The knock on the door is loud.
“Time to go, Isabel!” A man’s voice. Isabel sits up in bed, alarmed.
“What?” she scrambles out of bed and jumps to the door. “What is it?”
She opens the door a crack and pokes her head out. An orderly is checking his watch.
“I’m here to take you over to the medical facility,” he says briskly.
Shit. “Um, I’ll be right there.” She closes the door and frantically scans the room. The window.
I could fit through it…I could climb out the window and run away. Shit. They’d find me. Plus, where would I go? Goddammit.
Reluctantly, she crosses over to the small chest of drawers and pulls on a pair of shorts, looking at the window as she buttons them up. She takes a deep breath to counterbalance the shallow ones.
One more time. One more time.
“Okay.” She closes the door behind her and follows the orderly down the hall and out of the unit. They walk in silence. Isabel concentrates on synchronizing her steps with the orderly’s.
Left. Left. Left, right, left. Left. Left. Left, right, left.
“The jelly’s cold, remember,” the nurse describes each step of the process. “I just…have…to…fix…the…suction…cups…to…each…side. There! We’re all set.” The nurse backs away and Dr. Edwards moves in to double-check that everything is in place.
Isabel watches Dr. Edwards fiddle with the dial of the electroshock machine.
Who you gonna call? Ghostbusters!