And more important, what was she going to do about it? She could leave her post for good, she realized, get back on a bus and go somewhere, anywhere else. But that would mean leaving all those people behind, and she would carry around their pleas for help for the rest of her life—not to mention Madge would be inconsolable. The guilt would eat away at her. She had come to be a nurse. To help. And she knew exactly who to ask for clarification. Sometimes the best way forward was the simplest. Medicine was a straightforward, noble science. That’s what she liked about it. The goal was obvious—find the problem and then find the solution, and in doing so, help a patient return to a healthy life. The risk was great but the reward was even greater. Warden Crawford would know what the basement was all about. He would give her the answers she needed. Explain how what she’d seen was part of a necessary risk. But first, breakfast. The staff cafeteria abutted the one where the more stable, low-risk patients ate.
