Stranger in a Strange Land

realization that she herself was in peril through having stumbled Onto this top-secret fact.
                Smith got clumsily up from his chair, held out both hands while still smiling and said, "Water brother!"
                "Hello. Uh ... how are you?"
                "I am well. I am happy." He added something in a strange, choking speech, then corrected himself and said carefully, "You are here, my brother. You were away. Now you are here. I drink deep of you."
                Jill felt herself helplessly split between two emotions, one that crushed and melted her heart-and an icy fear of being caught here. Smith did not seem to notice. Instead he said, "See? I walk! I grow strong." He demonstrated by taking a few steps back and forth, then stopped, triumphant, breathless, and smiling in front of her.
                She forced herself to smile. "We are making progress, aren't we? You keep growing stronger, that's the spirit! But I must go now-I just stopped in to say hello."
                His expression changed instantly to distress. "Do not go!"
                "Oh, but I must!"
                He continued to look woebegone, then added with tragic certainty, "I have hurted you. I did not know."
                "Hurt me? Oh, no, not at all! But I must go-and quickly!"
                His face was without expression. He stated rather than asked, "Take me with you, my brother."
                "What? Oh, I can't. And I must go, at once. Look, don't tell anyone that I was in here, please!"
                "Not tell that my water brother was here?"
                "Yes. Don't tell anyone. Uh, I'll try to come back, I really will. You be a good boy and wait and don't tell anyone."
                Smith digested this, looked serene. "I will wait. I will not tell."
                "Good!" Jill wondered how the devil she possibly could get back in to see him-she certainly couldn't depend on Dr. Brush having another convenient case of trots. She realized now that the "broken" lock had not been broken and her eye swept around to the corridor door-and she saw why she had not been able to get in. A hand bolt had been screwed to the surface of the door, making a pass key useless. As was always the case with hospitals, bathroom doors and other doors that could be bolted were so arranged as to open also by pass key, so that patients irresponsible or unruly could not lock themselves away from the nurses. But here the locked door kept Smith in, and the addition of a simple hand bolt of the sort not permitted in hospitals served to keep out even those with pass keys.
                Jill walked over and opened the bolt. "You wait. I'll come back."
                "I shall waiting."
                When she got back to the watch room she heard already knocking the Tock! Tocki Ti-toe/c tocki - . . Tock, tock! signal that Brush had said he would use; she hurried to let him in.
                He burst in, saying savagely, "Where the hell were you, nurse? I knocked three times." He glanced suspiciously at the inner door.
                "I saw your patient turn over in her sleep," she lied quickly. "I was in arranging her collar pillow."
                "Damn it, I told you simply to sit at my desk!"
                Jill knew suddenly that the man was even more frightened than she was-and with more reason. She counter-attacked. "Doctor, I did you a favor," she said coldly. "Your patient is not properly the responsibility of the floor supervisor in the first place. But since you entrusted her to me, I had to do what seemed necessary in your absence. Since you have questioned what I have done, let's get the wing superintendent and settle the matter."
                "Huh? No, no-forget it."
                "No, sir. I don't like to have my professional actions questioned without cause. As you know very well, a patient that old can smother in a water bed; I did what was necessary. Some nurses will take any blame from a doctor, but I am not one of them. So let's call the superintendent."
                "What? Look, Miss Boardman, I'm sorry I said anything. I was upset and I popped off without thinking. I apologize."
                "Very well, Doctor," Jill answered stiffly. "Is there anything more I can do for