Hospital

 

Chapter 21

HOSPITAL

 

“Have you heard ? Tonight will be of use to us to see another side of the tourist life of the island. We must go,” Doom said to Irving. They were at a table hidden from the other tables by a screen.”

“I’ll take you to see it, it’s better you go accompanied. The ‘Pink Paradise’ is a very suspicious place,” Filo said, who had just joined up with them. The doctor and Irving exchanged glances.

“We’ll go,” said the doctor.

Irving got up saying, “I’m off to see if I can find Camette.”

 

He went back to where he had last seen her. Many people had already left and the exhibitions of the honey girls had finished and the voting papers had been collected. Only three buses remained out of the many that had taken the visitors to the party. This made the search for Camette easier. Irving found her in a café eating honey cakes. It was the second place she had stopped at after the doctor and Irving had disappeared.

“Hello, I’ve been looking for you.”

Camette looked at him with indifference, “What for? You got rid of me and went off with the doctor, who is nothing more than conceited and rude.”

“You’re angry.”

“Are you surprised? Some company you are!”

“You’ll get fat eating so many cakes.”

“Leave me alone, it’s the only sweet thing I have in my life.”

Irving thought it better not to mention anything about the party in the ‘Pink Paradise’ It was obvious that Camette was not in a good mood. “The bus is going to leave soon, coming?”

“Yes, I’m coming. What an unfortunate day! I suppose you’ll be going out with the doctor tonight.”

“Yes, but you needn’t be jealous. It’s better you stay in the hotel. As far as I know Sonila and Mavis aren’t accompanying Gus and Don either.”

“What are you up to?”

“We’re not up to anything,” Irving said as he and Camette boarded the bus, everyone else was already seated. Camette ignored the doctor, blaming him for taking Irving away from her.

 

Back in her hotel room, Camette showered and sat down to watch television. Over the next two hours she tried to concentrate on what was happening on the screen. It was very difficult because inside she was suffering from a high degree of nervous tension. What most put her nerves on edge was the fact that the two men didn’t take any notice of her. Camette’s thoughts towards Irving and the doctor at that moment were far from friendly. She needed to talk to someone and rang Sonila, “Hello, Sonila, it’s me, Camette, I’d like to talk to you. Irving and the doctor have gone out together.”

“And you’re jealous, right? They’ve gone to the same place as Gus and Don, it’s a night club, and there’s a contest for the woman with the best suntan tonight.”

“Why didn’t they tell me?”

“Probably so that you wouldn’t ask them questions that were impossible to answer.”

“If women are going to be there I don’t understand why they didn’t invite us,” Camette said, getting more frustrated.

“It’s not a place where a man takes a woman, it’s where they go to meet them,” replied Sonila.

“And you let Gus go there!” exclaimed Camette.

“Gus gets excited about all things feminine. He likes the idea of having other women, but I think he lacks the nerve.”

“That’s between you and Gus. I’ve got other problems. I see that the film on the television has finished, I’m going to read for a while. Is Mavis with you?”

“Yes, like to join us?” Sonila asked.

“It doesn’t matter. Thanks anyway,” Camette  hung up.

The book that Camette had chosen dealt  with the island, the customs, the people, the villages, the legend, etc.

“I’m fed up with the fish, the island, with every thing and everybody!” screamed Camette at the same time throwing the book into the wastepaper basket.

 

Sonila and Mavis were sitting in the former’s room playing cards.

“We’ve got to help Irving and Camette,” Sonila said.

“You always say the same thing. How are we going to help them?”

“Since the plane crash with the doctor aboard, something in the atmosphere has changed,” Sonila declared.

“I think he’s a nemesis,” said Mavis.

“Who?” asked Sonila.

“The doctor. You’ll see whether I’m right or not,” said Mavis very sure of herself.

“Concentrate on the game, I prefer not to think about peculiar things tonight.”

 

All three women were unaware of the exact whereabouts of the doctor and Irving at that moment. The doctor had recognised some of the passengers from the plane he had travelled in and approached them. “How are you? Has anyone suffered any trauma or nervousness since your arrival here?”

“No, Doctor. I think we are all well,” replied one of them.

“Have you visited the village that is having a party?”

“Yes, it’s very pretty. The honey girls look a bit strange being of only one colour and transparent too,” responded a woman.

“Yes, is there any one of you who knows how the pilots are faring?”

“No, Doctor, no one has seen them again. We’ve commented among ourselves that it’s not normal this lack of information about them.”

“Thank you. See you later,” said the doctor as he and Irving set out for a walk.

“Listen, Doctor, why don’t we go to the hospital? After all it’s where they are being kept.”

“How are we going to get in?” asked Doom.

“I’m not going in, you on the other hand are. I’ll distract the doctor on duty while you look for them.”

“Do you know where they are?”

“They are on the first floor in intensive care,” replied Irving.

“How do you know?” asked the doctor.

“It’s what they said on the news.”

Irving pretended to have had an accident. Moaning and with his hands on his head. He had dirtied his clothes to make it appear more realistic. When the doctor saw Irving talking to the doctor on duty he managed to get into the hospital. Due to the time there was hardly any staff in the corridors. The typical night time hospital silence reigned. There was a night nurse on duty seated at a table. “Do you want something?” she asked the doctor.

“I want to know how to open the bathroom door.”

“Is it stuck?”

“I think so.”

While they were talking the doctor didn’t miss even the smallest detail. The nurse got up and accompanied him to the bathroom, and as he had declared, the door wouldn’t open. “This just isn’t on,” she said. “I’m going to ring downstairs to see if it can be repaired tonight. There’s another bathroom down the corridor.”

“Thank you very much.” He had to pass by the intensive care units to reach the end of the corridor. Not one of the occupants corresponded to the two pilots.

The nurse was thinking who that man might be and why she hadn’t asked him for some kind of identification. What had just happened to her was common among women who met up with Doctor Doom. In the morning, she would have forgotten everything except his deeply intense gaze.

Half an hour later, walking with Irving towards their meeting with Filo, Irving asked “Are you sure they aren’t in the hospital?”

“Very sure. If they were still there, there would be guards outside and inside the intensive care units, instead of just one nurse controlling the patients with the help of a monitor.” The doctor looked thoughtful and Irving didn’t refer to the subject any more.

 

A launch was anchored some distance out to sea, and a long way round the coast from where the caves were, and sent out a signal with flashing lights. From out of the darkness of the sky a helicopter appeared from which a rope ladder was lowered. On the deck of the launch there were two groggy men �" the two pilots. They were accompanied by Osman and Jorge, who helped them get up the rope ladder and then returned to the launch. When the pilots were aboard the helicopter, the launch returned to the island and the helicopter disappeared into the night.