Sheep on the Fourth Floor

by Leonie Thorpe

  Kurt put the phone to his ear. ‘We’ll be with you in ten minutes.’

  ‘Here, I’ll put us on some sounds,’ said Duggie, reaching towards the car stereo.

  ‘I’ll do it while you keep an eye on the road,’ said Kurt who was sitting in the passenger’s seat. The streets were practically deserted but he didn’t want to risk unnecessary attention by having Duggie’s car weave all over the road. ‘Any requests?’

  ‘Just push “Play”,’ said Duggie. ‘I think Flip MC is still in there.’

  The car became filled with the boom-boom-boom of a rap artist sulking about a lifetime of bad luck, criminal activity, and a girlfriend who didn’t love him any more. Duggie sang along tunelessly, his head bobbing in time with the bass: ‘Cus they say you don’t fink about fings like tha’, an’ I’m havin’ trouble finkin’ ’bout all that crap…’

  Anna, who was sitting quietly in the back seat, was relieved when Kurt groaned and stabbed his finger at the off button.

  ‘Oi, oi! What’re you doing?’ Duggie demanded.

  ‘I can’t listen to that all the way there,’ Kurt complained. ‘It’ll do my head in.’ He flicked open the glove compartment and a mound of screwed-up chocolate bar wrappers fell into his lap. He batted them to the ground and rifled through a pile of CDs. He picked out two.

  ‘Here, how about Chameleon, or The Fake Lemonades?’

  Duggie shrugged. ‘Whatever.’

  ‘Which do you prefer, Anna?’ said Kurt.

  Anna hadn’t heard of either of them. Suddenly she realized that she had spent the last fourteen years mostly listening to her parents’ classical music. She was completely out of touch with modern music, but she didn’t want to admit that to Kurt and Duggie.

  ‘Er, that one,’ Anna said, pointing at a bright orange CD-cover with a picture of a huge eye on it.

  ‘Chameleon it is,’ Kurt announced. ‘Good choice.’ He inserted it into the stereo.

  The music was loud and riotous. The tune was all over the place and the singer had a harsh voice, but at the same time, there was a definite thumping rhythm and an almost painful harmony in the chorus.

  ‘…The time is now, the flag’s unfurled, it’s our chance now, let’s change the world…’

  Anna’s mother would loathe it. Her father would scoff and shake his head and tune in to something more soothing. It was as far from Mozart as Anna could imagine, and it suited her rebellious frame of mind. She tapped her foot to the beat.

  ‘Yeah,’ she said to nobody in particular, ‘I like it.’

  She stared out of the window into the dark street and wondered what Rom was doing right now. Probably lying down in his tiny cage having an unrestful doze. Did he have dreams? Would his dreams be of pastures and sun or had they been replaced by cages and people and medicine? Poor Rom. How dare they treat him like a piece of machinery! Her anger flared up again sending a hot burst of energy into her body. She felt very much alive.

  Kurt was telling Anna about fixing up the car.

  ‘It took us the whole weekend,’ he said. ‘We had to go to the automart three times in one day just to get the right part. I haven’t even had time to do my science homework yet.’

  Kurt had also missed tennis on Saturday morning, and Travis Dellow’s birthday gathering at Laserstrike, but he’d never enjoyed a weekend so much in his life.

  ‘She’s running good, isn’t she?’ said Duggie, proudly slapping the dash.

  Anna glanced around at the car. The grey vinyl seats were dirty and cracked with age. She couldn’t tell what colour the carpet on the floor had been, it was so heavily stained with dirt or oil. She had heard the car before she had seen it, when she was waiting for them at the corner of her street; it sounded like a cross between a cattle truck and a fleet of lawn mowers. But if ‘running good’ meant getting safely to the hospital and back again, then yeah, Duggie was right.

  She nodded and smiled. ‘Your car is nice.’

  Duggie grinned. ‘You wait until it’s finished’, and then he explained about the bright red paint job he was going to give it and the new fat tyres and tinted windows that would make it the envy of the streets.

  Anna smiled. It was kind of strange that Duggie got such a huge amount of satisfaction out of his beaten-up orange car which couldn’t have been worth more than a couple of hundred dollars, whereas her father barely even took notice of his BMW which had cost tens of thousands.

  ‘So how big is this sheep anyway?’ said Duggie. ‘Will it fit in the back seat?’

