DIARY OF A COFFIN DODGER CHAPTER H

CHAPTER H

The stench of cigarette smoke drifted over a secluded garden on the western side of Banksia late one afternoon. A place only accessible through a side door of the staff room.

About a month after my conversation with Zoe, Wendy, and Agnes, I sat on a bench in this garden.

I was near the end of my break as the smoke swirled around me, steeling myself to return to the ward.

The sight of three of the six cells in Banksia occupied by female adolescents zonked out and locked in solitary confinement was disconcerting. I looked forward to settling my agitation before returning to the ward by focusing my mind on the garden's beauty.

The seat rested against a brick wall, warmed by the setting sun, on one side of the open window of Mike's office.

I gazed at a garden bed where purple hydrangea blooms nodded under the caresses of a cool spring breeze. I smelt the aroma of wattle flowers as Blue Wrens chirped and scurried amongst the plants.

I heard a chair being dragged across a floor as two male voices drifted out through the open window of Mike's office.

'It's been another good shift, eh, Mike? We had some really nice chicks, absolute stunners, admitted to Banksia last night.'

'Yer, you're right, Alan. Nice boobs on both of them.'

I heard a drawer being opened as one of the men coughed.

'Care for a drink?'

'No need to ask, Mike. I know the quality of the Scotch you keep in that drawer. But you're looking down, anything you want to get off your chest?'

After a pause I heard Mike say, 'you know why I came here?'

'Nothing much, just that you were working in an asylum somewhere in the Hunter Valley and wanted a change of scenery.'

'Yer, there's that Allan and something else.'

The jangling sound of a phone ringing interrupted the conversation. The phone stopped as Mike continued.

'You see, Allan, one morning in the asylum where I worked, I did another relief shift in a ward for male schizos. but this time I was the only one on. Admin. were phoning around trying to get other staff.'

'Know that situation, well, Mike.'

'So, I started the morning showers.'

'There was this young guy, a nineteen-year-old schiz, Jason, always a bit toey.'

'Know the type.'

'Anyway, that morning, by myself, that young bloke gets real in your face, antsy.'

'So, what did ya do? Deck him?'

'Spun him around, put my arms around his neck and put a Sleeper Hold on him.'

'Smart move. Would have done the same myself. No good-doer types around to create a song and dance over nothing. Creating unnecessary dramas until they are dealt with. So, what happened?'

'Well, the young bloke falls to the floor but, when his eyes open, he's not fully with it.'

'Thank Christ! Mike! There were no do-gooders around. What did you report it as, attempted suicide?'

'Yep!'

'Mate! You're on top of the game! Next time we're at the pub, my shout of any top shelf stuff you like! So, where's the young fella now?'

'Human vegie in a back-ward.'

'Best place he could be. What sort of life does a schiz. have, eh? Look at the ones we have here. Been here ten, twenty years because we are the only ones who will take them in and look after them because society doesn't want them.'

'And, let's not forget, the New South Wales Government recognises the fantastic job we do. We are rewarded for keeping lunies off the street and scaring the tits off the public by being appointed permanent members of the Public Service. A job for life, Mike, a job for life.'

'Yer, I know.'

'So, what's the problem?'

'The young bloke has a sister, lives and works up in the North Coast somewhere, belongs to some weird Christian group. She cut up something rough when she came to see her brother.'

'She visited him when I just happened to be the relieving Charge Nurse in the back-ward for the day of her visit.'

'I went with her to the Day Room where the young bloke sat in a wheelchair near a window, staring into space. Lights are on but no one is at home, sort of situation.'

'Know it Mike, know it.'

'Anyway, she threw her arms around him. Carried on a right treat. Wailed and cried like she was at a funeral.'

'Rellies. Mike! Come on! We know they talk shit when it comes to lunies. They know diddly-squat about looking after them. That's why we're here.'

'I know. But I saw the sister after she said goodbye and left the ward.'

