Community by Graham Masterton Read Free Book Online Page A

him.
    â€˜I don’t know. Should it be?’
    â€˜You mustn’t get depressed, Greg, just because you have to stay here for a while. I’ve talked to Doctor Hamid and Doctor Connor, and they both have your very best interests at heart. And I’m sure you and Mrs Weston will get along fine.’
    â€˜Well, you know her a whole lot better than I do.’
    Sue swallowed and took a sip of lemon tea. ‘Excuse me? I don’t know her at all.’
    â€˜Oh. I got the impression that you did.’
    â€˜What gave you that idea? I’ve never even met the woman. All I know is what Doctor Connor told me about her.’
    â€˜Oh. And what was that?’
    â€˜She used to be an English teacher – in Portland, I think it was. She had some kind of accident which was why she was brought here to Trinity-Shasta. Her partner was quite a lot older than she was, and he passed away not too long ago.’
    â€˜I see.’
    Michael thought:
Why did you just lie to me, and say that you had never even met her? I saw the two of you talking to each other like old friends.
    However, he bit his lip, and said nothing.
I’m confused
, he thought.
My brain isn’t firing on all eight cylinders
. Maybe he had simply misinterpreted what he had seen and heard. Maybe that
hadn’t
been Isobel that he had seen with Sue – although, if it wasn’t, who was it? What other woman did she know at Trinity-Shasta well enough to kiss and embrace and spend nearly five minutes chatting to?
    Maybe his mother hadn’t said, ‘
Look at that snow!
’ He could easily have misheard her.
    In any case, what was so sinister about Sue being friendly with Isobel, or his mother saying ‘Look at that snow!’ Maybe it
had
snowed briefly in Oakland, without it settling.
    Doctor Connor had warned him that post-traumatic amnesiacs often get feelings of paranoia. They have no memory of how things used to be, and so they have no concept of how things
ought
to be. Something that appears to them now as strange or threatening may be perfectly flush-centered and completely harmless, if only they could remember why.
    As they were finishing their breakfast, Doctor Hamid made his way toward them between the commissary tables, with a smile on his face.
    â€˜Good news, Gregory!’ he announced. He opened the yellow Manila folder that he was carrying and said, ‘That CT scan you had yesterday morning shows me that your spine is in very much better shape now.’
    â€˜That’s wonderful,’ said Sue, reaching across the table and taking his hand.
    â€˜Oh, yes, surprisingly good improvement!’ said Doctor Hamid. ‘There is now hardly any subluxation of the neck vertebrae and subsequently a great deal of pressure has been taken off your nerves. Physically, you are healing much more quickly than I had expected.’
    He closed his folder and said, ‘You will of course need continuing spinal therapy for some months to come, and of course your psychological therapy, which is much more difficult to predict. However we think we can release you today, back into the big, bad outside world. Well – when I say “big, bad outside world”, I mean of course Trinity.’
    â€˜So you’re moving me in with Isobel Weston?’
    Doctor Hamid smiled at Sue, and Michael was sure that some flicker of understanding passed between them. Nothing more than a twitch of the eye, but that could be enough to communicate something which they both already knew. Or again, maybe he was just being paranoid.
    Before she left, Sue drove Michael around to Isobel’s house, although he had only one overnight case to carry. She promised him that she would go round to his apartment on Pine Street and collect all his clothes for him, and bring them up to him next weekend. Maybe her husband Jimmy would come next time, as well as their two little girls, Felicity and Alyson.
    â€˜Well, thanks for