  Anna sized up the space next to her. ‘He should fit,’ she replied. ‘He’s just a normal size. Probably a bit smaller since he’s been sick.’

  Duggie screwed up his face. ‘He’s not going to, like, puke or bleed in the back or anything, is he?’

  Anna had no idea; she hadn’t considered that. ‘No, I reckon he’ll be okay,’ she said.

  The chatter died away as Duggie’s car approached the end of the motorway and he turned in the direction of the hospital. Anna’s heart leapt as she saw the first street sign pointing the way to ‘St Sebastian’s Hospital’.

  Anna ran through the plan in her mind. She had made up a trouble gradient, on a scale of one to ten. For instance, if someone disturbed them in the car park, they would only be in grade-one trouble. If they were found in the lift, it would be grade two. If they were found wandering around the research laboratory corridors, it would be grade seven. It was only when they reached the door of the animal laboratory and stepped inside that the trouble would hit grade ten. She consoled herself that there were plenty of chances to extract themselves without getting into grade-ten trouble. And she had even accepted that she could handle grade ten as long as they had managed to set Rom free. The worst thing would be to get into all that trouble for nothing.

  The lights of the hospital appeared around the next corner.

  ‘Got the security card, girlie?’ Duggie asked Anna.

  ‘It’s Anna,’ Kurt muttered. ‘Sorry,’ he said to Anna.

  ‘I know her name,’ said Duggie, rolling his eyes. He playfully pushed Kurt in the shoulder. ‘Man, are you tense or what?’

  ‘Yeah, I’ve got it.’ Anna picked up the white card which hung from a blue cord. Penelope’s smiling face swung back and forth as Anna held it up. ‘That was the easy part. It’s always in her handbag.’

  Duggie’s car drew nearer the hospital.

  ‘Go around the back,’ said Anna, pointing to the side road away from the main entrance. ‘We need to go down into the staff car park.’

  ‘Righto, girlie,’ said Duggie, cheerfully ignoring Kurt’s glare. It seemed like the more wound up Kurt got, the more fun Duggie had.

  Duggie steered the car down the winding road, which was well lit and lined with neatly tended shrubs. Anna handed the security card over the front seat and pointed to the security device outside the gated entrance to the car park.

  Anna’s heart raced. What if the card was only good during the day? What if you needed a special pass after midnight? She held her breath as Duggie wound down the window and waved the card in front of the monitor.

  Beeee-uurrrrp! The security gate jumped into life, sliding back with a rattle and clank.

  ‘All riiiight!’ Duggie exclaimed, clearly impressed with the technology. ‘Here we go!’ He drove the car slowly down the ramp. ‘Where to now?’

  There were only a few cars in the car park, and the lighting was minimal. Anna thought it was best if they parked in her mother’s spot, which wasn’t too far from the lift. She pointed it out to Duggie.

  Duggie parked the car and pulled on the handbrake, and then he reached up beside the steering wheel, grasped the key and turned the motor off. Complete silence filled the car.

  Duggie looked at Kurt beside him, and then he turned to Anna in the back.

  ‘You guys are quiet,’ he said. ‘And you both look the same shade of white.’ He laughed and slapped his knee. ‘Come on, guys, it’s showtime!’

  Anna breathed
out. ‘It’s only grade one,’ she muttered to herself.

  ‘What?’ said Duggie.

  Anna shook her head. ‘Nothing.’ She bent down and picked up her backpack and opened the car door. The air was cool and it still smelled of damp concrete. She slung the backpack over her shoulders as Kurt stepped out of the passenger’s door.

  ‘Cold in here,’ he said, rubbing his arms and looking around.

  Anna looked closely at Kurt. Duggie was right, his face did look pale. He must be feeling as nervous as she was. Kurt lifted his head and they stared awkwardly at each other. Then a thought crept into Anna’s mind. Steal a sheep. They were about to steal a sheep. She laughed aloud and Kurt grinned back at her.

  ‘Right then,’ said Anna.

  ‘Right then,’ said Kurt, and he walked over to the driver’s side of the car and spoke to Duggie through the open window. ‘Don’t leave here and don’t talk to anyone,’ he said. ‘If anything happens down here, phone us straight away.’

  ‘Aye aye, sir!’ Duggie saluted and smiled. ‘I’m gonna be sitting here and waiting; I’m just the wheels in this team, remember?’

