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Day 1
"Don't take too long unpacking," Nurse Gabby told Sady. "I have a schedule to keep." Sady imagined Nurse Gabby in a horror movie where the nurses wore starched white uniforms and kept the patients as prisoners for experiments. She decided to keep her phone somewhere safe, or she might end up sitting in a corner with no privileges and no phone.
After Sady unpacked she walked to the activity room where an aid supervised a game of bingo among the patients. The head nurse sat at a table to the side, so Sady headed in her direction. Nurse Gabby pointed to a chair across the table, and Sady was about to sit when the bingo game erupted.
"She's cheating!" a middle aged woman yelled. She pointed at another woman who had to be her twin sister.
The aid patiently asked, "Lee, how can Lou be cheating at bingo?"
"She's looking at my answers and copying them," Lee accused, trying to cover her bingo card.
"You're just jealous because I always win," Lou snapped at her sister.
"You only win because you cheat," Lee hissed. The aid sighed and suggested Lee move to another chair. Lee stuck out her tongue and moved to the seat farthest from her sister and the game continued.
Nurse Gabby turned her attention to Sady. "Now, Sandy-Sue..." She handed Sady a sheet of paper outlining her schedule. "You are scheduled for group therapy this afternoon at three. It's mandatory that you attend. If you want any privileges, you must participate."
"This is the food menu. Unless you're sick, you will eat in the cafeteria with the other guests. Your guardians didn't list any restrictions, and your medical report didn't show any food allergies. Is that correct?"
Sady nodded and said, "Everyone calls me Sady."
Nurse Gabby looked over the top of her glasses and said, "Your name is Sandy-Sue, so that's what you will be called- not Sady."
"Should I call you Nurse Gabrielle?" Sady asked jokingly. That was a bad idea. It appeared Nurse Gabby had no sense of humor.
Her eyes narrowed to slits, and she assessed Sady for a minute. "The guests are always called by their given names, unless they've been granted an exception. I am not a guest- you are. You're free to use the crayons and coloring books until it's time for lunch. Don't make a mess because you will be responsible for cleaning up after yourself. We don't run a maid service here!"
"Can I use the paints?" Sady asked. She didn't tell Nurse Gabby what she was really thinking, or she'd be kicked out before she even got started.
"Did I say you could use the paints? Paints are a privilege as are the markers! You start with crayons and work your way up." Nurse Gabby waved her hand dismissively, and Sady walked to the group of patients at another table. She grabbed a box of crayons and looked at the coloring books. With raised brows she took one that featured farm animals and was age rated for three-to-five year olds. The crayons were equally unimpressive- broken and cheap, not the name brand. After looking at them Sady didn't feel so bad about missing public school for her beauty pageant career.
One of the women smiled, so Sady sat next to her and opened the book. "What the hell?" Sady asked out loud. Someone used a crayon and scribbled on each page.
"Sandy-Sue! That language will not be tolerated. Consider this your first and only warning. Now apologize to Allison for your language." Nurse Gabby had sharp ears.
Sady glanced at the woman seated next to her and apologized. Allison smiled and whispered, "I spent my first week digging myself out of the language demerit hole." She looked at Sady's coloring book and said, "Frank did that. He's mad at Nurse Gabby because she won't let him have cigarettes, so he wrote in all the coloring books."
"Which one is Frank?" Sady asked.
Allison nodded at two men who played checkers. "Frank's the one with hair and the mustache. The other guy is Cliff Kent. Watch out for him. He likes to pinch women when the nurses aren't looking."
"He's at least eighty," Sady said in a shocked voice.
"More like ninety, but that doesn't stop him," Allison replied. "He's even grabbed Nurse Gabby a couple times." Cliff looked at the women and winked. "See what I mean?" Allison asked. Sady bit back a smile and focused on her multi-colored pig.
"They don't analyze these, do they?" Sady asked after she completed the rainbow farm animal.
"No. They only analyze you during sessions. Otherwise, the staff would be guests as well," Allison laughed.
