 |
"Working Girl"FLOWERS I went into her room having already gotten the scoop from her previous nurse during report. She'd been married for years with two kids, one in elementary school, one in junior high. Labor was being induced at 38 weeks because the baby looked (on ultrasound) like he might be a big guy. She was petite and pretty. Her husband had already gone home for the night to take care of the kids. But here's the kicker: Her husband was not the father of the baby. Not only that, but he knew! And whatever had happened before they came to us, they had made their peace with the situation. She had, after years of marriage, had a brief affair that resulted in this pregnancy -- which she discovered after the affair ended. She and her husband would raise the child, but the FOB (father of the baby) would be involved. For a scruffy little guy he had really shelled, out big... Wow, how mature! I thought. These people were really dealing with this very difficult situation in a very constructive way. Then I met the rest of the family and the FOB. I won't elaborate on specifics here, but the patient and her husband were a biracial couple - and the kids were just gorgeous. But the FOB was clearly of yet a third race.Hmmm, maybe she confessed because she knew that once that baby was out, it was going to be pretty obvious that her husband wasn't the daddy. Oh well, whatever. I met the FOB as he was coming out of her room. He had visited for several hours. After he left, she pointed to a huge arrangement of silk flowers that the FOB had brought. Could you find a place for that at the nurses' station? I just can't have that here when my husband comes back in the morning. It would be too upsetting for him, she asked me. No problem. I hefted the arrangement up, impressed by the size and weight of it, if not the tacky silk flowerness of it. For a scruffy little guy, he had really shelled out for a big, if hideous, arrangement. Not bad! As I was walking up to the nurse's station, a patient care tech who was sitting there looked at me sharply. What are you doing with that? I started to explain the whole complicated, delicate situation. No, no, no, she said. That arrangement is supposed to be on the table right by the door to the call room. It's been missing for hours. I put it back in its place, noticing that it was sort of dusty -- and it did sort of match the carpet. Later on the patient asked me if I'd found a place for the arrangement. I said that I had. And it looks like it's always been there... "Working Girl" writes, frequently exteremly funnily, about her life as a nurse in America in Mostly True Stories. Artificial flower photographer merlinprincesse is Québécoise. 9:39 PM - 8/11/2007 - post comment
|
A growing collection of narrative non-fiction miniatures  £8.99 incl. p&p (UK only) Outside the UK email UnMadeUp for details. Home Unmadeup Editions Un-MADE-Up story archive RSS 
Palimpsest Maud Newton Ready Steady Book Chuck Palahniuk Studs Terkel Litro Brighton Writers Alan Emmins Skint Writer Grumpy Old Bookman John Baker's Blog The Monkey Puzzle Short Term Memory Loss Alasdair Gray Brevity: A journal of creative non-fiction Blogzira A Spinster's Quest A Beautiful Revolution John Barlow Guyana little.red.boat Crack Skull Bob Atlantic Terrace A Case of Brain Fever Ted Conover Asylum 217 Babel In Other News ducts.org 
Recent Entries - Nik Perring - William Shaw - Emma J. Lannie - William Shaw - Nik Perring Public Service Announcement: Un-Made-Up becomes giddy with excitement at the prospect of publishing short, beautifully wrought pieces of non-fiction writing. Submissions may be edited but will only be published with the final approval of the author. For local colour - or color - local spellings are retained when appropriate. All copyright belongs to the authors, illustrators and photographers. COMING SOON • A story of teenage love and coffee • 41 Places • The one-legged man on the beach • |
|