  Kurt turned to Anna. ‘Rescue, not steal, right?’

  Anna nodded. ‘Let’s go get Rom.’

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  DING!

  Both Anna and Kurt jumped as the lift arrived. They stepped into the small metal box and the doors closed behind them with a whoosh and a thump.

  ‘Entering grade two,’ Anna muttered.

  When Kurt stared at her like she was mad, she explained about the trouble gradient she had made up.

  ‘Yeah, I get it,’ said Kurt, looking thoughtful. ‘At the moment we’re not really doing much wrong.’ His shoulders relaxed slightly. ‘I guess that should make me feel a little bit better.’

  ‘The main thing is to get straight to the fourth floor without bumping into anyone else,’ said Anna. ‘The only people wandering around the hospital at one o’clock in the morning are staff, and we’ll be bustled out of here before we can get to Rom.’ She gently pushed the button for the fourth floor. ‘And that is where we will have to rely on our first piece of luck.’

  She swiped her mother’s card over the security panel.

  Beeeee. The machine acknowledged the card, but the lift stayed still.

  Anna frowned and swiped the card again.

  Beeeee. The machine sang, but it didn’t move.

  ‘What’s the problem?’ said Kurt in a quiet voice. ‘Why aren’t we going anywhere?’

  ‘I don’t know,’ said Anna, uselessly stabbing her finger at the number four button. ‘Damn! Why isn’t the lift going up?’ she cursed.

  ‘Wait a minute,’ said Kurt, grabbing her arm. ‘When we came here for the careers visit, didn’t your mum have to put in a code on that keypad?’ He pointed to a small device which resembled a push-button phone.

  ‘Oh, I’m such an idiot,’ said Anna, slapping her hand against her forehead. ‘I’d completely forgotten about that.’ A chill of imminent failure washed over her. Rom was going to die because of some stupid code that she had failed to remember.

  ‘But it’s not a problem, is it?’ said Kurt, looking carefully at her. ‘You do know the code…don’t you?’

  Anna didn’t answer. She closed her eyes and forced her mind back in time. She was standing in the lift with Otis and Kurt and her mother, hoping Otis didn’t act too much like an idiot, and anticipating an exciting visit to the research laboratory. Her eyes were drawn to her mother’s fingers, punching in her personal access code.

  She opened her eyes again. ‘Kurt, I remember!’ she announced suddenly. ‘I watched when Mum did it last time. The code was like a cross.’

  She took a breath and swiped the card again—beeeee—then pushed the numbers in the corners of the keypad: 3 7 1 9.

  Nothing happened. The lift stayed where it was, on the lower ground floor.

  ‘What’s…?’ Kurt started to ask a question.

  ‘SHHHHHHH!’ Anna hissed at him. She frowned and tried again.

  Swipe—beeeee—1 9 3 7.

  Beeee-uurrrrp! The security machine chimed happily and Kurt grabbed at the handrail to steady his balance as the lift began to rise.

  ‘I can’t believe I forgot it needed a number,’ said Anna, breathing a sigh of relief. ‘I hope that didn’t eat into our quota of luck for the night.’

  ‘Look at it this way,’ said Kurt. ‘If we’re really doing the right thing, we should be granted all the luck we need.’

  ‘Yeah, we’re definitely doing the right thing,’ said Anna, ‘so let’s hope your theory is right.’ She looked up at the row of numbers above the lift doors and watched as the light illuminated the passing levels: LG…G…1…

  She adjusted the backpack on her shoulders and said, ‘Now, Lift, please, please go straight up, all the way to the fourth—’

  DING!

  The noise of the lift knocked the rest of the words back down her throat. A bright light above the door indicated they were about to stop on the second floor. Anna’s faced creased in dismay. The only reason the lift would stop was because someone on the second floor wanted to get on.

  ‘Uh-oh,’ said Kurt.

  Anna shared his fear. Whoever was waiting to board the lift could not fail to be suspicious of two teenagers roving the hospital at one o’clock in the morning. Their first thought would be to alert the hospital security, that’s if it wasn’t an actual security guard they were about to bump into.

  Anna gritted her teeth as the lift reduced speed and then smoothly came to a stop. Her heart thudded as, in what seemed like slow motion, the doors hissed open onto the second floor.

