Read Online Nubbin but Trouble by Ava Mallory - Free Book Online Page B
Authors: Ava Mallory
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her.
“I'm on break, so let's go sit down in the ice cream parlor and I'll tell you all the juicy details.” Sarah took my arm and led me and Barney to the in-house ice cream parlor, designed with residents and guests in mind. They sure put a lot of money into the aesthetics, but completing ignored the fact that most of their staff members were completely and utterly useless in my opinion, most notably Kathy Sauer – the wicked nurse of the Great Plains.
She was one of those people that became a nurse because she didn't want to be a teacher. Her heart wasn't in it. From everything I'd learned while working here last winter, she never let anyone forget that nursing wasn't her ideal profession. She behaved like everything about her job was an inconvenience and poor Nubbin was the biggest inconvenience of all.
“Ice cream?” Sarah offered me a tiny cone.
I shook my head. All I really wanted was a warm bed and about a thousand hours of sleep, but that wasn't going to happen any time soon.
“Are you sick?” Sarah sat down opposite me, licking her strawberry ice cream.
Think, Mercy, think. Tell her and hope she doesn't rat you out or lie and hope that your mucous membranes cooperate long enough to get the information you need and then get out and make a pit stop at the sheriff's office before checking into the motel?
Lying sounded like fun. “No, it was just a long trip and I'm exhausted.”
Sarah shrugged. “You sound congested.”
Challenge me. I dare you.
“Anyway, so I was working that night and everything was kind of normal. You know how it goes around here. Someone is always griping about something or other and someone else is always pushing their call light for no reason.” Sarah paused to wipe ice cream from her mouth. “So, I had to work the evening shift that night and we we short-staffed as usual. I had to work the unit by myself. Kathy told me that Nubbin was all bent out of shape about something or other and I...”
I had to stop her there. “Bent out of shape about what?”
Sarah took a bite of her cone. “I don't know. He's always like that when Kathy is working.”
I looked at her with a grin on my face, but all I could think was, It's your job to know. Isn't that what they are paying you to do?
As evenly as I could, I asked, “Why has he only acted that way when Kathy is around? What does she do to upset him?”
With a quick wave of her hand, Sarah batted her big, green eyes at me and shrugged. “Who knows. Hey, my break is almost over. Did you want to go to the unit with me? I'm sure everyone would love to see Barney.”
And, that's where this train stopped. Sarah was either unwilling or unable, due to her flightiness, to give me the answers that I needed. I would have to try a different approach, but first I had to figure out where her loyalties lay.
“Do you think that is such a good idea,” I asked, doing my best to imitate her doe-eyed look.
“Of course, the residents would love to see him. Kathy, well, not so much, but who cares, right?” She giggled like a hyena, swinging her long blonde hair as she moved.
Well, this is confusing. Is she friend or foe, Mercy?
I followed her down the hallway, to the back of the facility, where the Memory Support Unit housed thirty-six men and women in various stages of Alzheimer's Disease. It was both the happiest unit and the saddest unit to work on at the same time.
Depending on which stage they were in, the residents were pretty unpredictable most of the time. The latter stages of this dreadful disease took almost everything from the poor souls who were living with it. The beginning stages of the disease were often met with denial and hints that something was amiss and made for quite a few debates, if you so happened to be a member of the nursing staff, trying to convince them to do what you asked. The line between independence and dependence was a
“I'm on break, so let's go sit down in the ice cream parlor and I'll tell you all the juicy details.” Sarah took my arm and led me and Barney to the in-house ice cream parlor, designed with residents and guests in mind. They sure put a lot of money into the aesthetics, but completing ignored the fact that most of their staff members were completely and utterly useless in my opinion, most notably Kathy Sauer – the wicked nurse of the Great Plains.
She was one of those people that became a nurse because she didn't want to be a teacher. Her heart wasn't in it. From everything I'd learned while working here last winter, she never let anyone forget that nursing wasn't her ideal profession. She behaved like everything about her job was an inconvenience and poor Nubbin was the biggest inconvenience of all.
“Ice cream?” Sarah offered me a tiny cone.
I shook my head. All I really wanted was a warm bed and about a thousand hours of sleep, but that wasn't going to happen any time soon.
“Are you sick?” Sarah sat down opposite me, licking her strawberry ice cream.
Think, Mercy, think. Tell her and hope she doesn't rat you out or lie and hope that your mucous membranes cooperate long enough to get the information you need and then get out and make a pit stop at the sheriff's office before checking into the motel?
Lying sounded like fun. “No, it was just a long trip and I'm exhausted.”
Sarah shrugged. “You sound congested.”
Challenge me. I dare you.
“Anyway, so I was working that night and everything was kind of normal. You know how it goes around here. Someone is always griping about something or other and someone else is always pushing their call light for no reason.” Sarah paused to wipe ice cream from her mouth. “So, I had to work the evening shift that night and we we short-staffed as usual. I had to work the unit by myself. Kathy told me that Nubbin was all bent out of shape about something or other and I...”
I had to stop her there. “Bent out of shape about what?”
Sarah took a bite of her cone. “I don't know. He's always like that when Kathy is working.”
I looked at her with a grin on my face, but all I could think was, It's your job to know. Isn't that what they are paying you to do?
As evenly as I could, I asked, “Why has he only acted that way when Kathy is around? What does she do to upset him?”
With a quick wave of her hand, Sarah batted her big, green eyes at me and shrugged. “Who knows. Hey, my break is almost over. Did you want to go to the unit with me? I'm sure everyone would love to see Barney.”
And, that's where this train stopped. Sarah was either unwilling or unable, due to her flightiness, to give me the answers that I needed. I would have to try a different approach, but first I had to figure out where her loyalties lay.
“Do you think that is such a good idea,” I asked, doing my best to imitate her doe-eyed look.
“Of course, the residents would love to see him. Kathy, well, not so much, but who cares, right?” She giggled like a hyena, swinging her long blonde hair as she moved.
Well, this is confusing. Is she friend or foe, Mercy?
I followed her down the hallway, to the back of the facility, where the Memory Support Unit housed thirty-six men and women in various stages of Alzheimer's Disease. It was both the happiest unit and the saddest unit to work on at the same time.
Depending on which stage they were in, the residents were pretty unpredictable most of the time. The latter stages of this dreadful disease took almost everything from the poor souls who were living with it. The beginning stages of the disease were often met with denial and hints that something was amiss and made for quite a few debates, if you so happened to be a member of the nursing staff, trying to convince them to do what you asked. The line between independence and dependence was a
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