still work for the government?”

“Well, I did. Maybe not now. Actually, it doesn’t matter to me. If I lose my job after being here, all I can say is good riddance.”

“I can’t believe I heard you say that. You really, really have changed, Connie.” She looked down at the scar on Connie’s wrist.

“What is that?”

“It was caused by a bracelet that I put on.” She covered the area self-consciously.

“A bracelet did that?”

“Yes. It was an allergic reaction to the metal that was used.”

“An allergic reaction? It looks like it burned you.”

“That’s my fault. I let it go for a while before getting medical treatment.”

Connie had long ago contrived and perfected her “allergic reaction” explanation for the scar due to the curious questions of the other patients in the ward, who almost invariably noticed it and asked her about its origin.

Her sister shook her head. “I’ve heard of allergic reactions to metal, but to me that’s next level.”

Alyndia tried to steer the focus of the conversation away from her scar. “Listen. I’ve done a lot of stupid things in my life. The more I think about them, the more I regret them. And one of those things I regret is neglecting you and everyone else in our family. Love and family are the most important things in the world. Sometimes you only realize that when you’ve been without them for so long.”

Connie’s sister winced on hearing that.

“Did I say something wrong?” Alyndia asked.

“No. I just can’t believe you’re the same person I knew so many years ago.”

“Faith, I would do anything to love and be loved. It’s the truth.” An image of Gerald came into her mind. She desperately wanted to see him and hear his voice.

“You’re certainly not the Connie I used to know,” she said. “I don’t know if it was because of your accident or your treatment here, but you’ve definitely improved in my book.”

Alyndia smiled. “Thanks.” She took her Connie’s sister by the hand. “I’m so glad you could come to see me.”

“Once we found out you were here, we tried contacting you several times, but they wouldn’t put us through.”

“They don’t allow us to talk on the phone.”

“Not even with family?”

“No. It’s their rules. We’re not allowed phone contact with anyone from the outside while we’re here, although apparently we can accept visitors.”

The sister sighed. “I guess we just need to get you out of here.

“I would like that.”

“Who is your doctor?”

“I talk to a few of them. But I think the main one is a psychiatrist named Dr. Gilbreth. Frankly, I don’t trust him. He’s a sly one, always trying to trick me and catch me off guard. But don’t tell him I said so.”

“I won’t say a word. What about that doctor who called us—Dr. Kasabian?”

“Yes. He works here in the hospital, but not in this ward. He’s all right. You can pass messages to me through him.”

“I’ll remember that.”

Sam the orderly appeared at the door. Both women looked up when he did.

“Connie, it’s lunchtime now,” he said. “Would you like me to bring your lunch in here, or will you go to the dining room?”

Alyndia turned to her visitor. “Would you like to join me for lunch? We can catch up on things.”

“There will be time for that later. First, I’d like to talk to Alexander.”

“To whom?”

“Kasabian.”

“Oh!” Alyndia laughed. “I didn’t even know his first name. Yes. Talk to him if you want. Thank you, thank you! By the way, he’s from Armenia. Have you ever been there?”

“No, I can’t say I could even find it on a map.”

Both women walked arm-in-arm to the door of the meeting lounge where the orderly waited.

“Thank you again for coming, Faith. I’m so happy to see you again. And I’m really looking forward to seeing Mom.”

She smiled. “The whole will be happy to see you again, too, Connie. Oh, and by the way—” She drew close to Connie and whispered in her ear so that the orderly could not hear. “I’m not Faith—I’m Felicity.”

Alyndia drew back from Felicity, her eyes wide in horror at the grave mistake. At once, she wanted to cry.

“She couldn’t make the trip, so I came instead,” she added before Alyndia could respond.

Alyndia gasped. “Oh, Felicity! Forgive me!”

Felicity laughed. “Honestly, Connie, I don’t know how you could mix us up. Faith and I look so different from each other. But I’ll chalk it up to the number of years that have passed since we last saw each other.”

“I’m so sorry. I don’t know what to say. It must be all those medications they’re giving me in this place. And ever since the accident, I sometimes have memory lapses when I—”

“Oh, don’t worry about it! Like I said, you really do seem like a different person, and I think it’s a positive change.”

“Thank you for understanding.”

Felicity squeezed Alyndia’s hands to reassure her. “It’s all right. We’re sisters, after all, and haven’t seen each other in a very long time. In any case, I’m happy you’ve changed, and Mom will be, too.”