Page 15 of I Can't Even

This nurse getting hurt might be the final straw.

“Who was hurt?” I asked.

“Billy,” Patricia answered.

“Was it his patient?” I asked. “Or mine?”

“Yours,” Patricia answered. “He came back in from X-ray and got belligerent when Billy went in there to help get him situated and saw him wearing colors from the other gang.”

“What?” I asked.

We all had to wear uniforms.

There was no way that he was wearing any gang’s colors.

Literally, all we could wear was blue scrubs.

“My underwear,” Billy said as he came up. “Apparently, the teal and orange of the Breakers gang.”

“Jesus fuckin’ Christ,” John, another nurse that didn’t usually work our shift, said as he crossed his arms. “We’re lucky it was a male, though. Imagine if he pushed Ellodie like that. She would’ve wound up through the wall and into the other room.”

Billy pulled his shirt up to show me the bruising that was already starting. “Oh my God.”

They were right, though. Had that been me, I would’ve been unconscious or worse.

“Billy’s gonna keep that patient,” Patricia said. “They sedated him and already called the cops and the hospital director.”

Good.

But not good enough.

“This is a joke,” I said as I shook my head. “I’m headed up to the cafeteria, then I’m going to grab some coffee from Starbucks on the way back. Anyone who wants anything, text me your order.”

Patricia pulled out her phone and said, “We’ll get it sent.”

Lunch consisted of a fried chicken sandwich, sub-par fries, and a slice of chocolate pie.

By the time I was finished, I’d gotten the order for the coffee. I headed through the breezeway that crossed a major road down below, and went into the next building that had the Starbucks and all outpatient surgeries, as well as doctors’ offices.

As I was passing over the road, I happened to look down and see the mama and baby from earlier standing next to the bus stop.

It caused my heart to hurt.

She was loaded down with bags, her baby, and looked like she was about to fall over.

The money in my pocket felt like it warmed to uncomfortable levels, and I decided that I knew where that money was going to go.

After placing the orders for the coffee, I made a mad dash down two flights of stairs and out of the building to where I knew the woman would still be waiting.

The bus didn’t run this way for another twenty minutes, giving me enough time to get to her.

I walked to the woman on the street corner, unaware that I had eyes on me, and reached into my pocket for the money.

“Hey,” I said as I pulled it out and tucked it into her hand that was holding her baby.

She looked at it, then burst into tears.

Big, ugly sobs.

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