The Follower Kate Doughty (general ebook reader .txt) 📖

bad. “It’s all right. We knew.” Next to her, Rudy is silent, his focus tight on the road.

Jada leans over from the backseat and whispers in Amber’s ear. “Hey, I saw your post. I’m proud of you.”

Amber’s heart flutters. “Me, too. Want to hang out this week and help me shoot the rest of the breaking-fashion-rules series? I’m thinking body-con dresses, or maybe short skirts, or—”

Jada doesn’t hesitate. “Absolutely.”

Amber’s heart swells.

They plot ideas all the way there—or until Amber looks out the window and realizes they don’t seem to be going the right way. She wonders if Rudy is taking another route, but when he misses the exit west that would take them toward Ulta, she realizes her brother is up to something.

“Wasn’t that—”

“I know where I’m going . . . ,” Rudy says, his voice trailing off.

“We’re not going to Ulta, are we?” Amber asks.

“What?” Behind her, the other girls perk up.

Rudy shoots her a look. “Don’t worry, we can still go. I just . . . want to make a stop first.”

“Where are you driving, Rudy?” Amber demands.

“I found the psychiatric hospital on the pills,” he says finally.

Bella and Jada lean forward, and Rudy fills them in on the orange pill bottle he found in the bathroom.

“I talked to Cecily yesterday,” he says. “She got in contact with Nancy Andrews—you know, from the family that lived here before we moved in? She said that Nancy wouldn’t tell her anything, and—” He cuts himself off. “Right now, this feels like the only lead I have. I just . . . I have to try.”

“Why didn’t you tell me?” Amber asks.

“Honestly?” Rudy asks. “I wasn’t sure I would have the courage to go until we were halfway down the interstate.”

“Fair,” says Bella, and they all give a nervous laugh. Amber can’t blame them.

“If you want to turn around . . . ,” Rudy starts. Amber feels everyone’s eyes on her.

She shakes her head. “No,” she says. “Let’s do it.”

The medical center is unassuming. It’s a dilapidated building with a green awning and a flickering light above it. Not menacing, Amber thinks, just . . . sad. She’s not sure if this is better or worse than the creepiness she’d expected.

The lobby is similarly drab and dark. Rudy approaches a bored-looking secretary. He looks up at them without greeting.

“I’m here to ask about Frank Glenarm, ” Rudy says. Amber forces herself not to laugh at the deep voice her brother is trying to use.

The secretary raises an eyebrow and types something in his computer. “ID, please?” Amber digs out her ID as the others do the same. It’s as if she’s on autopilot, handing this guy her ID just because he’d asked for it.

“You here for school or something?” the secretary asks, his voice dry.

“What?” Rudy asks, at the same time that Bella answers.

“Yes. He’s our adopt-a-grandparent. We’re supposed to be asking him questions about local history,” she chirps. Amber flinches; they don’t even know if he’s alive or not.

But the clerk simply nods and hands them visitors’ stickers. “Room 14B. Left hall.” He hesitates. “According to our records, this is your first time meeting with Mr. Glenarm?”

“Yes, ” Rudy replies.

“And, you’re here for some kind of history project?”

“ . . . Yes?” Bella answers.

“I’m afraid he’s not going to be very responsive. You are aware of his condition? That he suffered severe spinal and neurological damage? He’s not exactly our most . . . present patient.”

Amber has no idea what to say to that.

Rudy recovers first. “Thank you,” he says. Then he heads down the hallway, and Amber and her friends have no choice but to follow him.

Amber catches up to her brother and grabs his arm. “Are you serious right now? What’s the plan exactly?”

“I don’t know! I didn’t think he’d be here, I just thought—”

Then they’re at the door. They both hesitate.

The door opens. A smiling dark-haired nurse in pink scrubs walks out. Rudy grabs the door before it closes and walks in.

A man is sitting in the bed, staring at the window.

“Mr. Glenarm?” No answer. It strikes Amber how incredibly quiet the room is. The ticking of the clock on the mantle seems to echo through the room. After a second, Rudy continues. “My name’s Rudy. I live in your old house. On Tremont Street.” He walks farther into the room, and the girls file in behind him. Mr. Glenarm turns to look at them. He’s an old man, with a shock of white hair and thick, beige glasses. He smiles at them absently. Amber doesn’t think he’s understood a word Rudy just said.

“Oh, don’t mind him.” Amber jumps. The pink-scrubbed nurse is back. She’s carrying a cup of water and four little tins of pink pills, which she brings over to the window. “He’s not very talkative, but I know he enjoys the company. Isn’t that right?”

Mr. Glenarm does not respond.

“The house on Tremont Street,” Rudy echoes. “In Norton. I live there now.”

Mr. Glenarm begins to speak without looking at them. “No,” he whispers. “She still does. She visits me, tells me about the kids, the garden. A whole family is there.”

The nurse gives them an apologetic look. “I’m sorry—he’s not quite present, sometimes. He’s talking about his wife and his daughter. He might be confusing you for someone else.”

“I live there now,” Rudy says, ignoring the nurse. Amber wants to grab his sleeve and drag him away from this sad room, from this sad old man.

Mr. Glenarm does not acknowledge Rudy. He looks down at the floor, then at the nurse. He takes the pills without question, robotically swallowing them. The nurse gives Amber a look that clearly says that this is all they’re going to get out of him.

Amber is just about to tell her brother that they need to leave, that this clearly isn’t a good time, when it happens.

Mr. Glenarm speaks.

“I wish she didn’t do it,” he whispers. Amber freezes. “Ruin our lovely house. Our lovely house. Our lovely house.” He repeats it over and over again. Just like—just like the follower had done, Amber realizes.