I folded the white sheet towards my body. I pulled the course edges of the sheet towards one another, matching one corner with the corner opposite. I stood there humming to myself. Moments like these are what made my sanity come back in full strides. This is my down time, and I needed a lot of it.
The only problem with hospital corridors is you hear everything. You hear squeaky shoes, you hear heart monitors going stir crazy, and most of all you hear the sound of death knocking upon the doors of living. That's the downfall of being a nurse.
Squeaky shoes pounded against the shiny title that lined the walkways. My heart began to slowly pound in my chest. Please, God no.
Not to tonight please.
Brad popped his head in through the doorframe. "McKessie! We have a stat red on the way."
"But I…" I tripped over my words. Curse my inability to form a sentence!
"I know, you don't do special in emergency care but tonight we're a little low on nurses tonight." Brad air quoted.
"It's not that I don't special in it, it's just that I don't have….experience in it."
Brad's chuckle seeped through the wall. "Oh, you'll get your first taste tonight."
Brad's shoes squeaked back down the hallway, and I let out a shaky breath. I threw the white starched sheet back into the container and ran my fingers over my face. This job would be the death of me.
"McKessie!"
Pulling myself together, I rushed out of the room as the sirens cried closer.
By the time I made it to the scene, John waved at me. I cautiously smiled back at him. I walked with him as he wheeled an empty gurney away.
"What's brewing in there?" I whispered.
John knew I was the best at my job. Everyone in the hospital knew, just that I tended to those that were already stable and were on their way to recovery.
"We had one announced deceased on the scene, but we have a male, 21, barely hangin' in there."
I quietly bit my lip.
"Hey, it's okay. Cruz is handling most of it. You just may have to do that thing with your voice to see if the guy makes it through the night."
My eyes cut like daggers at John; he patted my shoulder with a gloved hand. John bid me a pleasant night and wheeled the gurney to his wailing box as we nurses called it.
"McKessie?"
I spun around and there was Brad with a carefree smile on his face.
"I was looking for you right now, I swear."
Brad gave me a smile. "You are something else you know that?"
Giving Brad a glazed look, he gently steered me in the direction of the nurses' station. Evvie waved at me, and I nodded at her. Brad led me to room 201, and reached out to grab the patient chart before pushing the curtain back. I took a deep breath and parted the curtain back.
"Patient's name is Chad M. Danforth, Male, Age 22, African American, weighs 150 pounds, height 5'11."
I shook my head. I couldn't make out anything of Chad's profile, it was too dim in the room to really see anything.
"Apparently he and another female were hit in a collision with a drunk driver."
That's the female that John was talking about. I thought to myself.
"The deceased one?"
Brad nodded his head.
"Have the families been notified?"
"Of course, Chad's parents said they would come in tomorrow, you know incase."
No one had to speak of if Chad wouldn't make it through the night. I walked closer to the beeping heart monitor. I dropped down to my knees and grasped Chad's hand and closed my eyes. I was never a religious person, but I seemed to have a thing with God right about now.
God, I don't know if you can hear me but this one….you just can't take him away. He's at the prime of his life right now. I'm only a year younger than him. Please God, you know me, I never ask for favors but it's too soon for him to go. Amen.
I slowly stood up, and gently let my eyes graze over Chad. I still couldn't really see him, but I could make out features. Two eyes, one nose, a set of lips, and battered cheeks. I traced frown lines on his forehead, only to be rewarded with a chilling electric shock.
Feeling like I had been burned, I jumped back.
Gotta be the extra electricity in his body.
"Alright Mr. Danforth, I'm going to need you to make a stable and safe recovery. Your family must be worried sick about you."
"Alright Taylor, enough with the scolding already."
Twirling around I stuck my tongue out at Evvie. Evvie walked further into the small room.
"So all the fuss about him?"
Shaking my head, I lightly nudged Evvie.
"The poor kid was hit by a drunk driver; of course there's going to be fuss over him."
Evvie held up her hands. "Hey Eve?"
"Yeah?"
"When you touched Danforth, did you get shocked too?"
