Wendy sat quiet in one of the chairs in the waiting room. Her parents really just couldn't let her alone to do as she pleased. Instead, they just complained about how much time she spent all along in her room. They couldn't stand it actually. They said they worried about her. That's where this whole cockeyed idea came from.
Dad suggested they get her out of the house. Mama said she ought to be productive. A hospital became that ideal place for being away from home and productive. In a few minutes, Dad would be done with the paperwork at the front desk and she would officially become a "regular visitor" to the long-term patients here.
The whole idea of it sounded awful and boring. Sick people, for goodness sakes! What if she caught something? Or what if one of them was dying? She really didn't want to meet a dying, old and pale-grey in the face person.
"Alright then." The nurse who stood behind the desk looked up from Dad's paperwork. "Miss Darling, if you would sign your own little name right here, that'd be just fine." She smiled strange.
"On the line, pumpkin." Dad pointed.
She knew where to sign.
Wendy picked up the pen and scrawled out her name in rather atrocious cursive. Who could expect a ten-year-old to do much better than that?
Dad still smiled at her, even as he disappeared through the swinging front doors of the hospital. But, mustering up her courage, Wendy followed when the nurse beckoned. She liked to say things like, "You can call me, 'Maggie,' " and "this person lives in that room." Wendy heard bits and pieces, but the nurse just kept on walking and talking.
She turned down the hall and pushed through a set of doors to a rather different looking wing. Cut out paper of all colors was taped to the walls with posters of every kind hung up beside signs like, "Cover your mouth when you sneeze."
"This is the children's wing." She looked back over her shoulder. "And at the end of the hall, I think there's someone worth meeting."
Nurse Maggie was a rather overweight lady and she sashayed when she walked. Her curly drown hair stuck out in all directions. If anything, she looked a little crazy. Wendy wondered just how much this woman's opinion mattered.
"In this room." She stopped and turned a doorknob, pulling the door wide open for Wendy to enter before her.
Wendy stepped inside the room and looked up at the ceiling – all white and dull, then around at the walls – no posters or drawing, then at the white bed against the wall to the right. A boy with shocking red hair sat cross-legged on top of the sheets with a book in his lap wearing pale-blue pajamas.
The boy looked up and grinned and those green eyes of his twinkled in a rather devilish way.
"Hello, Peter." The nurse grimaced now. Wendy wondered why.
"Hi, Nurse Maggie." He leaned back on his arms, smiling like a Cheshire cat.
His smile didn't seem to make the nurse act any more normal. She glanced nervously over at the sink and reached for Wendy's arm, jerking her back outside the room.
Wendy watched the woman's face and cocked her head. She certainly was an odd nurse indeed. Her eyes were wide and turning pink.
"I'm going to go away now. You stay with Peter. He's not contagious or anything of that sort, so you just stay here in this wing and keep him company, alright?"
Still rather confused, Wendy nodded. She couldn't do anything else.
"Good." She poked her head back inside the room.
Out of the corner of her eye, Wendy saw Peter smile and wave at the nurse, only jarring the poor lady more.
Ever so slowly, the nurse back away from the door, grinned and began walking back down the hall leaving Wendy on her own to face whatever kind of devil child the nurse seemed to think he was. But by the looks of him, Wendy decided he might have the potential to make her hours here at the hospital much more interesting.