The Dream Pill (3 of 4)
Kevin is furious at Mark for not telling the whole truth about the pill. He asks Mark to find Diane.
thirteen
“You failed to tell me there were real people in these dreams,” I said when Mark answered my phone after the fifth ring.
“So that’s how it works…”
“Mark!”
“I offered you the manual. You didn’t take it.”
“You know why I didn’t. And still you let me ramble on about the whole subconscious thing.”
“It was fun. Very illuminating.” By the tone of his voice, I could tell he was having a good laugh.
“That’s just bullshit. You should’ve told me.”
“But didn’t you say you were a researcher? Didn’t you research the pill before you took it?”
What an utter idiot I was. The exhaustion didn’t help either. I hadn’t slept the whole night after I left the dream. Now I was on my fourth coffee, praying Mark would deliver again.
“Never mind,” I said. “I need your help.”
“If you’re looking for more pills, I’ve run out.”
“It’s not the pills.” I filled him in on my encounter with Diane, omitting the details.
“So she’s not Miss Zeigarnik anymore?” I could almost see his wide grin.
“I need to hire you.”
“Don’t.”
“What?”
“Don’t try to find her. You’ll regret it.”
“Why?”
“What if she has a husband and a bunch of kids? Or… looks like me?”
“I don’t care what she looks like. I want to be her friend.”
“Is that what she wants?”
“She doesn’t know what she wants.”
“So, you know better?” Was he mocking me?
“I want to see her again.”
“Take another pill.”
“I don’t think it’ll work this time. It has to be mutual.”
“You mean she doesn’t want to see you anymore?” He snorted. “Were you that hopeless in bed?”
“Are you going to help or not?” My patience was waning.
There was a pause. Then Mark asked, “You want to be her friend? Is that it? What if you want more when you see her? A dream is safer than reality.”
“It’s a lie.”
“You just spent a night with someone you knew and still say that?”
“I want to see her. During the day.”
“Why?”
“That’s what friends do.”
He sighed.
“Will you help me, please?” I asked. “You’re the only one I know who specializes in finding people. I’ll pay you whatever you want.”
“Payment is not a problem. I’ll do it. For you. But I’ve warned you. Remember that.”
“I will.”
“Send me all you have on her—anything helpful, even from your dream—and I’ll get back to you as soon as I find something.”
“Thanks, Mark.”
“Don’t thank me yet. This isn’t going to end well. You’ll regret it.”
“Never.”
I didn’t have to wait long, because Mark called just a few hours later.
“You found her?” My heart leaped in anticipation.
“I only needed two hours.” Pride was evident in his voice. “So, I won’t charge you anything.”
“Well?”
“But you do owe me a beer.”
“Sure, Mark.” I ground my teeth. “I’m extremely grateful. But can you tell me what you discovered?”
“You’re so impatient.”
“Do you want that beer?”
He paused, as if considering my question. But I knew he just wanted to torture me more. Finally, he said, “The good news is she’s single. No kids, either.”
“And?”
“And she has lots of time. You can visit her whenever you like.”
“That’s a relief.”
“During visiting hours.”
“She’s in jail?”
“No. Although that would be funny, eh?”
“Mark!”
“She is in a special clinic for comatose patients.”
My body went numb. “Fuck me… Is she in a coma?”
“For almost three years.”
“But…” My mind raced. “That’s around the time we—”
“I know.”
“That’s why she never responded to my calls or messages,” I muttered, more to myself than to him. “Something happened, and she ended up in a hospital. All these years… I should’ve looked for her. Helped her.”
“Don’t blame it on yourself.”
“It didn’t cross my mind until you suggested it,” I lied.
“Sorry. Still want the address?”
“Text it to me.”
fourteen
The room was smaller than I anticipated. It seemed people confined to bed required less space. I braced myself for the sight of multiple tubes sticking out of Diane’s body, but the only thing keeping her company was a cardiac monitor that beeped steadily beside her bed.
I settled into a chair and studied her. Her face appeared unnaturally pale, but somehow she looked younger than in my dream. Her breathing was steady, as if she were merely asleep.
She had been here for three years. I could press the receptionist for more information, but it was clear she had already shared more than she intended.
So this was why Diane didn’t want me to find her. Did she fear I’d reject her once I learned of her condition, or was she afraid I’d only visit out of guilt or pity?
I reached out to touch her hand. It felt icy cold.
“Amber told me you’re an old friend?” a male voice spoke from behind me.
I spun to find a young guy in a nurse’s uniform standing in the doorway.
