New Scene from #IP2015

Too much of the time, we are blinded by our own pursuits…while…the people who do love us have to stand on the sidewalk and watch us beg in the streets!

- C. JoyBell C.

With no response to her knocking, the nurse entered slowly and with extreme caution.  She wasn’t particularly afraid but she knew well the dangers of waking new mothers.  When she cleared the entry space, she found herself surprised at the image before her.  There was no tired, sleeping new mother, or any evidence of a newborn.

     Katherine Ellis sat, staring blankly in the direction of the hospital TV.  Upright in her bed, she flipped aimlessly through the cable channels.  It was strange to find a young girl in the room alone.  She couldn’t have been any more than what, sixteen or seventeen years old.  Carlotta could see the chip on her shoulder from the entryway, and had absolutely no idea what to say to her.

     She decided to just keep it light and follow the girl’s lead.  Carrying a pile of fresh linens, she wondered how she would get the girl out of the hospital bed.  Laying the linens atop Katherine’s food tray, she noticed that the girl kept glancing up at the wall clock.

     It was just after 2:00 in the afternoon and she was sitting in the dark.  Carlotta rounded the bed in a sneak attack on the hospital curtains.  She found herself off put by the fact that her presence hadn’t yet been acknowledged.  She definitely wasn’t about to be ignored and wandering around in the dark!

     “Good morning sunshine”, she called out, snatching the curtains open and assaulting Katherine’s pupils with sunlight.  She expected to get some type of rise out of the girl, but instead she turned to find that Katherine had moved from the bed to the visitor’s chair furthest from the window and closest to the phone.  She lifted the receiver and punched in some digits.  Carlotta got to work changing the bed linens.

     She was soon startled to hear the girl slam the phone down and throw herself back into the visitor’s chair.  She lifted her chin ever so slightly and was able to get a glimpse of the girl.  A pretty, young lady, she looked to be picking her fingernails in disgust and frustration.  “Is everything okay?”  Carlotta asked the question in utter nonchalance as she continued freshening the linens.  She wasn’t sure that she expected the girl to respond.

     Katherine never once looked up, but she did crack a little bit.  “Don’t they hire housekeeping people to do that stuff?”  It may not have been the ideal opening, but at least she was talking now.

     “They do”, Carlotta said airily, placing a fresh blanket on the bed, “but I like to consider myself a sort of full service nurse.”  She smiled at her bed making talents.

     “Okay full service, whatever that means.”  Katherine glanced at the wall clock again and moved toward the phone.  It was now clear to Carlotta who she was trying to contact, so she unplugged it before the girl could capture it in her grasp.  “Excuse me”, Katherine chimed.

     “Need to disinfect this”, Carlotta tossed dismissively over her shoulder as she turned toward the restroom.  Katherine wasn’t buying it.

     “You trying to be funny now?”  She moved in Carlotta’s direction and Carlotta continued on toward the bathroom.

     “Absolutely not”, she said removing some paper towels from the dispenser and disinfectant spray from a high shelf.  “I told you that I’m a full service nurse.  I try to think of everything a new mom and baby should have.  That includes a clean phone”, she said with a spray.

     “This is a maternity ward.  You guys have special needs.  Babies need for everything to be as clean as possible and moms”, she paused a moment, then chuckled.  “Honey hush!  I could let housekeeping clean your room, but the way I see it, you just pushed a small person out of a significantly smaller hole.  You don’t want all these strange people moving in and out of your space while you’re sitting in here with your hoo-ha all open!”

     “Well, I wish you would tell them that”, Katherine fanned her hand toward the door.  “It seems to me like a different one of the ‘strange people’ comes through that door every time I blink!”  She rolled her eyes and plopped down on the clean bed.  Carlotta noticed how she rubbed her hand over the warm blanket, and smiled.

     “Well”, Carlotta wrapped the phone in its cord instead of plugging it back into the wall.  “I may not have the power to do all that, but I think I can work out at least a temporary ‘do not disturb’.”  She smiled over her shoulder as she made her way toward the door.

     Katherine jumped up and took off after her.  “Hold on a second now.”  Katherine dove to retrieve the phone.  “I didn’t ask you to take that.”

     Carlotta pivoted slightly, just enough to keep the phone out of the young girl’s reach.  “We said ‘do not disturb’”, she said coyly.  “So, I figured this was included.  If any calls come in for you, they’ll be routed in through us at the nurses’ station.  I assure you, you won’t miss a thing”.  She smiled again.

     “But”, Katherine tried to interject, but Carlotta was still speaking.

     “And, I saw your mother”, she said as somewhat of a question, “holding that beautifully delicious little boy of yours down in the nursery as I came in this afternoon, so I'm sure they'll be here with you before you know it.” 

     “That's fine, but that doesn't mean that –” Carlotta cut her off again and it was starting to annoy Katherine.

The nurse put a finger to her lips and reached to gently rub Katherine’s shoulder.  “Because I've seen this before, and I know how it ends, let me give you a little bit of advice.  Just because there is someone missing from this moment, does not mean that there’s anything missing from your life.”  Katherine looked confused.  "Sweetie, if it were God's will for him to be here, he would be here.  You've done enough.  You've tried calling, you've tried watching that clock,” she motioned toward the wall.  “If he's meant to be here, he’ll walk in that door before you walk out, and if he doesn't, know that you are still whole.  You don't need anything from him that it's not in his heart to give freely and without prompting.  God will work it out His way and in His time.  While that happens you just focus on the love that you can see.”

     Before Katherine could offer a rebuttal, the door crept open.   It was her mother and son.  Carlotta smiled, but Katherine didn't seem to share in the emotion.  Finding herself strangely disappointed, Carlotta moved toward the exit.  Greeting the woman and child, with a warm smile, she turned back to Katherine only briefly.  “I'll get this back to you before I leave”, she said dryly, and then she was gone.