'I was in the Charge Nurse's office and I looked through a window and saw the sister, standing several yards away from the ward.'

'She was talking to one of the asylum do-gooders. A nurse who was meant to be working that morning shift with me.'

'Sorry to cut in, Mike. But you know we have a do-gooder in Banksia?'

The talking stopped and then continued with Allan saying,

'She needs to be sorted out. It's about time we had a peek-a-boo at that little notebook she keeps scribbling in. Anyway, as you were saying.'

'Well, the sister and that nurse talked and kept turning their heads to look at the ward. They were too far away for me to hear what they were saying.'

'At one point, the sister stared at the ward with a savage look in her eyes, you know, like when the missus gets really pissed off.'

'Know the look Mike.'

'Anyway, they eventually moved on.'

'So where is the do-gooder now?'

'Don't know. She left the asylum after that talk with the sister.'

'You think she might have seen and said something?'

'Well, maybe.'

'While I was in the bathroom sorting out the young bloke, I had this feeling that someone was behind me, standing at the doorway of the bathroom, watching.'

'But when I turned around, there was no one there. Know what I mean?'

'We're on the same page, Mike. A do-gooder is a wuss. Bloke's coming on late for a shift rush in to help a mate. They don't hang around doorways, getting their knickers in a twist.'

'I'm with you Allan.'

'But there's something else that's weird.'

Another pause in the conversation as clouds of pungent cigarette smoke drifted out through the window. The smoke caught my throat, but I dared not cough.

'I've never heard of a permanent staff member being transferred out, have you?' Mike continued.

'Can't say I have.'

'But some big wigs from asylum admin. who I had never seen came over to my ward, Ward 9, a Male Psycho-Geriatric Ward, a couple of weeks after I settled the young bloke.'

'They had a chat with me at my office.'

'They said it's best if I moved on before a coroner started asking questions.'

'That is weird. What's a coroner got to do with it?'

'I know, Allan. Anyway, the big wigs said they had arranged to transfer me to a position here, in this asylum, as Charge Nurse of a new ward for teenage girls, 'Banksia.''

'Yer, I can see why you're uneasy, Mike. But you're working with a great bunch of blokes who have your back. We really appreciate the way you've organised the rosters and the ward routines. Lovely young chicks to take for a wash of a morning while we do the concerned, caring father figure routine.'

There was silence from Mike's office as the smell of frying onions, sizzling steak and burning eucalyptus timber drifted into the garden. Somewhere beyond Banksia, a barbecue was happening as the sounds of children's voices floated on the evening air.

Mike broke the silence by saying. 'Yer, you're right. That's the best way of looking at things, isn't it?'

'Because we also don't have to be concerned about legal age and all that crap, do we, Allan?'

'That's right, Mike, we're just doing our job. And mate! That was brilliant how you scored a couple of cars for Banksia because you told admin. that community follow up was important once these chicks were discharged.'

'That sucked the do-gooders right in.'

'Now we get to see these stunning chicks in the privacy of their homes.'

'Mate! You've landed on your feet. You're living the dream. We're living the dream.'

'Yer, you're right Allan. I need to stop thinking about that do-gooder and what she might have said to the sister. Or whether a lawyer got involved because the do-gooder or the sister said something.'

'Anyway, only one of those two bitches was worth fucking.'

'The do-gooder was an ugly-looking chick. You would only fuck her if you were desperate and pissed as a fart.'

'But the sister, now, she was a different sort. Like the do-gooder here, a real spunk.'

'You're on the money, Mike, when you say that about the do-gooder. Bit of an ice-maiden, I hear, who probably needs a bit of warming up.'

The two men chuckling chilled me to the bone.

'So,' Mike continued, 'with the sister, I would have loved to have warmed her up. Wouldn't have minded getting my end in with her. But I think I pissed her off.'

Laughter, chuckles, and the sound of coughing cascaded through the window.

'Good one Mike.'

'But as you say, Allan, to work here is great. I come to work of a morning and see these stunning young girls.'

