Jennifer. Residence of Grief. Viktor Khorunzhy

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СКАЧАТЬ still unknown, who walks whom,” William put it off with a jest while answering his friends’ questions about him being tired of taking his dog for a walk every day.

      But now, passers-by weren’t up to them: everybody’s attention was drawn by a mansion down the street, with two police cars and an ambulance parked next to it.

      Being slightly surprised, William came closer.

      On the lawn in front of the house, a girl was sitting on her feet right on the grass. Her long fair hair was tumbled and her shoulders were covered with only a thin camisole despite chilly weather.

      Meantime, a couple of policemen were standing at the porch and carrying on a conversation with a tall doctor in a white coat.

      “What happened here?” William asked a woman standing to his right.

      She measured him with her quick eye before answering; however, she seemed to find him trustworthy after all.

      “At first, they said some animal had sneaked into the house. But the police checked everything here and found no traces… poor Jenny! She’s not herself. She’s afraid of coming back in the house, so she’s sitting on the lawn.”

      William looked at the girl again, this time closer – her face seemed vaguely familiar. Where could he have seen her?

      She was sitting immotile, looking unseeingly straight ahead. Those eyes…

      It seemed she was the one he had seen near the theatre a couple of days ago. She was eyeing Radge so closely… Perhaps, William would have paid no attention to the stranger-girl, but she seemed so pretty to him…

      “What happened to her?” he asked the woman carefully.

      “Her parents died in a car crash. Funerals took place yesterday. Now she’s left a full orphan…”

      William distantly watched the doctor approaching the girl on the lawn. Having leaned over her, he was saying something, but she didn’t answer. She was like in some kind of a deadlock.

      Now William finally remembered: yes, yesterday he also saw her on the road to the cemetery. Surrounded by several women, dressed in all black, the girl seemed an impersonated angel of grief… If William had been an artist, he would have definitely made a drawing of her.

      Having taken Jenny by her hand carefully, the doctor helped her to her feet. They approached the ambulance car and the door closed after them.

      “Poor girl! What’s going to happen to her now?” having sobbed, the woman put a paper handkerchief to her eyes.

      Being made sit up by the scene, William paced down Kantalle Street quickly.

      Chapter 6

      Residence of Grief

      Ponderous bulk of a grey building showed in front of the eye unexpectedly, as soon as the car passed another turn of a narrow asphalt road. It was still Rose Street, though it seemed they had already been far enough below the city.

      Taking an unexpectedly zigzagging course through a pine forest, the highway ended with tall iron gates. Through its bars, a large courtyard and the building itself were discernible. To call the place a home was almost a blasphemy: barred windows and massive doors looked more like that of a prison.

      However, a social service woman that accompanied Jennifer was of a rather opposite opinion.

      “Here we are, dear. That’s your new home until you recover.”

      The girl silently pushed the car door open and got out of it. Her attendant took Jenny by her arm – as if for fear she might get lost on the way – and took her down the path peppered with fine gravel to the building with barred windows.

      Another five minutes later, Jennifer obediently sat down on an offered chair next to a tall wooden office door the social worker disappeared behind. Their conversation with a doctor was probably not in store for outsider ears, so Jenny had to wait patiently here, under the silent care of a nurse with plump, fat hips; her white coat was literally splitting on them. She came out of nowhere. The girl caught her frankly measuring stare, which made her feel even more bleakly.

      The door suddenly flung open; the social service woman’s face bent over Jennifer with a forced and tired smile.

      “You’re staying here, dear. You’ll be taken care of, everything will be just fine. You’ll recover soon. And I’ll be visiting you.”

      Jenny should have probably acted out some gratitude in response, but she only lowered her eyes in silence. Now she was completely devoid of all those stupid proprieties made up by people. That’s why she had to stay at a psychiatric hospital. And the social worker with her glued fake smile would be on the other side of barred windows from her in a minute. Because acting out kindness was normal. And experiencing grief and being afraid of staying alone in an empty house were symptoms of depression and paranoia that had to be treated…

      Dr. Roof himself appeared on the threshold of his office with the door cracked open. It was a middle-aged man with deep receding hair on his forehead. Despite some age marks, he could still be called attractive: a deep-chested, fit man with clayey features and wheat-colored hair.

      Instead of an expectable white coat, the doctor was wearing a perfect, elegantly cut black suit and grey silk shirt. Even his too much uncovered forehead didn’t diminish the man’s attractiveness. On the contrary, it suggested his mind of the highest rank – that was how a scientist or a poet could look like… However, the man standing in front of his new patient was neither – that was evident by his eyes: thorny and clinging, they sort of wanted to pierce the girl through. At short range, Jennifer thought his stare to be even more unpleasant than that of the nurse. The girl felt slight chill running down her spine.

      “Come in, Miss.” He made an inviting gesture with his hand, and Jennifer had nothing to do but enter his office, though there was nothing in the world she wanted less than being alone with that prickle-eyed man.

      Inside, the room looked more spacious than it could be assumed at first. A high ceiling, expensive furniture of dark wood, leather chair with a broad back – the interior would be more typical of a high-ranked official’s parlor than of a reception office of a psychiatric hospital doctor, kept by the government.

      “Take a seat,” he made another inviting gesture at the second chair – a more humble one – standing at the table. Having been hoisted in his seat, the doctor went on with eyeing Jenny thoughtfully.

      Having no desire to response to his stare, the girl was viewing the room: some certificates and commendations in expensive frames were hanging on the wall. They were probably to convince everyone that came here the hospital was really good, for there were so many neatly structured papers to prove it.

      There also was a large window, neat and light: it even showed a tip of the road and trees that were hustling farther beyond the territory of the clinic.

      Having forced herself to tear her eyes off the window, Jenny was suddenly surprised to notice another creature present here: a large white parrot in a cage hanging on a hook in the corner. It was sitting so stiffly that she had mistaken it for a dummy at first. But then “the dummy” moved, peered at Jennifer, then scratched its feathery side with its paw and froze in drowsiness again. For a second, the girl thought she had seen the bird before, however she failed to remember the circumstances of such an encounter.

      While СКАЧАТЬ