"Can we talk about why we're here?" Sady asked.
"If it's about the others, then only in therapy. If Nurse Gabby heard me telling you about Cliff she'd scold me for violating his privacy. I figure once he pinched me he lost that right! But I don't mention that to anyone. We can talk about ourselves though."
Before Sady could ask more questions a bell rang, and everyone put away their supplies. "Ten minutes until lunch," Allison asked. "The bell gives us warning to clean up and put away anything we've been using. When the bell rings again we're excused to go to the cafeteria."
When the second bell rang Sady followed Allison to the cafeteria. Allison introduced Sady to the sisters who fought at bingo. "Lee and Lou, this is Sandy-Sue," she said.
"What are you in for?" Lou asked.
"Stop being nosy! You aren't supposed to ask that," Lee scolded her sister, while she looked at Sady with raised brows.
"Butt kisser. You want to know, but are afraid to get caught asking," Lou said as they got in line. She elbowed Sady. "Watch Kenny. He gets mad when his food touches, so he separates everything. Do you know how he eats a sandwich? He has to have his bread buttered, with the slice of cheese and the meat separated."
"At least he doesn't ask for a chemical analysis," Lee said in a snotty voice.
"I'm just making sure they aren't poisoning me," Lou sniffed. "And you wouldn't even understand a chemical analysis if I didn't explain it to you."
“I don’t want to understand a chemical analysis!”
"Ladies, move along!" Nurse Gabby barked, sending the twins rushing down the line.
After finding a seat, Sady looked around the cafeteria with interest. Most of the guests seemed like normal people. When she made that comment to Allison, a woman across the table spoke up and said, "We are normal people! We just have some overwhelming circumstances in our lives right now. Are you normal?"
Sady smiled. "Point taken, and I'm sorry. I'm Sady... I mean Sandy-Sue and I've got issues of my own."
The woman smiled back. "My name is Carolina." She rolled her eyes and said, "I prefer Carol, but that's not allowed. Unless crabby Gabby isn't around," she whispered. "Are you a permanent or a day tripper?"
Sady looked at Allison for clarification. "Permanents live here, day trippers are just passing through."
"I'm a day tripper," Sady replied.
"Me, too," Carolina replied. "A few days ago my husband brought home a stray dog with more fur than an eighties' hair band. I threw a cast iron pan at him, drove off in the middle of the night, and wound up here." She grinned and said, "Before I left I pulled the tabs on every can in his case of beer. Then I put them all back into the box and dropped it so it blew up in the garage, all over his truck. And I'm not leaving here until the dog is gone," she announced.
With a start, Sady remembered she was here to do a job, not make friends. "Do you have any trouble with people taking your things?" she asked the women at the table.
"We aren't supposed to have anything valuable in here," a woman down the table replied.
Another spoke up, "I heard one of the aids had her tablet stolen."
"I heard that too," someone else said. "And one of Lucy's Victoria Secret bras never came back from the laundry."
"Who's Lucy?" Sady asked. They pointed to a woman sitting over a few tables. Sady saw a woman with hair dyed black and random streaks of red and blue. She wore thick black eyeliner and drawn on brows. Her clip earrings were attached to the tops of her ears.
"She's afraid of needles," Lee said. "That's why she doesn't have pierced ears."
"She's a permanent," Lou whispered. "But she doesn't talk much at therapy."
"I heard she's a vampire," an unidentified voice chimed in. "That's why I don't sit next to her."
Sady's head was whirling. It was hard not to get caught up in the lives of the guests, rather than focus on the job. "So Lucy never saw her bra again?"
"Not that bouncy one. I'm Charlotte." At Sady's questioning look Charlotte explained. "It was a padded jelly number. I think the laundry people put it in the dryer on purpose and molted it. Just like they deliberately fold my socks the wrong way because they know it upsets me."
"Oh, that's too bad," Sady said sympathetically. "I used to work in a library and people would put books back in the wrong place on purpose. It always made me mad." Charlotte smiled at the kindred spirit.