'And you're spot on when you say I'm working with a great bunch of blokes.'

'Good on ya, mate. Let's get to the pub. It's time to buy you that top shelf stuff.'

I heard a window closing as I sat, too frightened to move, my legs trembling, my heart pounding and my arms shaking.

My mind was an absolute whirligig of unsettling thoughts, as I didn't know whether to walk out of the asylum or return to the ward and finish my shift. Once my legs and arms settled down.

Though I stayed on, I wanted to 'keep scribbling' in my notebook, I contacted the asylum administration office the next morning. I took myself off the list of staff available for overtime shifts. Therefore, I never worked another shift in Banksia.

But a guy I knew, Wayne, did leave the asylum.

In asylum parlance, he 'went to Victoria' months before I spoke with Zoe, Wendy and Agnus.

However, he and I kept in contact.

When I told him, several months after I overheard the conversation between Mike and Allan about the rescue mission, he was wrapped.

He was only too pleased, therefore, to lend me his Burnt Orange Kombi on a night for a fervid imagination to conjure up yarns about ghosts.

That night clouded over as Samantha peered through the windscreen of the parked Kombi towards the windows of a ward.

I flicked on my torch and turned towards the back of the van and shone the torch over Clare.

She remained zonked out on the mattress.

The drool had stopped dribbling from her mouth, and her breathing rate was regular.

I turned back towards the front of the Kombi and switched off the torch as Samantha said, 'that light is still moving around.'

I shook my head and whispered, 'wonders will never cease. Like I said, this was beyond my expectations. I did not expect delays from a diligent night nurse doing a ward round.'

I looked through the windscreen at the light moving through the second storey of the ward.

'But aren't nurses meant to be doing ward rounds on a night shift?' Samantha asked.

'Yes,' I replied, 'but night nurses have a tendency to be plastered and zonked out, like the ones in the ward where we rescued Clare. Or not doing rounds because they are having it off with someone.'

'Like the male Night Charge Nurses in the Admin. Office who are supposed to patrol the grounds of the asylum at night.'

'God! I feel sick. This place is a never ending chapter of horrors,' Samantha replied.

'Anyway,' I said, 'let's give it a go. The nurse might have stopped their round by the time we reach the back door to the ward.'

Samantha nodded.

She opened the front passenger door and clambered out as I opened the driver's door and stepped out into the night.

I didn't dare mention my prays that male nurses hadn't stripped Jane and dressed her in an asylum nightie.

Samantha and I switched on our torches and made our way to the ward as a damp mist, carrying a whiff of a foetid swamp, swirled around us.

 We stopped at the door to the back entrance while I scanned the ward windows.

'The light has stopped moving. There is one light at the far end of the second storey. That's the night nurse's station.'

'Keep your fingers crossed Jane is not as bombed out as Clare,' I said to Samantha as I unlocked the door.

'Gawd! I pray she isn't,' Samantha replied. 'On top of what has happened to Clare, I don't want to think about that.'

I pushed open the door, and we stepped into a musty corridor.

As I had worked overtime shifts in this ward, I knew my way around it. Therefore, I knew of the other passageway that led off this corridor.

That one led past the Single Rooms.

Samantha was walking behind me as we walked along the musty corridor when, at the point of turning into that second passageway, I stopped.

A sudden shaft of light lit up the corridor that led past the Single Rooms.

A female voice called, 'is anyone there?'

'Hell! I whispered to Samantha, 'A conscientious nurse! Let's scoot'

Samantha clamped her hand over her mouth as, with careful, quick steps, we turned around and returned to the back entrance.

We walked through the doorway, which I had left open as I didn't expect anyone apart from Samantha and I, to be walking around the asylum.

I locked the door behind us.

We walked beside a cold stone wall away from the doorway towards a corner of the building.

The corner was a short distance from the doorway.

We ducked around the corner, switched off our torches and crouched down.

