Frank Klus - Azaleas Don't Bloom Here

“Because everyone talks eventually.”

Piggy, an ex-Blue and close confidant of Carlos Colderon, was tough and true to his word—he wouldn’t talk. He looked like an overstuffed Panda Bear. Born Jevaun Williams from Jamaica, this dark-complexioned big man was Carlos’s muscle guy. He once took on a pack of five drug dealers, broke one guy’s jaw with a single punch, slapped another to the ground, picked up two more, and slammed them to the ground. The last man ran off. The only way to tackle this guy was to shoot him first.

Ray O’Reilly released his handcuffs periodically so he could eat, while Armstrong kept a gun on him. Piggy would always laugh at the treatment, though Armstrong knew that Ray was his equal in strength.

With Schmidt on the way, Piggy began laughing as he finished his sandwich.

“What’s so funny, Piggy?” Armstrong said.

“You can’t get no… info.” Then he started laughing again, imitating the Rolling Stones song, Satisfaction . “Can’t get no… info. No, no, info. You can try, and try, and try, and try, but you can’t get no… info.” Then he just laughed again. He put down the sandwich and looked up at Armstrong with a grin. “You wanna know why?” Then he raised his voice. “Cause I don’t know nothin’, ha-ha. Hog don’t tell nothin’ to nobody who ain’t got no business knowin’ nothin’, ha-ha.”

Armstrong looked at him with a grin on his face too. Then he leaned over to Piggy. “You know stuff, and then I’m gonna know stuff. Finish your sandwich.”

Someone knocked at the door, but not the secret knock. Armstrong was cautious, but he was expecting the two doctors.

“Who is it?”

“It’s Doctor Schmidt.”

Armstrong opened the door. He gave him his room key, told him to go next door, and that he would be there in about ten minutes. Armstrong waited for Piggy to finish eating, then Ray tied him up, muzzled him, and the two went to Ray and Cassandra’s room. They were relieved from roof duty by Foote and Wrenn. Ray and Cassandra volunteered to take Armstrong’s place so that Armstrong could command operations from the ground. He explained his plan to everyone, and then went to Schmidt’s room.

“This room is not acceptable,” Schmidt said. “Too many beds. I need a single room with a single bed. Then, what are you going to do about maid service? I can’t have some damn maid coming into my laboratory.”

“I’ll take care of it, Schmidt.”

“Doctor Schmidt.”

“Yeah, Doctor Schmidt. Where’s the other esteemed doctor?”

“Dr. Grifton is in the van watching the equipment.”

“What about the woman you said was with you?”

“Wait!” Schmidt dialed a number. “Dr. Schmidt here. Where are you?”

(Pause) “Oh, okay. You know where we are, right?”

(Pause) “Good. Come to room 117.”

(Pause) “Good.” He hung up. Turning to the other three, “She’s on her way. Should be here in about half an hour. Now, what about my room and my privacy?”

Armstrong went to the front office. He was gone about ten minutes. He knocked twice on Schmidt’s room, paused, and knocked twice again. Then he said softly, “Armstrong.” He let him in.

“Everything’s set.”

“You got my room?”

“One each for you, Dr. Grifton, and the woman.”

“And the bed?”

“The manager is going to remove the other bed in there. You’ll have a single bed for you and your lab.”

“And this was okay with the manager?” Schmidt asked.

“Of course it is,” Armstrong said. “He hasn’t had so much business in ten years’ worth of off seasons. When I showed him an extra five one hundred dollar bills, his eyes lit up. Then he says ‘you don’t have an orgy going on, do you?’ And I said, ‘so what if we do?’ Then he says, ‘Just don’t do anything to attract the cops.’ I said, ‘sure’. The extra bed will be gone in an hour.”

Eugene Sulke was reading when there was a knock at his door. It was just a plain old knock, so he was nervous. He got the gun Armstrong gave him and slipped off the safety. “Who is it?”

“My name is Sandra. I’m with the two doctors that arrived a little while ago. Are you Phillip Mulligan?”

Phillip Mulligan? He opened the door slowly and saw a woman, around forty-five, attractive, with light brown hair; curly, and extended down to the middle of her back. Her hazel eyes were bright, and she was dressed in a grey skirt and white blouse. There was a certain familiarity about her, but he wasn’t sure why. He could see her eyes were fixated on the gun he still carried. “Oh, I’m sorry. We’re supposed to carry it unless we hear the special knock.”

“Are you Phillip? Pamela told me you had this room?” Eugene just stared at her.

“May I come in? I promise I’m not dangerous.”

“Oh, yes, I’m sorry. Please.” He motioned for her to come in and then put the gun away.

They began talking, and Sandra mentioned Fernando. “I used to know a Fernando,” Eugene said. “He was in Joliet when I was in prison. I was in the wrong place at the wrong time. Anyway, he was my cellmate. He talked about how he lost his wife to the camp.”

“Wait! You were in Joliet prison? When?”

“A few months ago. I was let out by a man who I thought was my best friend. It turned out he just let me out so I could be tortured in this brain probe place called—”

“Hell House.”

“Yeah, how did you know?”

“I’ve only just figured it out myself. I went through it. I believe I am the wife your Fernando talked about. I was in Joliet prison too. I’m still not sure for what. I believe it was for extortion, but I don’t believe that.”

Eugene grabbed a bottle of wine from his stash and poured it into a couple glasses.

“That’s what Fernando told me he was in for too. He took out a loan from his employer and couldn’t pay it back. Fernando said that’s what happened to you too. You couldn’t pay back a loan, so when you ran off they charged you with extortion. You were jailed and Fernando was sent home. Then he said that you came to him a few months later with divorce papers, and your lawyer told him he had to sign them. He only did it when you yelled at him to sign those papers. He knew you went through what he called ‘the camps’.”

“Those were images I had, but I couldn’t quite remember why I did that. My memories of Fernando were all so sweet. I know that I loved him, but then those memories were all taken away from me. All I could remember was falling in love with Jaydan Casimir, the Commandant of the Lightning Squad. The problem is that I never felt anything for him, and he’s so much older than I. I couldn’t figure out what I had seen in him until my dreams started.”

“Dreams?”

“Yes, didn’t you have them? They stuck you in Hell House too. That’s why I came here.”

“Yes, but I was rescued after three days. I have a vivid memory of that terrible brain probe. So you started to remember through dreaming about it?”

Sandy filled Eugene in on the dreams, the visions, her research; and how she came to realize that it was only the brain probe that made her think she had always loved Jaydan, and that Fernando was such a terrible husband.

“You said you didn’t remember Fernando, but then you said they made you hate him.”

“I think they made me hate him to convince him to sign the divorce papers. Then they must have taken all memory of him away. You were with him in prison. Oh, please, Phillip, tell me about him.”

They were interrupted by a loud noise, a crashing sound, and then the sound of gunfire from next door.