Girl Walks Out of a Bar Read Online Free PDF Page B

request is granted.”
    He seemed like a kind man, but there was no mistaking the seriousness in his tone. “From here, I’ll take you to the detox unit where you will be treated with the rest of the detox patients. Now I want you to be prepared: you might see and hear some things you’re not used to, but the patients there are all dealing with the same thing you are. They’re just getting help, like you. The floor is coed and you’ll share a room with another female patient. You will share a bathroom with the patients in the next room. Also, you should know that there are no locks on any of the doors because the staff needs unrestricted access to patients at all times. Do you understand all of this?”
    I nodded and tried to keep a calm face but my insides were shouting at me, Why didn’t you research this more thoroughly? Why did you just pick this place? Christ, you give more thought to changing your lip color . Devon seemed to share my thoughts.Her expression seemed to say, “I’m not leaving you here with Jack Nicholson in his creepy ass hotel!” But I was so tired, and it had taken so much to come this far—I just wanted to give whatever signatures would let me fall into a bed, any bed. Brad held out a clipboard with a stack of papers, and I started signing with my right hand while Russell held my left hand. Then it was done. I was officially a mental patient.
    â€œOK, Lisa, you won’t meet the staff psychiatrist until tomorrow morning. I’m taking you to the night physician now. He’ll take some blood so he can run the necessary tests and get you started on Librium.”
    Hot tears built up in my eyes and I struggled to hold them back as I hugged my friends goodbye. They looked more frightened than I was, but then again, they hadn’t made a practice of snorting coke for breakfast followed by vomiting blood. They called out, “We’ll visit” and “You’ll be OK” as they walked out into the world I couldn’t rejoin for 72 hours. I wondered if they were comforting themselves or me.
    Then it occurred to me that they were probably going for a drink. My mouth watered at the idea. They’d certainly earned a drink, and surely there would be a download discussion. A big part of me wanted to run after them, but a bigger part was grateful that I’d signed away the option.

2
    B rad and I rode the ancient elevator up to the third floor in silence. He clasped his hands behind his back as we both looked up, watching the floor numbers tick higher.
    â€œThis is it,” he said and pulled open the final door to the detox unit. The door slammed shut behind us. Shit, I thought. I’m really on a locked-down floor of a mental hospital. What just happened? I’m a nice Jewish girl from New Jersey who belongs to MoMA and reads The Economist .
    The unit looked like a typical hospital floor lined with patient rooms, but it smelled like a combination of antiseptic, piss, and vomit. I became dizzy as we started down the hall and my stomach scrambled as if I might barf.
    There was a loud commotion directly in front of us. Two haggard-looking women were screaming at each other. “Fucking cunt! I’ll kill you!” It was impossible to tell what they were fighting about because their exchange was nothing but screamed threats and name-calling. They looked middle-aged with their pasty white skin and long, frizzy hair, but something told me that they may very well have been in their twenties. They woregrubby sweatpants and t-shirts, both of which hung off their bodies the way clothes seem to want to escape long-term heroin users and war-weary refugees.
    â€œKeep moving,” Brad said as he veered me away from the chaos. Raw fear jolted through my fingers and toes. There would be no need for the lingerie Devon packed.
    Seconds later, a tall, angry man stormed toward us. He had what looked like several days of stubble on his face