Page 12 of Revived

I finished signing everything necessary to work that particular wing of the hospital in a lot less time than I’d allotted, so I was able to pop onto the floor and familiarize myself with everything prior to actually starting my shift. I was standing at the nurse’s station when I heard a small woman, who looked to be of mixed descent, asking about getting in to see Chevy.

“Please, I just want to thank him. We’ll be leaving in the morning,” she told Sophia who rolled her eyes and pointed once more at the door. I moved closer, still listening, in case Sophia needed assistance. “Opal wouldn’t be here if not for his…” That was all I needed to hear.

I remembered the name, the girlfriend of the kid who I was sent here to care for. I turned to the woman. “Excuse me, did you say, Opal?”

“Yes,” the woman agreed. Hope filled her voice and her eyes as she turned them on me. “I’m her mother.”

“Can I see some identification?”

The lady showed me her driver’s license as well as the little security bracelet she had been given in order to gain access to this part of the hospital. “If you give me just a moment, I will check with the family to see if they’ll accept visitors right now,” I told her.

Sophia huffed. “You can’t just come in here and take over my shift.”

“Then do your damn job right,” I carefully scolded.

“I am doing my job, exactly as it was laid out for me,” she argued back. It was my turn to roll my eyes as I knocked politely before entering the boy’s room.

“Hi, Chevy,” I addressed the patient while ignoring the handful of people in his room, including his dad. “I am Melanie, your nurse for the evening, but you can call me Mel.” I moved closer and showed him my badge. “I’m not officially on duty yet, but there was a woman asking to come see you and I thought you might want to be made aware of it.”

“Listen, Nurse Mel,” a man, who was not Chevy or Gabe, started to speak, but I ignored him and turned to Chevy.

“It’s Opal’s mother, so I thought you’d want the chance to decide.”

“Of course, I want her to be able to come in. Maybe she’ll have news for me about Opal.”

I nodded my head and then turned on my heel. “I’ll go let her know.”

When I left the room, it wasn’t alone. Both Gabe and Chevy’s mother followed me out into the hall and beyond the nurse’s station. “Thank you for checking with my son. He would have been very upset if he had missed her.”

“Truthfully, in accordance with the memo I received about visitors, I shouldn’t have done that. You might want to revise the wording, or add people to the acceptable list,” I informed them.

“Would you be able to show us what you’re talking about because we haven’t seen a list,” Gabe told me. Again, I nodded my head and leaned over the counter to grab the folder I’d brought in with me. I handed it over to him and watched as he perused the documents.

Chevy’s mother wasn’t watching Gabe though. She was interested only in me. I smiled at her. “Did you want to speak with Opal’s mother first?” I asked her.

“No, I’ve already spoken to Audra. I wish she had told me she would be coming up to see Chevy. We could have made it much easier for her to get up here.”

I returned the woman’s smile. “It’s no problem, just a few adjustments need to be made so nothing similar happens in future.”

“I don’t want this to happen again,” Gabe told me as he moved to allow Opal’s mom by. “He would not have been happy if he’d missed hearing an update about his girl.”

“I’ll make a better list for you guys. Then, we’ll just register the visitors using their identification. Chevy can decide priority of entry, if he wants us to ask first, or however you all want to do it.”

“Yes, that should work,” Gabe told me, though he seemed somewhat distracted. He was having a hard time focusing on anything, and seemed to avoid looking directly at me, if he thought I was paying attention.

“Thank you.” Chevy’s mom smiled at me then. “You can call me Kendra for the duration, please.” Her sweet, southern twang just made the offer of being on a first name basis with the woman sound even more genuine.

“Okay, Kendra, is there anything else I can do for you guys?”

“Will you be the nighttime nurse?” Gabe asked out of nowhere.

“I will. Sophie is off in another 10 minutes and I’ll be here until 7 am.”

“Weren’t you with us for Chevy’s first day in the hospital?”

“Yes, Gabe,” Kendra told him with a roll of her eyes. “The beautiful nurse was there, and now she’s here too.” Kendra grinned at me again as she spoke. Gabe just stared slack-jawed at the woman’s audacity to call him out.

“She could have been the one to tell them,” he pointed out.

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