Tucker stays to help Denzell with the mess, but he’ll have none of that. “Try and remember you’re a doctor now. I have custodians to clean up spills. Besides, all the times you spilled blood I don’t remember you ever cleaning up any.”

“I really hosed this up, didn’t I?”

“Don’t be too hard on yourself. Shit happens.”

“I should have seen it coming.”

“She just pop, like a soda with a bad cap?” Denzell asks.

“Sort of, yeah.”

“Sounds like green fever.”

“Green fever?”

Denzell searches Tucker’s face, almost certain he’s playing with him. “You serious? Don’t you know anything about this place?”

“Honestly, Denzell, I don’t even know how much I’m making until I get my first check.”

“Oh shit, man. I bet it’ll look like a lot.”

“Yeah, I’m guessing so.”

Denzell laughs. “It ain’t enough, brother. Trust me. This place is built over some volcano of psychedelic gas. The shit blooms every so often and people get freaky. Some folks wear masks and collect the shit in vials to sell on the street.”

“You’re kidding, right?”

“You’d think so, but no. Funnier still, though the shit might look green in dense concentration, you can’t even fuckin see it in a vial. People paying Jacksons without even knowing if anything’s there.”

“It makes you stab people and folks want to buy it?”

Denzell laughs. “You don’t always stab people. Sometimes ya fuck em.”

“I don’t really know Edith, but that’s just all kinds of wrong.”

Denzell shrugs. “When it blooms, you can be a user without knowing.”

Tucker’s mind races. Is this green what he’s looking for? He can’t imagine his mother taking drugs like that but could be it wasn’t a choice. Maybe there’s nobody to blame.

“Listen, Doc, bottom line” Denzell says. “This is an insane asylum. We invite crazy. Which brings me to a question I’ve been dying to ask, but afraid to. What really brings you here? I mean, honestly, I figured you were here for the green.” Tucker’s eyes scare Denzell. “Not as a user, bro. I mean, there’s a lot of money to be had and nobody in the management ranks that I’ve seen.”

“I didn’t come to be a drug lord, Denzell.”

“Alright. Keep your cards close. I can dig that. Listen, on that other matter. I found someone here that can fix any history problems that need addressing. Records management and such. He’s a patient. That a problem?”