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The nurse didn’t seem charmed by the flattery, but she didn’t chase Mr Walker away, either She accepted his pill cup, got up froh a door behind the nurses’ station, into the little pharive him the pill he wanted

As soon as Nurse Makepeace disappeared through the door, Travis looked both ways to be sure Bryce Walker was the only person in the corridor, and then stepped out of his roo the pillowcase full of his clothes, he headed north, not running but walking fast and quietly

Bryce Walker glanced at him, nodded, and returned his attention to the open pharmacy door

At the north end of the ht into the east-west hallhich was deserted Mr Walker said the first room was 231, and Travis saw that number on the door The old man’s wife, Rennie, had died in that rooular hospital room were two unmarked doors Travis opened the second, as he had been instructed, stepped into darkness, and pulled the door shut behind hiht revealed a six-foot-square space, a landing from which a set of wooden stairs with rubber treads led upward

Travis kicked off his slippers and stripped out of his pajamas Quickly, he dressed in the clothes that he had been wearing when admitted to the hospital, and he put the pajary janitor with the nightstick, Travis expected to be scared during the trip from his room to his current position Instead, his fear diminished when he was in motion, to make room for the exciteain

With the waiting, his fear returned He wondered what the aliens were like if you could see through their huuise He’d read a lot of coination Soon the back of his neck and his palms were damp, and his heart beat faster than it had when he’d h the halls

Chapter 46

When Nurse Makepeace returned from the pharmaceutical closet with Bryce’s pill cup, it contained a capsule like the one that he had been given the previous evening

"You should have brought this to me much earlier," said Doris Makepeace, "the moment you saw the difference You’re now hours behind on the medication"

"I’ll take it at once when I return to my room," he promised

"Yes You h to h to have transferred the ht appear to be Bryce’s original prescription, when it was really a sedative

In his room, he flushed the capsule down the toilet and dropped the crushed cup in the waste can

Earlier, he had stripped the botto bedclothes to conceal what he had done In the bathroo Travis’s pearl-handled penknife, he cut the sheet into strips and ularly spaced knots that served as gripping points At a length of over twelve feet, it would coround to convince them that it had facilitated his and the boy’s escape

Now, Bryce took the blanket off his bed, folded it lengthwise, and rolled it for easy carrying He wished he had been brought to the hospital in street clothes His pajamas and thin robe were inadequate for extended exposure to this cool afternoon; with nightfall, he would be chilled to the bone The blanket was the best he could do

His roommate, as unco a Spanish-language

At the nearest , Bryce cranked open the two panes and leaned out He saw no one in the public parking lot that the three wings of the hospital embraced He tied one end of the bedsheet rope securely to the center post and dropped it The farther end dangled over the upper half of a first-floorHe would just have to hope either that the lower room was unoccupied or that anyone there failed to notice this develop up the rolled blanket, he went to the door of the room and scoped the corridor, which was as quiet as it had been forthis same side of the hallway Because it was recessed a couple of feet from the hall, he could not see Nurse Makepeace on her stool, only the outer edge of the counter at which she sat

And she could not see him if he stayed close to the wall as he hurried north All the way to the corner, he expected her or someone else to call out to him, but no one did

At the unmarked entrance to the roof stairs, Bryce rapped twice, softly, before opening the door, as they had arranged

Travis sat on the stairs, clutching the pillowcase containing his pajamas and slippers "We made it," he whispered

"This far, anyway," Bryce said

Chapter 47

Mr Lyss ca Poor Fred’s shoes and clean clothes He’d shaved with Poor Fred’s razor His gray hair was a little da out stiff every-ay His ears were as big and rumpled as before, but now they were clean, more pink than brown

He was still stooped and bony, his teeth were still gray, and his fingernails were still yellow and cracked, so he didn’t look like a whole new person, but he did look like a new Mr Lyss

"Your skin it isn’t so cracked like an old saddle any that as a compliment

"Your Poor Fred has several kinds of skin lotions and ht be part sissy, I don’t know But some of the lotion did wonders for the razor burn"

"So far I don’t have much whiskers," Nummy said "I seen this mustache once, I wished I could have one like it, but my lip just stays bare"

"Count yourself lucky," Mr Lyss said "Shaving is evenyour teeth People waste their lives being slaves to preposterous groo his teeth twice a day, five minutes each time, which over a seventy-year life is four thousand two hundred hours brushing his damn teeth That is one hundred and seventy-seven days Insanity You knohat I can do with one hundred and seventy-seven days, Peaches?"

"What can you do, sir?"

"What I’ve been doing all along--living!" Mr Lyss looked past Nummy and for the first time saw the kitchen table "What craziness have you been up to, boy?"

On opposite sides of the table were two plates, s, napkins, and flatware Between the plates were a dish heaped with scra, a stack of buttered toast, a stack of frozen waffles made crisp in the toaster, a plate of sliced haes, a container of chocolate rape jelly, strawberry jelly, and ketchup

"We didn’t get no breakfast at the jail," Nummy said

"We almost were breakfast We can’t eat a tenth of this"

"Well," said Nummy, "I didn’t knohat stuff you like and what you don’t, so Itih double and stay out of trouble"

Mr Lyss sat at the table and began to heap food on his plate, grabbing stuff with his hands that you needed a fork to get It was pretty clear that he’d never had a Grandht not eat so fast--or with so ly noise--if they carried on a conversation, Nuet to live all those extra days because you don’t brush, but don’t some teeth fall out?"

"A few," Mr Lyss said "It’s a trade-off Everything in life is a trade-off You kno e fool spends in the shower? Two hundred sixty-two days over seventy years! That’s an obsession with cleanliness It’s sick, that’s what it is You knohat I could do with two hundred sixty-two days?"

"What could you do, sir?"