I was nearest the corner and peered around it as torchlight shone through the doorway as another female voice called out, 'is everything all right, Fiona?'

'Blimey!' I whispered to Samantha, crouched down beside me, 'two conscientious asylum nurses! What's the world coming to?'

'We'll next see Jesus Christ himself, walking across the water from Manly to Circular Quay if this keeps up!'

Samantha grinned and dug me in the ribs.

She whispered, 'stop making me laugh. Not now. It's not fair when I have to keep as silent as possible.'

A second beam of light joined the first.

Both beams scanned the area outside the doorway as I turned my head away and settled down beside Samantha.

'I thought I heard someone moving around down here, Sue, as I came down the back stairs on my way to the kitchen. So I walked up the corridor past the Single Rooms and turned into the corridor that led to the back entrance.'

'As I didn't see anyone in the corridor, I opened the door to have a look around. But this mist makes it difficult to see much beyond the doorway.'

'Yer, wise to check Fi. We read that memo at the beginning of the shift about vehicles moving around the asylum at night and furniture missing from the wards.'

'I swear to God when we started a round I saw vehicle lights outside the ward. Not headlights, but parking lights.'

'The sort of thing I expected a vehicle to be travelling on as it moved around the grounds when it had no right to be in the place.'

'But then this damn mist closed in, so I don't know where the lights went.'

I turned to say something to Samantha.

I grinned as she hissed, 'Shush! Not a word!'

One torch beam went out as Sue said, 'Anyway, Fi, it's time for a smoke. Do you think we need to phone the Night Admin. Office?'

'Have you forgotten who is in the office tonight?' Fi replied.

'Oh! Gawd! I did. You're right. The rutting those blokes do on their night shifts in that office, I swear, leaves the rabbits in their burrows for dead.'

Fi laughed as the stench of cigarette smoke drifted through the foggy air.

'Even if we did ring, those blokes are too busy bonking to answer the phone. Let alone to come out and have a look around,' Fi commented.

'They're as bad as the male nurses in Banksia. You heard Chloe went to the pub with them the other night and they gave her a Mickey Finn?'

'Yer, I did,' Sue replied.

'I thought she knew what they were like and just how dangerous it is to go out with any of those blokes. After such nastiness, how is she doing?'

A dark shape loomed out of the fog.

It moved towards Samantha and I.

Samantha said in a shaky whisper, 'which way will we run?'

'My legs are too stiff to run,' I replied.

'Keep your fingers crossed. Let's take a chance on not having to run. I'll flick my torch on and off. Ready?'

Samantha nodded.

I pointed my torch at the shape and, with a quick movement, flicked the torch on and off.

In the brief burst of light, a possum stopped and stared towards Samantha and I.

'Oh! My God!' Samantha whispered. 'This night is turning out to beyond the scares of any Hollywood horror I have seen.'

She shook her head and said, 'What are the nurses doing? '

With my heart rate coming down, I peered around the corner.

I watched the glowing red tips of cigarettes moving near the doorway.

'Still smoking and chatting,' I said as I sat back against the wall.

Fi had the thread of their chatting as she said, 'Yer, you're right. Those Banksia blokes are a nasty lot.'

'What happened to Chloe is the stuff of any girl's worst nightmare.'

'To wake up in the morning, in an unfamiliar bed, in a strange room. Your clothes scattered across the floor and you don't know what happened the night before.'

'But Cloe says she's tough and will get over it. Time will tell, though, if she is pregnant.'

'Those blokes need to be booted out of Banksia. Why that hasn't happened is beyond me,' Sue said.

'If any of my daughters ever need the sort of help this asylum is supposed to provide, I'll scrape the money together somehow and send them to a private clinic. Anyway, that's the smokes finished.'

'And that chill in the air gives me the shivers,' Sue added. 'So, time to close the door and get our supper. Let's take it back upstairs with us and finish our game of Scrabble.'

'Bloody hell.' I whispered.

