I looked out the window and sighed. It was raining, it had been raining all week and it was becoming somewhat depressing. I turned away from the window and looked around in the plain room I was in. The room was pretty bare. White walls a window in the center of the wall opposite from the door. On the left wall was a small bed with worn and faded blue sheets with a warmer, equally faded and grey comforter. On the bed's left an old wooden bedside table was situated and on the right an equally old wooden chair with a very worn cushion atop it that did nothing for comfort.
The bareness of it did nothing to improve my mood which made me go back to the task I was supposed to do, putting clean sheets on the bed before me. Once done with the chore, I left the room and put the dirty sheets in the rolling hamper outside the door then moved on to the next door and entered the room.
This room was no different than the last except a man was sitting up in bed looking out the window. He appeared to be much older than he truly was. He was in his late twenties but seemed more like forty years old.
"Hello Mr. Locke!" I called out to him.
"Hello Sister Josephine" he replied eyes still stuck to the window. "It's quite depressing isn't it? It keeps raining cats and dogs lately" the man said.
The man in question, Mr. Olivier Locke, was a patient at St-Pierre's Hospital. At his request I was the main nurse in charge of his care. I was merely a novice in the convent the hospital was annexed to, but I had known Mr. Locke ever since I had started working here, four years ago. His condition still wasn't getting better but at least it hadn't deteriorated in some time. I wasn't a doctor but personally I did not think he could get much worse; the poor man could barely even stand without extreme effort, let alone try to walk. Usually he spent his days sleeping so I was quite glad to see him awake for once.
"Yes it is quite a dreary sight, isn't it?" I replied to him. "But I'm sure the trees and grass are glad for it."
"Yes most likely, I wonder why God works as he does sometimes...? Hot and dry or muddy and wet for weeks on end. Such polar opposites, it's such a strange contrast." He said finally turning away from the window to face me.
"Yes. The Lord has a very peculiar way of doing things, but I'm sure he plans it all for a reason" I smiled at him as I said it, but internally I doubted my own words. Why did our Lord make things happen as he did? Why was the kindest, most caring and devoted man so sick, forced to be in a hospital away from his family: his wife, his children? I couldn't see all the mercy and fairness people always attributed to this God of ours, I didn't understand it at all. Why did it have to be this way?
"Sister Josephine… Do you think I'll get better? Do you think that's in God's plan?" he suddenly asked in a sad tone, yet I could hear a hint of hope in his voice.
I was shocked!
This man who always saw the goods things in life, always thought positively, put his entire faith in The Lord and here he was doubting the very being humans put so much faith in, the very being he put so much faith in constantly, doubting the recovery we all assumed was only a matter of time and a miracle from God.
I tried to smile reassuringly.
"I really hope it is, I pray for your cure to be in his plans" I walked over to him and put my hand on his shoulder. "Keep faith Mr. Locke, if not for yourself then for your family. I'm sure your daughter and sons wish only for you to get better and go back to them."
I looked at the flowers in a cup on his bedside table, "Maybe little Mary-Jo will bring you flowers once the weather clears up" I tried to cheer him up. As the corners of his lips twitched into a smile I knew I'd done right. He looked at the cup of flowers and smiled thinking of his children. He always brightened up when talking about his kids or when they were around, anyone could see they meant the world to him. The Lockes had three children: two sons, twins, Jack and Logan and a daughter, Mary-Josephine or her nickname Mary-jo. The boys were 7 years old and Little Mary-Jo was almost 3 years old. They were truly adorable little things, slightly hyperactive but most children their ages are.
"Miss Josephine...?" Another novice poked her head in the open doorway. It was one of my fellow novices and also one of my friends, Trinity. Unlike me she chose to help out with tasks in the convent rather than caring for the sick in the hospital, the girl was very sweet but had a little too much sympathy and would be crying all the time if she did.
I turn towards her, "Yes Miss Trinity…?" I ask curiously.
"Mother superior is looking for you… Shall I tell her you're with Mr. Locke?" she asked back.
"No, it's quite alright I wouldn't want to keep her away from her other duties" Mr. Locke replied before I could answer her.
I gave him a hesitating look, "I'm a bit tired anyway" he answered my non-verbal question. "I'm going to go to sleep for a bit" he continued.
"Well if you're sure then… Have a good nap. I'll come back later to bring you dinner, ok?" I said with a smile before leaving with Trinity.