  An elderly woman was standing in the brightly lit corridor. Her white hair was tied up in a tidy bun and she carried a bright red leather handbag over her arm. She wore a dark blue woollen coat that had soft grey rabbit fur around the collar. At the lower edge of her coat, her skinny, heavily veined legs stuck out from the bottom of a white hospital gown. Anna glanced down. The woman’s feet were bare.

  ‘Good afternoon,’ the old woman said, smiling a toothless grin at Anna and Kurt. ‘I’m just off to get some gingernuts. Is there a shop nearby?’

  Anna and Kurt stood looking at her with wide eyes, unable to speak.

  ‘Nothing like a gingernut when you’re feeling peckish,’ she said. ‘I have to dunk them into hot tea before I eat them of course,’ she continued. ‘Three seconds just about does it, but it’s important to only submerge half the biscuit, otherwise you risk it falling in altogether and then you have to send in the rescue biscuit.’

  Anna and Kurt exchanged anxious looks. The old woman was so happy to chat that she had forgotten to step into the lift. She didn’t seem to have quite finished on the topic of biscuits.

  ‘The ones in the green packet used to be George’s favourite, but they’re getting a little bit pricey now…’

  ‘Mrs Simpson?’ An exasperated female voice called out from further along the corridor, and the old lady glanced to her left. ‘Mrs Simpson! How on earth did you manage to find your way down here?’

  The old lady turned towards the voice in the corridor. ‘I’m just going out to the shops,’ she called back with a patient smile. ‘Gingernuts, you see…’

  ‘Take off your coat and get back into bed!’ the female voice demanded.

  Anna could hear accompanying footsteps getting closer to the lift. With a swift movement of her hand, she pushed the button to close the lift doors.

  ‘…for the love of God, Mrs Simpson, it’s the middle of the night…’

  With a hiss and a rumble, the lift doors slowly closed, blocking out the second floor and leaving old Mrs Simpson behind to face her irritated nurse. Anna only felt safe when the lift jolted and continued its journey upwards.

  Kurt was the first one to find his voice. ‘I don’t think I can take too many more shocks,’ he muttered. ‘Can fourteen-yearolds have heart attacks?’

  ‘You’re not allowed to go dyin
g on me,’ Anna warned him. ‘I can’t carry you and a sheep out of here, and at the moment I’d choose the sheep. Anyway, look, we’re here now.’

  The lift chimed its arrival on the fourth floor and the doors opened. Anna peered out with trepidation, wondering whether there were any more crazy old ladies roaming away from their beds.

  ‘It’s clear,’ she announced to Kurt.

  ‘Phew!’ Kurt looked relieved. ‘You sure you know your way around in here?’

  ‘Of course,’ Anna replied. ‘I’ve got an excellent memory.’

  ‘Good,’ said Kurt, ‘because we’ll have to find our way back again as well.’

  They both stepped cautiously out of the lift into the dimly lit foyer of the research laboratory.

  ‘I told you we shouldn’t have turned by those double doors,’ hissed Kurt, five minutes later. ‘I don’t recognize this corridor at all.’

  Anna stopped and looked around. She chewed her lip, wondering if she had made a mistake. All the hallways looked the same, especially in the weak night light.

  ‘But I remember seeing the fire extinguisher on the wall and the biohazard sign,’ she muttered.

  ‘They’re everywhere!’ Kurt pointed out, waving his hand at another fire extinguisher on the opposite wall.

  Anna looked back down the corridor. There was so much sameness it made her head dizzy. Now she knew what a rat in a maze felt like.

  She walked softly towards the next doorway on the right and peered tentatively into the room. She turned to Kurt with a look of triumph. ‘The coffee room!’ she announced. ‘I definitely remember the way from here.’

  ‘Excellent; let’s stop for a drink,’ said Kurt.

  ‘No, we haven’t got time,’ snapped Anna. She walked past the coffee room and continued down the hallway. ‘I was just joking,’ said Kurt, following behind her. ‘Lighten up.’

  ‘Well, it’s no time for jokes,’ Anna replied. She felt more and more agitated as they got closer to the animal laboratory. What if Rom was too sick to move? What if they had shifted him somewhere else? They were so close but still so much could go wrong. ‘And walk more quietly,’ she added. ‘Your shoes are squeaking against the floor.’