'Don't you dare say anything about conscientious asylum nurses. They are doing what they are paid to do,' Samantha said.

'I wasn't,' I protested as I struggled to stand up. 'I was just going to say, I am so stiff from crouching down, I'll need to stretch out my legs.'

The possum scurried away as Samantha stood up.

'Well, if that's really the case,' Samantha grinned, 'I feel the same.'

I leant against the wall as the circulation returned to my legs.

'Ready?' I whispered.

'Yep!' Samantha replied.

We flicked on our torches and with cautious steps, made our way to the back door.

I unlocked it and, with slow movements, pulled it open.

I shone my torch inside and said, 'it's clear.'

Samantha followed me through the doorway, and onto the corridor leading to the Single Rooms. I shone my torch along it. 'It too is clear.'

However, not one room door jutted out into the corridor.

'A human being occupies everyone of those rooms,' I whispered to Samantha. 'Locked by the nurses, in solitary confinement. That's just disgusting.'

'Anyway, I haven't met Jane.'

'So, as we walk along the corridor, shine your torch through the glass slats of the door. Let me know when you see her.'

The aroma of coffee and toasted cheese and onion sandwiches drifted along the corridor as we started our walk.

At the third cell, Samantha, shaking with excitement, whispered, 'She's here! Jane's in here.'

I unlocked the door and pulled it open.

Samantha had a quaver in her voice as she said, 'God! Give me strength. My damn legs are like jelly. But I will do this for Jane.'

Samantha crept into the cell and bent over the bed.

'Can you wake Jane?' I asked.

'Yep, but she's a bit tipsy,' Samantha replied as she helped Jane climb out of bed.

'She's dressed in her own clothes?' I asked.

Samantha nodded as she held Jane steady as they walked out of the Single Room.

'Thank Christ!' I muttered.

'Right! Let's save the intro's for later.' I said.

'If you're ok with walking Jane to the back door, I'll meet you there. When you reach the end of the corridor, wave your torch and keep walking.'

'I'll walk to the other end and keep watch. I'll meet you at the back door. Ok?'

'Yep,' Samantha said as she and Jane, with slow, cautious steps, began Jane's journey out of the asylum.

As the smell of frying bacon and burning toast meandered through the damp air of the corridor, I strode towards the end of the passageway.

When I reached there, I peered around the corner, towards a light at the end of a long corridor. The sound of a radio playing a pop song and the smell of tobacco smoke and alcohol drifted around me as I turned around.

I faced the corridor with the Single Rooms and noted Samantha's and Jane's progress along the passageway.

When I peered around the corner again, the sound of a radio had stopped.

Two advancing shafts of light had now replaced the extinguished light at the end of the long corridor.

Two torch beams, moving in my direction, now lit up that passageway.

With my heartbeat racing, and my breath coming and going in gasps, I turned towards Jane as she waved her torch.

I signalled with mine, and with a sense of relief, strode back past the six Single Rooms, closing Jane's cell door as I did so.

As I reached the end of the corridor, Fi's voice echoed along the passageway.

'We forgot to check the Single Rooms when we were down here earlier. Will we do it now?'

During the pause that followed, I stopped and held my breath until I heard Sue's slurred reply.

'Nah! Let's do it later, after we have our supper.'

I took several deep breaths as I resumed walking towards Samantha and Jane at the back door.

I left the door unlocked as I followed Samantha and Jane through the doorway.

Standing on either side of Jane, while holding her arms, Samantha and I walked Jane towards the Kombi.

When we reached the vehicle, I opened the sliding door.

With Samantha’s help, Jane climbed in and settled onto the mattress.

Before Samantha climbed in to join her, I said, 'I'm going to double back and finish unlocking the down stairs doors of the wards where we rescued Jane and Clare. I'll also drive to a couple of other wards and do the same.'

I smiled and said, 'later, I will narrate the ghostly story behind this deed.'

'Apart from that, this action will create confusion and cover our tracks.'

