The Tao of Apathy (14 page)

Chapter 27

Mrs. Annunzio padded along the corridor in her
slippers and nightgown. She picked up speed as she entered the
dining room where a group of people sat around the long table. She
scanned them carefully to find the person she was looking for. The
first person was a man in his forties with long hair and an unkempt
beard tying fishing flies from a big tackle box. Next to him was a
young woman with several eyebrow piercings and a tattoo of the word
SATAN on her neck. She was next to a young guy, clean cut, but
unable to sit still. He could only squirm and he was talking
incessantly to the woman with the SATAN tattoo. On the other side
of the table was a plump woman wearing tight clothes and a neckline
so plunging it exposed her appendectomy scar.

“
I was ready to kill myself when
Ed came home drunk again,” the plump woman said. “I trashed the
house and ran out onto the lawn screaming and naked.”

Behind the screaming naked woman was an
effeminate, pear shaped man practicing yoga while chattering to no
one. The squirming guy had a thousand-yard stare on the man doing
the yoga.

“
Excuse me, Doctor,” Mrs. Annunzio
said to him. “I know you people are having a staff meeting, but I
really need to talk to you.”

“
Umm, hmm,” he said, rocking back
and forth.

“
But when can I go home? I miss my
house and this place is giving me headaches.”

“
Well, we’ll get you a sedative.”
The doctor turned his thousand-yard stare to the rest of the staff.
“One of you nurses, get her a sedative.”

“
How about just an aspirin.” one
of the nurses said.

“
One of you nurses, get her an
aspirin.”

The woman with SATAN tattooed on her neck went
to the cart where all the medication was kept in locked drawers.
She filled out a couple of pages of paperwork and then put two
aspirins in a pleated paper cup. She measured out 50cc of water
into another cup and handed the aspirin to Mrs.
Annunzio.

“
We were just discussing your
case,” the doctor said. “We believe you might need longer care in
one of the state hospitals. Kalamazoo has a bed open right
now.”

“
No, please. Just let me go
home.”

“
Settle down or I’ll give you a
sedative.”

“
I don’t want one.”

“
I’ll take one,” the effeminate
man said.

“
Fine. Give him one, Satan’s
little helper. Also record in Mrs. Annunzio’s chart that she
refused psychotropic treatment, please.” The doctor put his hand to
his face. Sucked his thumb for a few moments. “Let us ask you a few
questions, Mrs. Annunzio. Do you believe that you husband is
dead?”

“
Yes, of course.”

Do you believe that he is after
you?”

“
No. Not anymore.”

“
Good. Maybe you are doing better
than we thought. Do you believe that your husband is a ghost
haunting this hospital?”

“
Certainly not.”

“
Good, so you no longer see that
hallucination that you kept seeing in the hallway.”

“
Yes. Yes, I see him everyday. He
brings me my lunch.”

“
That’s it,” the doctor yelled,
jumping up. “We are shipping you off to Kalamazoo.”

“
I am going to go lay down,” Mrs.
Annunzio said, “I’m too old to deal with you people.”

The doctor sat down, crossed his legs and
quietly said, “She is becoming withdrawn. Let’s give her the
diagnosis of non-specific, age-related degeneration of
functioning.”

Chapter 28

As Mary Eddy rode the elevator to the Cancer
wing to begin a six am to six pm weekend shift, she unwrapped a
stick of gum to cover the alcohol on her breath. She had been
partying with a guy she ran into at the bars every once in a while
and had not made it home.

She took out a second stick and handed it to
Dykes.

Dykes smelled of alcohol and sex and was not
feeling as bad as he looked. He took the stick of gum without
looking at her. “You know,” she said. “For a guy that’s a lot of
laughs drunk, you sure are a sourpuss at work. I see you ducking
down stairways and shoving your face into water fountains when you
see me. I know I am older than you, but you are the one that seeks
me out at the bars. At my age, I am not going to pass up a romp
with a young thing like you.”

Dykes didn’t look up when the elevator opened
at Mary’s floor. “I think you’re great,” he said.

“
I hope I can make it through this
day,” Mary said to herself, rushing out the door.

When the doors closed, Dykes let the elevator
sit idle. He had certainly never meant to sleep with Mary even
once, but he had found her to be friendly, sweet, comforting, and
sexy. No matter how forlorn he looked in the hallways and in the
elevator, Mary talked to him. Not stupid, pointless how about this
weather babble, but sincere, unimportant connecting conversation.
When he saw her out drinking, which was often, he would try to
convey his gratitude for her befriending him and end up sleeping
with her. The elevator ride with her proved his conviction that it
didn’t pay for him to reach out to anyone. Others could make
friends easily and had interesting things to say. They were
likeable. He was just a romp.

The elevator began to move down. When the door
opened, Dykes would have to see the person that had called it. It
filled him with dread. All he would have to do is nod and walk out
of the elevator. He wondered if he could do it without attacking
the person, without crying.

When the doors opened, Irene began pushing her
cart onto the elevator. “Hi, John,” she said. “Which way are you
going?”

“
Hi, Irene. I’m going down. How’s
retirement?” he replied. Then he walked out of the elevator without
waiting for an answer.

Mary had to change into her work scrubs, but
she wanted to check on Yolanda first. Mary had seen her leave and
come back many times. After a brief remission from lung cancer, a
new cancerous tumor had developed where it was inoperable. Then it
spread. This new admission would be Yolanda’s last.

Yolanda had told no one of her illness. She
was too proud to call her few, estranged relatives and she had cut
herself off from her friends for fear that they would not come see
her. Her friends, in return, let themselves be cut off.

