That was Jake’s attempt at humor or stupid brotherly banter, but it brought back the fact that I might be infected, a thought I had been working to keep at bay.

29

As I approached the medical building, I could see Nurse Julie Anderson out front smoking again. It seemed at times that was all she did. She perked up when she saw me coming.

“Hey, Chaplain, come here,” she said.

Her loud voice changed and she began to whisper, which was roughly the volume most people use in ordinary conversation.

“I really felt bad yesterday about our log book not being right so checked into it. I called the sarge who’d been at the center gate at the time to see if he could remember who went through on their way to Medical that night, and guess what, he did. He said that Thomas didn’t come through the gate but that he did go to Medical that night—just from the other side of the compound.”

“Did he remember anyone else going in or out?”

“Yeah, he did. I didn’t ask him or anything, but he said that later, after my shift was over, he let another inmate through the gate to go to Medical, but that he came back in just a few minutes and said he couldn’t find anybody, and, anyway, he didn’t want to be charged the three dollars.”

Because of all of the abuse of the medical facilities by inmates who just wanted to get out of the sun or see a pretty nurse, the department had instituted a policy that made inmates pay three dollars to the department if they declared a medical emergency and they really didn’t have one.

“He say who it was?” I asked.

“Couldn’t remember,” she said.

“Thank you. I sure appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome. I’m just sorry somebody was so careless. You going to say anything to anybody about it?”

“No, don’t worry. I’d like to talk with Nurse Strickland though. What time does she come in tonight?”

“You’re in luck. We’re both pulling a double. So she’s here today.”

I walked through the waiting room, where twenty-five inmates were staring at the wall in front of them in silence. A few of them whispered greetings to me. A couple asked to see me later in the day. I entered the door on the right, which led to the exam rooms and the infirmary.

Strickland was not in any of the exam rooms, nor the nurses’ station, nor the infirmary. She was seated in the break room at the end of the hall talking with someone I couldn’t see.

When I reached the break room door, inmate Jones walked through it and left without speaking.

“I wondered if I might ask you a couple more questions?” I said.