“I requested to be alone,” I snapped.
“You’re not family. I had to check. You’re lucky Amber even let you in.”
“You’re the one who looks after Diane?”
He nodded, stepped into the room, and closed the door. He took a seat on the opposite side of the bed with a confidence that showed he did it regularly. “She never has visitors, you know. There was this elderly woman who kept coming by, but she stopped about a year ago. I assumed it was her mother, but apparently Diane’s an orphan. Do you know who that could be?”
I shook my head.
“She was old,” he said. “She might have passed away.”
“Everyone dies eventually. It’s just a matter of time.”
“Not Diane. She would never choose death.”
“How would you know?” I looked at him. “Wasn’t she in a coma when they brought her here?”
“I’m the only one who comes here to talk to her.”
“Talk to her? How? Does she even hear anything?”
“Nobody knows for sure. But it’s the thing I do.”
“You talk to other patients, too?”
“They have regular visitors. She doesn’t.” His expression softened as he looked at Diane.
“Who pays for her treatment?”
“Treatment?” The guy snorted. “There’s no treatment. Her insurance covered the costs for a time. Now, we get anonymous donations in her name.”
“Do you have any idea who the donor is?”
“That’s the point of anonymous, isn’t it?” He looked away. Was he hiding something?
“Anything else you want to tell me?” I pressed him further.
He studied me for a moment. “I already told you too much.”
I glanced at Diane. “We used to work together. I’m her close friend.”
The nurse arched an eyebrow. “Close friend? And you haven’t visited her since she arrived.”
Something clenched in my chest and wouldn’t let go. “I just found out,” I whispered.
Should I tell him about my recent date with Diane? And how did she get her hands on the Dream Lover pills? She needed them for our meeting, and if anyone could get them to her, it had to be this man.
I took a deep breath. “Why do you give her the Dream Lover pills?”
fifteen
The nurse recoiled so sharply, he nearly toppled his chair.
“I know it’s you.” Even if I didn’t before, his reaction left no doubts about it. “But why? Why would you do this to her?”
He licked his lips. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“I met her last night in a dream.”
“You did?” His mouth pressed into a tight line.
“That wouldn’t be possible if someone hadn’t given her the pill.”
“So what? It could’ve been someone else.”
“If you don’t tell me, I’ll go ask more questions elsewhere. Her blood test would show something. Who do you think they’d ask next?” I narrowed my eyes.
His face drained of color. “I was trying to help. Others take those pills too. That’s the only way they can communicate.”
“So, you did it out of kindness?”
“Yes.” He gave a sigh of relief. “I even shared a dream with her once. It was hard to get her to see me in the dream, but she must have heard me after the hours I spent talking to her, describing myself. I explained her current condition and her financial troubles. And then the money started to come in.”
“Coincidence?”
He shrugged.
“How do you give her the pills?”
“The same way she gets her food—through an NG tube connected directly to her stomach.”
“But why? You don’t do it to other residents, do you?”
“I…” he stammered. “She was so…”
“You had a crush on her.” The moment I said it, his cheeks flushed crimson.
“She was all alone here! Nobody came to see her, not even you. Some old friend…” He gave me a disdainful look. “I thought if I got her the pills and explained what happened, she’d be able to wake up. If I stimulated her strongly enough...”
“Stimulate how?” But I knew the answer before he spoke. “By having sex with her in the dream?”
He jumped out of his chair, sending it skidding backwards. “What do you know? I bet you didn’t go into her dream just to talk! You’re one of them.”
Now it was my turn to blush.
“So, stop speaking to me as if I’ve done something wrong. At least she has some semblance of life. And no, we didn’t have sex.”
He had a point. If I were in the state of suspended animation Diane was, I’d want to see people in my dreams. Or die.
But what did he mean by suggesting I was one of them? Who did he have in mind?
“The money she receives… Are you sure you know nothing about it?”
He crossed his arms.
“When did it start coming in?”
“A few weeks after I started giving her the pills.”
“How can you afford them, anyway?”
He shrugged. “Other patients get them. It’s enough for her needs.”
“You mean you steal them?”
“Would you rather that I do nothing?”
“How often do you give them to her?”
“At first, it was twice a week. Now it’s every twelve hours.”
“And nobody noticed anything? The missing pills? Do they check her blood? I don’t believe you.” I touched Diane’s forehead—it felt as chilly as her hand. “The pills can’t be harmless to her body. I’ll have to discuss it with her doctor.”
“Please don’t.”
“Then tell me more!”