Samantha nodded, climbed into the van, and lay down on the third mattress beside Jane.

I closed the sliding door and returned to the ward.

After I opened the downstairs doors, including the five remaining Single Rooms, I returned to the van as a playful, cool breeze worried the fog, scattering it into the night.

I climbed onto the driver's seat and drove to the ward where the male nurses had imprisoned Clare.

In that ward, I not only unlocked the remaining downstairs doors, but the upstairs dormitory doors as well.

I unlocked the downstairs doors of two other wards, then drove the Kombi back to the asylum’s back entrance and switched on the headlights.

With a sigh of relief and tears of happiness glistening in my eyes, I drove out of the asylum, up a laneway and onto Victoria Road.

The distant lights of the city never looked better as Victoria Road led the Kombi over the crest of Gladesville Bridge.

As the van descended the other side of the bridge, I headed through Drummoyne and onwards to Vaucluse, home, and safety.

When we reached our place in Wentworth Avenue, I parked the van on the front lawn near the porch, switched off the ignition, and doused the lights.

I heard the sliding door rattling open as I climbed out of the front of the van.

I met Samantha standing at the open back door of the van.

'We did it! We did it! We did it!' she said, with tears in her eyes, hugging herself and jumping with joy.

'You betcha!' I replied. 'We rescued both of them. I'll go inside, put on lights and turn down the sheets on the bed in the downstairs bedroom. We'll bed Clare down in there, OK?'

Samantha nodded.

When I returned, Samantha and I lifted and dragged Clare out of the Kombi and into the house. We entered the downstairs bedroom and put Clare on the bed.

I took off Clare's sandshoes and socks and placed them under the bed while Samantha loosened Clare's jeans.

I then rolled Clare onto her side, with her head on a pillow, and drew a sheet and blanket over her.

Samantha and I then returned to the Kombi, where we helped Jane climb out of the van.

Hand in hand, with slow, steady steps, Samantha and Jane walked into the house and upstairs to Samantha's bedroom.

I switched off the porch light and closed the front door behind me as I returned to the van.

After closing the sliding door, I climbed onto the driver's seat and drove the Kombi round to the back of the house.

I switched off the engine and said a prayer of thanks for Wayne lending me his Kombi. Reimbursement of petrol money for the journey to show my thanks was on my mind as I climbed out of the Kombi.

I first met Wayne when we worked a morning shift together in the asylum's Male Security Ward, Ward 29.

On that shift's morning medication round, I assisted a male nurse, Ken, with handing out pills as the inmates came to the clinic door of Ward 29.

One inmate, Garth, a six-foot giant of a man, didn't come for his tablets.

I asked Ken, 'where's Garth?'

'I gave him his pills earlier as he was getting toey,' Ken replied.

That answer puzzled me.

I chewed it over when, a few hours after the medication round, I went to the staff room to make a cup of coffee.

By that time, Ken, and the Charge Nurse, Adrian, and the another male nurse on for that shift, Clive, had gathered in Ward 29's Staff Recreation Room with several male nurses from other asylum wards.

Therefore, only Wayne and I remained looking after the ward's thirty-five male inmates.

I put coffee in a cup as the strangeness of Ken's answer kept going through my mind.

Then it hit me.

Garth had not received his medication, and I knew why.

I dropped the cup in a sink, sped out of the staff room and raced to the Day Room.

Where the ward's male inmates watched TV while smoking cigarettes or went to the toilets down a corridor that led off the locked Day Room.

When I reached this room, I unlocked the door and shoved it open.

As the door swung open, I gazed around the room.

The inmates had gathered at the side of the room closest to the corridor that led to the toilets.

Wayne stood in the centre of the room with his back towards me.

Garth, with his fists clenched, faced Wayne.

Garth's pacing brought him closer and closer to Wayne.

I yelled, 'Wayne! Run!'

Wayne spun around as Garth glared towards the doorway.

He screamed 'come here you fucking fairy,' as Wayne belted for the open door.