Laura Lippmanis at it again.
To make matters freakier, Gerry wakes up one morning next to a dead body.
Excerpt from Dream Girl, by Laura Lippman
GERRY DREAMS.
Credit: Lesley Unruh
He floats, he rouses, he drifts, he dreams.
He tosses, but he cannot turn.
There is no clear demarcation between Gerry’s dreams and his fantasies, his not-quite-asleep and his not-really-awake.
William Morrow
His brain chugs, stuck in a single gear, focused on one thought or one image.
Someone is waiting on the sidewalk below, arms outstretched.
It’s a woman, but he can’t see her face.
He lets go andhe wakes up.
Was he really asleep, is he ever really awake these days?
Is it the medication?
It must be the medication.
His sleep has never been like this before.
Maybe he shouldn’t take the medication.
Does he need the medication?
Is he at risk of getting hooked on the medication?
Just like his hometown.
From downstairs, he can hear the faint hum of the night nurse’s television show.
It weaves itself into his thoughts, a soothing murmur.
Tonight’s program seems to be a talk show.
It sounds like Johnny Carson.
It cannot be Johnny Carson.
Exceptthere is some weird channel, something called MeTV, a jumble of older programs from Gerry’s youth.
Is the nurse watching MeTV?
Is her TV HerTVdifferent from HisTV?
If it were really MeTV, wouldn’t it be tailored to one’s specific preferences?
Johnny Carson,Mannix,Columbo,Banacek.
That would be Gerry’s MeTV, which was really his mother’s TV.
And then “The Star-Spangled Banner” would play when the local stations ended their “broadcasting day.”
Nothing ever ends anymore.
The unwitting couplet is stuck in his head.
The words, said over and over, become ridiculous, as all words eventually do.
What is Gerry’s role in pain control?
Isn’t the human condition a cradle-to-grave attempt to gauge one’s role in pain control?
To whom has Gerry caused pain and to what extent did he control it?
He makes a mental list.
His first wife, Lucy.
If only she hadn’t been so jealous.
His third wife, Sarah.
Nothis second wife, Gretchen.
Not Margot, no matter how she pouts.
I’ve got a little list.
Nixon had a list.
Are people really nostalgic for Nixon now?
That seems a bridge too far.
His mother hated Nixon.
It’s happening again, it’s happening again, her voice rising in hysteria.
Everything is happening again.
Only no one can find the letter now.
No one knows anything about the letter.
He’s pretty sure there was a letter.
“Mr. Andersen, you need another pill.”
The nurse, Aileen, looms over him, glass of water, pill in hand.
Still, he’s skeptical of the medicine.
But what is his role in pain control?
Should he ask for less?
Does he want less?
Gerry gives himself a seven.
But is that the pain in his leg or his heart?
The deadhis mother; Lukeare kind at least.
“Your medication, Mr. Andersen.
It’s very important that you take your medication.”
He has no choice.