"No ma'am I did not."
Gotta just be me then.
"Why?"
"No reason." I gave her a cheap smile and made my way out of the room.
They say that things happen for stupid reasons, good reasons and just random reasons. Was there some reason as to why I was the only one to be shocked when I touched Chad? Could it have been the frequency of me folding hospital sheets for over three hours and then putting on the rubber gloves? No, no, there could be no way that was possible.
"Taylor?"
My head snapped up and my lips formed into a smile. Doug was on duty tonight. I dropped my coins into the bus machine and found a seat near Doug.
"How are you this morning?"
"A little tired. How are you?"
Doug pulled away from the curb and began to drive down the street. I had taken the bus as long as I seem to remember. Actually, only since I became a nurse. I didn't live that far from the hospital, but with me working long hours and typically I got off at 3am I didn't want to have a reason not to go to work the following day. So, I would suck up my pride and just hop on the bus. Over the course of three years, I began to learn the names of my bus drivers and eventually I came to befriending them. Doug was my favorite because he was the most protective of me.
"I had a daughter around your age, till her and her momma packed up and left the country."
Since then Doug would pull up as close as he could to my apartment complex, and wait till I at least got within the door frame of my building before he would pull away. Doug never got caught, and I never said anything other than a thank you in the form of some type of food when I saw him during the day.
"Bad day eh?"
"Not really, just a. . . Patient that kinda hit close to home is all."
"Family member?"
"Not this time thankfully."
"How be your momma and daddy anyhow?"
"Wouldn't know, haven't spoken to them since before I graduated college."
Doug always encouraged me to open back up the lines of communication with my folks, but I could never bring myself to do it. I moved to California for a reason. Because I was two thousand miles away from my mother and I liked that. A lot.
"Stop requested." Doug called out.
Gathering up my stuff, I walked down the bus steps and began to make my way to my apartment's lit doors. I knew Doug was on a tight schedule, and I also knew that he wouldn't leave until I made it safely to the door way and had the glass door open. Once I made it safely to the doors, Doug waved at me and pulled the bus away from the curb and drove off into the chilly night.
My home wasn't anything fancy… that was for sure. It was a one bedroom apartment, with a nice little kitchen and a small area that housed all my crap that I couldn't be bothered with to put away fully. It was the stuff that you have, but never pull it out of a box. I didn't have internet or cable because I worked too much. It was pointless to pay for services if I wasn't home to enjoy them. Instead I own a very flourished fish tank. It housed a lot of colorful fish, and it was served as my TV. Some nights I would camp out on my couch and just watch my fish for hours until my eyelids became heavy on me.
I threw my keys into the basket near the door, and kicked off my shoes. If I could just make it to the couch, I wouldn't have to sleep on the floor. Closing my front door, I waddled the seven giant steps to my fish tank and flipped the light on.
Let there be light.
Typically when I got home, I never really turned on any lights. My home was pretty bare, and I knew the pathways pretty well. Yeah, alright I had vampire vision and I didn't need the lights on.
"How are my babies today?" I cooed.
Sighing into the couch, I reclined back and propped my feet up on cushions and closed my eyes for a moment. Behind my eyelids, the day events played back, the only thing that seemed to be on a loop was Chad.
Did the girl that die, was that his sister? Girlfriend? Friend? Cousin?
What was his relationship to him? And how would that effect his recovery time?
Never had I thought about a patient as much as I did for Chad. I never got too close to my patients, in case of death.
Again, my tired fingers found my face and begin rubbing circles into my tired cheeks. Then my fingers moved up to my temples and rubbed there for a few minutes.
Breathing deeply, I pushed my tired body into the cushions and snuggled into the leather of the couch.
"Mama is gonna sleep out here with her babies. I don't think I'll make it to my room."
I closed my eyes, and didn't allow them to open until I woke up later on that morning.
I'm bacccckkk, and I have a new story! This summer I plan to finish this story though. I don't know how well this story will do, or if anyone will like it. Of course, as usual I don't own any of the High school Musical Cast, nor do I own anything of Disney. REVIEW!