Dormant Susannah

What it looks like, and what it does

A narrow bed under a flat white light. A woman with a long, carefully kept grey braid. A cloud the size of a dining table condensing under the ceiling tiles over her pillow. Dry umbrellas hanging from the bed rail.

Dreams; the dream rains. The rain lasts eleven minutes. Staff keep umbrellas on the bed rails and have developed a discipline around it that nobody discusses.

What is known

Susannah Wray was admitted after a fall and has not woken. Her care was routine until the staff noticed that the ward's humidity peaked every morning at four, in a column above her bed.

The rain is fine, cool, and smells of a river. It has weather. On nights when she is troubled it falls cold and heavy, and her neighbours dream of crossing water. On others it falls like mist, and patients have been seen to smile in their sleep.

What it can do

• Produces localised weather from her sleep, matched to her dreaming
• Shares her dreams with sleepers in the three nearest beds

Where it stops

• The effect stops beyond the third bed in either direction
• It has never occurred when she is alone in a room

An encounter

Okafor timed the rain at eleven minutes, then moved Susannah to a single room to see. The room stayed dry. She moved her back by two o'clock and recorded that the rain returned, “as if relieved.”

Nasrin Okafor, night nurse, Long-stay ward 4, St. Kilda Infirmary, A February night shift, 04:00

What is established, and what is only said

• established: Humidity logs for ward 4 peak at 04:00 on ninety-four per cent of nights across six years, centred on her bed.
• rumor: Earlier night staff left the ward because of what they overheard in the rain.
• interpretation: She may not be dreaming of a river. She may be trying to cross one, and the ward is the near bank.

Still unresolved

In the rain, sleepers report one recurring image: a woman on the far bank of a river, calling someone by name. The name is different every night.

Where it has been recorded

• St. Kilda Infirmary (confirmed) — Recorded by Nasrin Okafor, night nurse.

Stories about it

• Ward 4, 04:00 (Archived report, 1 min) — A night nurse's report on rain that falls indoors, in eleven minutes, on four beds.

Connected entities

• The Lullaby Engine — The Engine's route ends at a river. Susannah's rain smells of one. Both put others to sleep to keep something company.
• Magdalena Prue — Both are held in a bed by people who tell them the news. Both are partly somewhere else.