He glanced at the door, probably wishing he had never come. His face settled into resignation. “I get the pills with the money.”
“But you told me the money comes anonymously to the clinic in Diane’s name.”
“Yes, but… some of it I receive with the pills.”
“So someone wants you to give her the pills and pays you for it?”
He hesitated, his distress palpable. “I don’t know their name.”
A sickening thought slithered through my mind like a vile snake, sending my temper soaring. “I know what you’ve done… She’s selling herself in her dream to get the money to stay here. And you are her pimp!”
sixteen
“They were going to throw her out!” His gaze shifted back and forth between Diane and me, burning with intensity. “Because of the outstanding bills. She wouldn’t have survived in a state-owned facility. You don’t know how it is there. I worked in one of those… hospitals.” He air-quoted the last word. “They would’ve sold her for parts. I’m not kidding. I had no other choice.”
“So, you auctioned her off to the highest bidder?”
“You think I forced her to do it?” His voice shook. “She wanted to live. She told me that when we met in the dream.”
I willed myself to calm down. “How is it even technically possible? You need to imagine the person you want to see in your dream before falling asleep, and from what I can tell, Diane never wakes up.”
He took a deep breath. “I don’t know. But next time I visited Diane, she asked me to give her the pills regularly. She said someone would contact me to arrange everything and I should do as they say.”
“And?”
“A woman approached me and gave me the pills and the money. She wanted me to take some photos of Diane. From what I know, their arrangement is: Diane does what they want, and they pay her bills. My part is to give her the pill every twelve hours.”
“But why would someone want to see her? Why not see different girls every night?”
“It’s not safe anymore,” he said. “You can’t guarantee someone who recognizes you in the dream won’t try to blackmail you in real life. That’s why I never learned who they are. I only met that woman. I thought you might be one of them. And Diane can appear different each time. From what I know, she’s perfected it. She’s like a witch. She can do whatever she wants in her dreams. And these guys… They’re big players. It’s a perfect arrangement for them. No risk she’ll get to them in the real world, because she’s—”
“… comatose,” I finished for him. “With no family.”
He nodded.
That made sense. It also explained what she said about leaving the dream. She lied about the safe word—she didn’t need it. She had somehow learned to leave one dream and enter another.
I’d rather die than sell myself like that, but Diane was different. She wanted to live, even at a high cost. And if she chose that path, who was I to stop her? I could try to, but it didn’t mean she’d listen.
Damn it! This was too much for me. I had to talk to her again. Maybe there was another solution? There had to be.
Something else bothered me. “If she gets the stuff all the time, how is she supposed to ever wake up? Doesn’t the pill keep her in the dream?”
“I do what she asked me to do.”
I clenched my fists and forced myself to stay in my seat, even though I wanted to grab this fucker’s throat—but if he called security, I’d risk not being able to visit Diane in the future. So, instead, I merely glared at him, conveying as much fury as I could through my gaze. It must have worked, because he looked terrified of me.
“You will not help them anymore,” I said. “And stop giving her the pills. Or I’ll speak to your boss. You think firing you will be enough for him?”
“Don’t you think it’s her decision, not yours?”
My resolve wavered. He was right. I shouldn’t decide for Diane. It was her life, not mine. I could try to talk her out of this, but that was all. And I needed him to give her the pills if I wanted to see her again in the dream.
“Fine,” I conceded. “I’ll talk to her first.”
Jack got up. “They won’t like it. They’re powerful. They’ll ask what happened.”
“That is why you’re not telling them anything. You’ll keep it to yourself. I can’t stop them from taking the pill and thinking of Diane, but I can persuade her not to meet them anymore.”
“What about the bills? If they stop paying—”
“I’ll take care of her bills. Give me your phone number.”
He did that.
“Now, go.”
He rushed out of the room.
I leaned down and kissed Diane’s forehead. “I don’t know if you can hear me, Diane, but I’m going to get you out of this mess. That, I can promise.”
Exiting the building, I strode forward with unwavering confidence, ready to take on any challenge. The impossible task of waking Diane from her coma was no exception.
Even though I wanted to talk to her at once, I had a lot to consider. The sensible thing was to learn what her chances were before I tried to convince her to give up her current lifestyle. If Diane was never able to wake up, this way of life was better than nothing. I shouldn’t expect her to decide unless I had a reasonable alternative.
What I needed was my old friend Brian—a psychiatrist with whom I had worked in the past. He worked with comatose patients before, so he might be able to help.
And there was another person I had to talk to: my lovely wife, Fiona.