It was patients like Yolanda that had
motivated Mary to go into nursing. She believed that sickness
mostly came when you were at your loneliest moment. She wanted to
be the someone that was there for them. Not to have a nice, glowing
letter written about her on the bulletin board outside the
cafeteria, but just because it was the right thing to do. There was
be nice to get a letter about you on a bulletin board nice and then
there was the real, rare nice. (There was also I wanna get in your
pants nice, and I need one of your kidneys nice, but those don’t
apply here.)

Mary ducked her head into Yolanda’s room, but
saw Janis with her and quickly pulled back. She was ready to deal
with disease and death, but not Janis.

“
Your long fingernails are digging
into my arm,” Yolanda told Janis with a fragile, angry voice.
“That’s why I am going to knaw them to bloody stumps. Why are you
taking my blood pressure anyway? I am dying and you are worried
about getting my blood pressure. I am getting so sick of you doing
worthless stuff to me and telling me to get some rest.” Janis
pumped hard on the spygnomonitor as Yolanda lay in bed. “Look,”
Yolanda said. “You will forgive me if I seem rude. I am in so much
pain and soon pufft- my life will end. You go ahead and make sure
you get my vital signs to get your paperwork filled out, but I
still die. Sincerely, I will not try to ruin your day.”

Janis ripped the blood pressure cuff off of
Yolanda. “It’s always about you, isn’t it?”

Mary stepped into the room before Janis threw
a temper tantrum and went home sick for the weekend. “I’m here,
Janis. Why don’t you go do report.” Janis rolled her eyes as she
passed Mary. Mary took Yolanda’s hand and Yolanda smiled weakly. “I
know what you are going to say, but I still would rather have her
be the last person I see than my family.”

“
Yolanda, I know you, don’t I? I
know it’s hard for you, but call your dad. You tell yourself that
you do not want to see him, but you do. I have worked with cancer
patients long enough to know you need to say your
good-byes.”

Yolanda shook her head.

“
Janis hates visitors, Yolanda.
Think of that then.”

Chapter 29

Bigger threw a sweatshirt on over his white
shirt and a baseball cap on his bleached head and waited at the
entrance of the cafeteria. After about ten minutes, his mother
scurried up to him and announced, “I don’t have a lot of time for
lunch.”

Bigger followed her into the cafeteria as she
picked up two trays. Bigger followed his mother as she stopped at
the self-service stations to get two salads and two soups. As part
of the remodeling, these stations were new. In fact, everything in
the cafeteria was brand new and top of the line. Everything gleamed
expensively from the ceramic tiled floor that led to the carpeted
dining area to the crystal chandeliers.

At the counter where Joe was serving the
entrée, she asked for two steak tips over noodles. “I’ll pay for
you, Bigger. You must be getting sick of bologna sandwiches.” Then
she promised to let him come back to the soft-serve machine and
make a sundae after he ate.

It was now quarter after twelve and the large
dining area was filling up. Everyone vied for a table near the east
wall that was now a row of windows looking out over a small lake.
Here the Saint Jude’s groundskeepers kept a small flock of ducks
and a half dozen flamingos shipped up from Florida every summer.
Even now in November, the scene was picturesque with snow-laden
trees and the children from the day care building a snowman on
Tuesdays and Thursdays and ice-skating on the pond on Monday and
Wednesdays.

A classical trio played a jazz tune in the
corner and the soft music floated around the room before sinking
into the plush carpet. Bigger’s mom chose to sit by the large
imitation fireplace because she didn’t like the smoke from the real
fireplace along the north wall. A bus boy in a tuxedo came by and
filled their water glasses.

“
Walter has done a nice job with
the cafeteria. The whole atmosphere really relaxes a person and
energizes her to get back to work.”

“
I wouldn’t know, mom. I really
can’t afford to eat here.” Bigger began eating, getting en-tranced
watching the light from the fireplace. His mother looked over a few
papers she had brought along. Both were startled when Seuss came up
to them.

“
Could I join you,
Ethel?”

“
Walter, certainly.” She pulled
her papers together. “I was just saying how wonderful the cafeteria
has become. It is so relaxing.”

“
Yes, I know. I believe it takes
some suffering away from the families visiting a sick loved one. I
have tried to create a very refined dining experience. How are your
tips and noodles?”

“
Great,” Ethel said as they sat on
her tray untouched.

“
Mr. Petty,” Seuss called out,
motioning to Mr. Petty. “Come sit over here. Come sit by Ethel
Steiffy.”

Bigger froze as he raised his fork to his
mouth. Mr. Petty walked over and sat down while his manservant
lifted his meal of lobster and tenderloinoff a silver tray and
placed it on the table. “Thanks for the invite, Ethel.”

“
Ethel,” Petty began as he
unfolded his napkin and tucked it in his collar. “I have been
wanting Gregg to set up this meeting for a while, so after some
mindless small talk, I will get right to the point. How is your
husband? Do you have any children?”

“
How about just getting to the
point. I have a lot of work to do.”

“
So, anyway, now that we have
gotten to know each other. You are the Patients’ Right Coordinator
which makes you a very valuable asset to Saint Jude’s. You see, as
you know, some employees are trying to get a union in here. I feel
that would harm the patients’ welfare. I believe that harming their
welfare would infringe on their rights. In fact, I know it would. A
patient could file a complaint against an employee for harassment
or even for not treating them with respect and with the union here,
I could not ask that employee to change. I know this so well, that
I may sue the union on the patients’ behalf if the employees were
to succeed in unionizing. You would testify that a union infringes
on our patients’ rights, wouldn’t you?”

Bigger wanted only to eat as fast as he could
and leave his mother to her company, but they were making him so
nervous that he took his sweatshirt off so that he didn’t become
drenched in sweat.