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row of beds and up another, until finally the two figures left, silently closing the door behind them.
All was dark and still, save for the murmur of restless sleepers. Cole fixed his gaze on a barred
window at the far end of the room. Moonlight slanted in pale rods to the floor, made an abstract pattern
of stripes and squares. For a long moment Cole stared at it, then quickly glanced around at the sleeping
patients. Without a sound he slipped from his bed. Walking stealthily between the others, he made his
way to the window and peered out.
Overhead the moon hung, its silvery glow filtering through the leaves of a solitary oak. Beneath the
tree a couple stood embracing. Moonlight glinted off the woman's dark hair and the curve of the man's
arm. Cole stared, entranced, his fingertips grazing the metal grille.
"It won't work. You can't open it."
Cole whirled to see someone sitting up in the bed nearest the window. It was Jeffrey Goines.
"You think you can remove the grille and but you can't," Jeffrey went on in a matter-of-fact tone. "It's
welded."
Cole turned back to the grille and gave it a perfunctory tug. In the moonlight, Jeffrey's teeth shone in
a grin.
"See? I toldja." He waved loftily at the darkened room around them. "And all the doors are locked,
too. They're protecting the people on the outside from us. But the people outside are as crazy as us..."
Jeffrey's voice droned on as Cole stared at the windowsill. A small spider crept across the peeling
paint, pausing now and then as though it knew it was being watched. Cole stared at it, fascinated, his
hand groping automatically for a specimen bottle at his waist.
"Shit." Jeffrey suddenly fell silent. There was a click from the room behind them. Alarmed, Cole
grabbed the spider and scrambled across the floor and back into bed, throwing the covers over himself just
as the door opened and an orderly peeked inside. The blade of a flashlight probed the darkness, resting
for a moment upon Cole's face, his eyes closed and mouth slightly ajar as he breathed softly. In his hand
he could feel the spider struggling to free itself. After a moment the flashlight clicked off. The door
closed. All was silent, until Cole heard Jeffrey's hoarse whisper.
"You know what crazy is?" Jeffrey went on, as though nothing had happened. " Crazy is majority
rules. "
Cole sat up in bed, barely listening as he peered into his closed fist at the spider. Jeffrey took a deep
breath and intoned, "Take germs, for example."
"Germs?" Cole shot him a look, the spider scrabbling furiously at his palm.
Jeffrey nodded. "Germs," he repeated earnestly. "In the eighteenth century there was no such thing!
Nobody'd ever imagined such a thing no sane person, anyway. Then along comes this doctor
Semmelweiss, I think. He tries to convince people other doctors, mostly that there are these teeny
tiny invisible bad things called germs that get into your body and make you sick! He's trying to get
doctors to wash their hands."
Jeffrey suddenly leaned forward, leering, eyes wide as he mimed astonishment. "What is this guy?"
he said in a funny high-pitched voice. " Crazy? Teeny tiny invisible whaddayou call em germs?!"
Jeffrey cackled. Cole glanced at him, then back at his hand, trying to figure out what to do with the
spider. Jeffrey continued, oblivious.
"Cut to the twentieth century! Last week, in fact, before I got dragged into this hellhole. I order a
burger in this fast-food joint. The waiter drops it on the floor. The he picks it up, wipes it off, hands it to
me like it was all okay..."
Cole nodded absently, holding his hand up to his face. Jeffrey punched angrily at the bedclothes and
hissed, "What about the germs?" I say. He goes, I don't believe in germs. Germs are just a plot they
made up so they can sell you disinfectants and soap. " Jeffrey gave a triumphant hoot. "Now, he's crazy,
right?"
Suddenly Jeffrey turned and stared at Cole with huge eyes. "Hey, you believe in germs, don't you?"
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