Wandering

     Nurse Grace was tired. A broken hip, a dislocated shoulders, two suspected heart attacks, a kidney stone, a GI bleed, an infant with colic, and one drunken idiot with a knife in his hand had all landed in the ED that night; along with the slough of slip and falls, and minor car accident injuries from the blizzard outside had made the last 13 ½ hours exhaustingly long. But her shift was finally over. After contemplating the risky walk to her car and then the treacherous drive home, Grace quickly decided against it. There was already two feet of freshly fallen snow and 40 miles an hour winds outside, Grace’s next shift started in 10 hours, and she could feel her eyes getting heavier with every passing minute. Grace went to the locker room, and after splashing some water on her face, she grabbed her bag and went off in the direction of the on-call sleeper dorm. 

     As soon as she opened the door, she knew she was screwed, every bunk was full, and several people had bundled themselves in blankets and were on the floor. Quickly closing the door, Grace rubbed her eyes and shifted from foot to foot; she hadn’t relieved how tired her feet were from standing all day. Another nurse walked past and peeked into the sleeping dorm before disappointedly continuing down the hallway. Grace flattened her back on the cold white wall of the hallway; she looked down the long hall, first one direction and then the other. All she wanted was a place to rest her head, a couch, a chair; at this point, even a clean piece of carpet would suffice. After a moment of compilation, Grace started walking down the all too familiar hallway, not knowing entirely where she was heading. 

     As she passed offshoots of hallways and other doors, she passively observed the signs that accompanied each of them… Radiology… Blood Lab… Labor and Delivery… Pediatrics... Pharmacy… Conference Room… Grace scanned her card key, opened the door, and walked into the conference room. She took three chairs from the long conference table and placed them next to a wall. It would be precarious, the chairs lacked armrests, and the wheels of the chairs had no way of being locked, but she took her travel blanket from her bag and, using her jacket as a pillow, Grace tried to sleep. 

     Grace heard a beep as the conference room door unlocked and then saw a small sliver of light as the door was cracked open. After a moment, the door slammed closed. Grace signed and covered her head with her blanket. Several minutes later, she heard the beep again, the door open for a moment, and then slammed even harder this time. Grace rolled over on her makeshift bed and looked at the door; she started to nod back to sleep when she heard it again. Beep… Grace’s eyes bolted open and saw the door cracked open; she was surprised to see that the person standing at the door was not a lost medical tech or equally-tired nurse, but a little girl. Grace stood up and walked towards the door. 

“Are you lost, sweetie?” Grace said. The door slammed shut. Grace quickly opens the door and follows the little girl before she could run out of sight. “Hey honey, just stop for a moment.” The girl silently continues down the hall, Grace swiftly moves to catch up. As she gets closer, Grace notices the little girl’s barefoot. “You’re not in trouble. Where’s your mom and dad?” The girl stops in the middle of the hallway and looks back towards Grace. Grace sees dark bruises up and down the little girl’s arms. “Are you okay? My name’s Grace, I’m a nurse sweetie, I work for the hospital.” The little girl smiles and reaches out her hand towards Grace. 

     Grace takes the girls’ hand and kneels down to get a better look at her. The little girl’s arms are covered in small pinpricks surrounded by bruises in various states of healing. “Ouch, these look like they hurt. Are you a patient here, sweetie?” The little girl pulls away and runs into a nearby room. “Wait, I can help you.” Grace follows the little girl but is surprised to see no trace of the little girl when she enters the room. Instead, Grace finds herself in a small hospital room, an elderly woman sitting in her hospital bed with a table is in front of her; she seems to be playing a game of solitaire, the TV on the wall is loudly playing the news. “Excuse me,” Grace said, “I don’t mean to intrude, but have you seen a little girl?”

The old woman does not look up from her cards “She comes around every once in a while, yes.”

“And… did you happen to see where she went?”

“No.”

“She just walked in here. You really didn’t see where she went?”

The old woman looks up from her game. “Sit down, honey.” The old woman motions to a chair.

Grace walks to the other side of the room and pers under the bed “Where did she go?”

“Or don’t. It makes no difference to me if you want to run around like a fool.”

“A fool. There’s a lost, barely clothed girl running around.”

“Honey, no, there’s not.” The old woman signs, “She’s a little girl in room 308 in the Pediatrics ward. She’s been in a vegetative state for 2 weeks now.”

“What, what are you talking about?”

“Go look for yourself if you want.”

     Grace walked through the hospital until she found her way to the pediatrics ward; after asking the attending, she was directed to room 308 and found herself standing in front of the little girl’s bed. It was the little girl she had been following around the hallway just minutes ago, down to the bruising on her thin, frail arms. Grace quietly left the room and made her way back to the old woman’s room. When she entered, the old woman was back to playing her card game. “What did I see?” asked Grace.

“You saw that little girl.”

“No, no, I didn’t. She’s…”

“I’m sorry, honey,” said the old woman, “I’ve been here a long time, and it’s never easy when it’s a child.”

“But it’s not. I mean, it can’t be her.”

“Sit down, honey.” Grace sits down in the chair beside the old woman’s bed. “You know what I like to think of them as? I like to think of them as wanderers. Most of them are just here for a short time, although I have known a few to stay here for years.”

“Is she a ghost then.”

“No, not really. She’s between, I guess, still tied to her body but not entirely in it. I have seen some actually rejoin their body, but most choose to move to the next place, haha, wherever that is.”

“But why could I see her?”

“Most people just don’t care to see them or are too busy to notice. But that little girl is a trouble maker, isn’t she? She’s been wandering for less than 2 weeks, and she’s already scared two security guards, a doctor, and now a nurse. That little rascal’s a feisty one.” Grace sat for a moment. She looked down at her feet; she had forgotten how sore her feet were until now.

“I never asked your name. My names…” Grace paused as she heard the door to the room opened. A nurse walked in and went to the old woman’s bedside.

“Visiting hours have been done for a while now.”

“Oh, I’m an ED nurse. We were just having a quick chat.” 

“Ha, that must have been a pretty short chat.” said the nurse. Grace looked at the old woman, and instead of the lively, bright-eyed elderly woman she spoke to only seconds ago, lay an unresponsive, bedridden, and frail woman.

Grace stood up and walked to the old woman’s bedside “What’s wrong with her?”

“She suffered from a stroke 4 years ago and since then has been in a stable but comatose state.”

“What’s her name?”

The nurse looks down at the old woman’s chart. “Judy.”

“Well Judy,” said Grace, “I’ll be back again tomorrow. Maybe we can squeeze in another chat.”