"After lunch we go outside," Charlotte explained. "We can work in the garden, or take a walk. Just watch out for Frank and his cigarettes. I'm allergenic and I can always smell when he's sneaking them, so I tell. He's not supposed to have them. And watch out for Nurse Gabby- she likes to hoover so she can catch Frank."
"Cigarettes are bad for your health," Sady agreed. When the women rose and put their trays on a rolling cart Sady did the same. Just about every tray had an unopened container of lime jello. Apparently lime jello was it's own food group here- unwanted. Sady followed the women outside. Some of the guests sat on benches, some walked, and an aid supervised the activity taking place in the garden. Sady took a closer look.
"Judy, that's not a weed. That's a carrot, dear." Sady watched an elderly woman with very thick glasses digging in the soil, then she moved on to the fish pond.
"Don't feed them." Sady turned to see a thin young man on a nearby bench. "If you feed them, then you'll get in trouble. I tried to feed them and the geese came and stole the food. Then they pooped all over my bench. So don't feed them. Or you'll get in trouble."
Sady smiled and introduced herself. The young man wouldn't make eye contact, but he introduced himself. "I'm Todd, and I like fish. I have a tank of fish at home. Do you like fish?"
Fish? "My fish died," Sady told him sadly. "I don't know why. His name was Bob, and I killed him. I'm not a good fish owner."
"Did they tell you what kind of water to use? The right water is important. If you don't use the right water, the fish all die. Not your fault if they didn't give you the right water," Todd explained.
"No one told me I needed special water," Sady said, sitting next to him on the bench. "I just filled his bowl from the faucet." Todd spent the next half hour explaining the properties of water to Sady. Most of it went over her head, but she learned untreated city tap water isn't good for fish. "So it's not my fault?" she asked Todd.
"Bad store owner. They shouldn't be selling fish. Bob's death- a tragedy. Not your fault."
Sady thanked Todd, then stood to leave. "Don't get any more fish unless you talk to me," Todd cautioned as she left.
"I won't. Thank you, Todd." Sady moved along the path and sniffed the air. She took a quick look around to make sure Charlotte wasn't close. Someone was smoking a cigarette. Sady peeked around a bush and saw Frank grinding the remains of his cigarette into the ground. He looked happy as he walked away, with an innocent look on his face.
Around the next corner Sady nearly bumped into an aid. She apologized, and the aid smiled. "As long as Cliff isn't around and getting ready to strike. Have you been warned?"
Sady nodded and introduced herself. The aid's name was Ann, and she was a friendly, talkative woman. "I've worked here for three years," she told Sady. "Some of the permanent guests never get any visitors, so I like to make the rounds and spend time with them when I can."
"That's nice of you. Do they ever give you any trouble?" Sady asked.
"No, they wouldn't hurt anyone. Unless you count the occasional red mark when Cliff is over-enthused," she laughed. "Most of the guests here have just hit a hard stretch in life, or were dealt a tough hand in the genetics department. Some are dealing with the typical process of aging, or recovering from surgery or a stroke. Any guests who pose a threat to themselves or others are placed in another facility."
"Well, at lunch one of the women said there's been stealing," Sady said, hoping to introduce the subject and get more information.
"You mean Lucy's bra?" Ann snickered. "I wouldn't be surprised if it just got misplaced. Missing things usually turn up. It's probably in Cliff's room 'by mistake.' He was quite the ladies man back in the day."
"Nothing else is missing? I thought one of the aid's had her tablet stolen."
Ann thought about it for a minute then said, "Oh... no. One of the guests borrowed it for a few hours, without asking. We hushed it up so Nurse Gabby wouldn't take away her privileges."
"What's up with the nurse, anyway? Is she always so grumpy?" Sady asked.
"Gabby just likes to keep things running smoothly. She's not popular with the guests, but someone has to maintain order. Hey, I'd better get moving. It was nice talking with you, Sandy-Sue."
"Thanks. You too, Ann."