I followed my fellow novice as she led me down the stairs to the first floor, then down the halls and over to the convent side. She then led me through the convent halls over to a small door with a cross engraved on the length of it. A door I was very familiar with… Mother Superior's office door.
Trinity left as I knocked on the door. I heard a voice from the inside telling me to come in. A voice I recognised to be Mother superior's. I did as told and entered the room, closing the door. Once inside I bowed in a mindless routine that was expected of me every time I entered a room where a superior of mine was situated.
"You wanted to see me Mother?" I inquired rising up to look at her as I spoke. That's when I noticed the man sitting in the chair in front of the desk.
"Yes, I did." She replied nodding once to me before designating the man sat in front of her desk. He had a somewhat strange appearance. He had extremely curly chestnut hair tied in a short ponytail at the base of his neck and thick framed round glasses perched on his nose. A day old beard and a moustache the same colour as his hair completed his unique look.
"Miss Josephine this man is a General from the Black Order, General Froi Tiedoll. He was sent here on a mission to check out the hospital's work. I have told him that you would gladly accompany the fine gentleman so he can conduct his mission, since you know the workings of the hospital better than most novices and our Sisters all busy today." It was worded as a fact and I knew it was going to be, what the superiors asked was to be done without question.
"Very well I shall help out the General with whatever he needs." I replied, politely nodding my head towards them both.
The man stood and walked towards me, as he did, I noticed what he was wearing: a black coat with gold trims, buttons and a sort of cross on the upper left side of his chest, above his heart, the coat was accompanied with plain black pants and a sturdy looking pair of worn black leather boots. Boots that were now right beside my own feet. I then realised I had been staring and he stared right back holding out his hand for me to shake.
I shook his hand and stuttered out a glad to meet you general.
"The pleasure is mine Miss, I hope we can get along well during my stay" he replied with an accent I was fairly sure was German.
"As do I" I could not find anything better to say at that moment. I pulled my hand back after another moment and looked back at Mother superior. She dismissed me with a small hand gesture towards the door to which I bowed and left followed by the General who bid her a good day.
"So your name is Josephine right Miss?" General Tiedoll asked once outside of the office. "Yes, it is my novice name." I replied; I knew this was probably not going to be the last question the man asked. "Your novice name? So not your given name then" he said answering his own question. "No. When I became a novice I chose to take on a name closer to God: Josephine derived from the Saint Joseph's name. My given name is Joelle"
"Joelle, what a beautiful name for an equally beautiful young girl"
"Thank you sir, that is very nice of you to say. It is not often that one hears such things in this place" I replied my cheeks dusted with a slight pink.
"Oh, just call me Tiedoll, Miss... By which name should I call you?" he asked.
"Josephine for now Mr. Tiedoll"
"Well Miss Josephine, would you mind telling me, for the sake of my work here, have you seen any strange changes here?" he asked me suddenly.
"What do you mean by strange?" I didn't quite understand his question.
"Has the hospital had more patients die lately or admitted more terminally ill patients, or sudden strange gain in money or overly sad or happy doctors, money that appears out of seemingly nowhere?" he specified for me.
"Well there's Dr. Miller who's been sad lately but that's not unusual, his wife just died. It was a very sad accident, the poor woman fell in the river not far from here and she didn't know how to swim" I answer. I didn't want to put the good doctor in any trouble but I felt I needed to answer truthfully to this man, Mother superior had asked me to help him with anything he needed after all.
"Yes indeed that is normal for a newly widowed man." He acknowledged.
I thought about the other aspects of his question. "There has been a minor increase in lungs disease patients; it seems a bad pneumonia is going around. Most were cured but for others it worsened to the point of collapsed lungs which are sadly untreatable and result in death" I answered.
"Is Dr. Miller responsible for those patients?" he inquired.
"No. We have a second doctor, Dr. Rukin who treats those patients. It's been hard on him, he's lost approximately twenty patients in the past two months, but he pulls through for the patients that do make it." I said with admiration.
"Would you like to have a tour to see the hospital and the patients?" I didn't know if my offer would be of any use but there was no harm in trying.
"Yes that would be more welcome. Can we start by Dr. Rukin's patients?" he asked. I agreed. I did not know why he made that strange request but I had said I would help and that was what I had to do.