Lonie39

Audrey parked the car between a red Mini and orange Volkswagen Beetle. Lonie had a recurrence of stomach cramps. They made a run through the wind and rain to the secure unit. No matter how many times Lonie rang the bell no one answered. Goldenwell seemed better designed to keep people out than to keep patients in. They were eventually buzzed in and were escorted through each set of checkpoints. Brother Jerome and Connelly left them standing at the office door and marched efficiently away. Father Campbell was his usual perceptive self. From behind his desk he rose to meet them and offered Audrey and Lonie a cup of tea and promised biscuit. That made Lonie feel slightly less woozy, but only a Woodbine worked its easy magic and made him feel better.

‘Ah take four sugars.’ Lonie reminded Father Campbell who had crossed the room and was standing hunched up at the door.

‘Just black.’ Audrey's eyes blinked rapidly.

‘Whit’s the matter with you?’ Lonie reached across. She was sitting in the chair next to him. No one was about, but he glanced behind him just to check. He slipped his hand into her long tapered fingers.

‘I don’t know. It’s just this place gives me the creeps.’ Audrey pulled her hand away. She looked out the office window and down the passageway. She could make out Brother Connelly and Jerome walking towards them. ‘It’s just I feel as if I’m in a jar and the lids been screwed down.’

‘Snap.’ Lonie grunted. ‘These places are aw the same. Now you know how Ah feel.’

Larry Murray broke from the loose gap between his two escorts and slammed against the office window, making Audrey shriek and Lonie jump back

‘I can smell burning,’ shouted Larry. ‘The fires of hell have been loosened to allow for a new guest.’ His voice rose to a mocking alto. ‘Audrey, oh Audrey, we’re waiting for you. We’re waiting.’ His nose and cheeks were squashed up against the window. ‘Smell the fire. Smell the burning. There’s always room for another troubled soul.’

Lonie smacked the window with the palm of his hand, making Larry jump back. He grinned like a school boy in triumph. Brother Jerome and Connelly eyed him through the window as they would a miscreant, but made no effort to rein in Larry. They resumed their soft shoe shuffle behind Larry, one on each side. Audrey kept her eyes focussed on Lonie's face. Something about the uneven ugliness reassured her. She didn’t want to look at Larry. Despite the heat from the radiators she was shivering. Larry stopped some way down the corridor, near the turn off to his bedroom. The port-wine stain on his face at that distance looked like the plant growth of some malicious weed. But his voice had a bell like quality. Every word he spoke even from a distance was discernible. ‘That accidental fire that killed your mother and father wasn’t an accident.’ He angled his head as if listening to a faraway noise. ‘Your sister screamed and screamed. The firemen said she must have felt nothing, would have been suffocated. But she had enough air to scream. Ahhhhhhhhhhhh,’ screamed Larry, his voice like a fire alarm, before Brother Connelly bumped with his hard body, knocking the wind out of him and Brother Jerome pushed him roughly along the corridor.

‘I’m sorry about that.’ Father Campbell came from the kitchen area, holding a brown Bakelite tray with a silver teapot, mugs, a sugar bowl and plate of biscuits. He manoeuvred the tray down on the table in front of Lonie, edging a crossword and pen out of his path. Rather than serve the tea he turned towards the door and made the sign of the cross. ‘May the Peace of Christ be upon you always. The Father. The Son. And the Holy Ghost.’ Only when he had finished with his priestly duties did his eyebrows raise. He played mum and poured everyone’s teas. Audrey's cup clinked against the saucer, which shook as she took it from his hands.

‘You’re disturbed child?’ Father Campbell’s words were softly spoken, but felt something of a salve to Audrey.

Her two hands worked to control the cup in her hand. ‘How does he know these things?’

He held out a mug for Lonie with an amused smile on his face and watched him shovelling spoonfuls of sugar and stirring the tea with rapt attention. The red wound of the stigmata were red as a fire hose. Father Campbell spoke quietly. 'He listens with his body and soul. He hears voices and sees hallucinations. Ghosts and angels and devils appear to him more real to him than you or I. He has no filter to protect him from diabolic interference. But it is more than that. He welcomes and makes a home for demons. He has power and can hear the lies in your heart more easily than you can hear my voice. But he worries a lie, twists and turns it, until it holds like a lanyard and sounds very like the truth.’

‘He scares me.’ Audrey sipped at her tea to calm her nerves.

‘He pisses me off.’ Lonie dunked a Digestive in his tea.

Audrey sighed. ‘But what can we do?’

‘Don’t listen to him.’ Father Campbell patted Lonie on the shoulder. ‘Take a leaf out of your colleague’s book. Give the devil short shrift. Ignore him. Because of his great pride that infuriates him.’

‘I don’t know.’ Audrey’s eyes looked like spilling over into tears. ‘How can we know?’ She struggled to find the words, her cup clinking against the saucer, ‘what is a lie and what is the truth?’

‘My child.’ Father Campbell placed his hand gently on Audrey’ s head. ‘The greater truth you have inside you, the easier the lie is revealed. Read the gospels and take Jesus into your heart.’

Audrey felt the weight of his hand, slight warmth and the tingling sensation of silver paper on a loose tooth. Her fears slipped away from her like shadows in sunlight. She looked up at him and found herself whispering with the voice of a little girl, ‘thank you’.

Lonie yawned and lit a fag, passing one to Father Campbell without being asked. He pointed his finger up at him, as if he’d caught him out. ‘See. I can read your mind.’

‘You can indeed.’ Father Campbell agreed. His phone rang. He picked it up, shrugging his shoulders at them and speaking into the receiver in quick fire Italian.

Lonie put his hand on Audrey’s knee to steady her. ‘You don’t speak Italian, do you?’ he whispered.

Audrey shook her head as if brushing away a fly.

‘Listen. Don’t start buying into all that guff about angels and demons. At different times in different places people see and do things they don’t normally. Now it’s all UFO’s and green men. It all depends who’s daeing the listening and who’s daeing the talkin’. The guys a weirdo. You’re in a secure unit. That’s why he’s here. That’s all you need to remember.’ Lonie picked up his mug sucked the last drop of tea out, smacking his lips in appreciation of the sugary bottom.

Father Campbell put the phone down. ‘Sorry.’ He apologised. ‘I think after today’s episode it would be better if you left. I’m bringing in a few lay volunteers to provide a ring of prayer. Go with the peace of Christ.’

‘Ah wis hopin’ for another cuppa.’ Lonie grinned, but his finger came up short. He pointed to his side, which seemed damp with blood. Father Campbell’s face seemed very white. ‘You want me to get somebody?’ His voice was sympathetic.

‘No. I’ll be fine.’ Father Campbell slumped into the chair.

‘Wait here.’ Lonie ignored his pleas and spoke to Audrey. ‘Ah’m goin’ to get help.’