Page 22 of Tear of Destiny

It’s not long before a woman arrives and introduces herself.“I’m Ms. Antonio, and I’ll be showing you around today.”

Her dark hair is pulled back into a bun. There are fine wrinkles around her eyes when she smiles, making her look open and kind.

“As you probably know, we have 80 residents here. In the ward I’m going to show you first, the residents are still very independent. Most of them came here after their partners died and their own house felt too big or too empty. But we also have a ward with dementia patients and another one with people requiring intensive care, such as coma patients. So, as you can imagine, our work is quite different from one ward to the next.”

We reach a corridor with a number of doors leading off it. An elderly woman is coming out of her room. She’s carrying a bag on her arm in which I see gardening gloves and a trowel.

“Hello, Mildred,” says Ms. Antonio. “On your way out to the garden?”

The old woman nods. “Hannah’s already out there waiting for me. We want to dig over part of the vegetable patch today and replant it.”

“Have fun,” the caregiver says with a smile. “Like I said, the people in this ward are very independent. They can always ask for assistance and join in the shared meals. But most of them prefer to cook for themselves. Or they cook with another resident and then eat together. The atmosphere here is always very pleasant.”

I nod and look around casually. I still have no idea why Charles mentioned this place to me. Does it have something to do with Frida and all that? Did she suspect there was a goddess of destiny on staff here? That’s my current theory. So I take a close interest in the staff. I was only able to identify Chloe as a goddess because I saw her take away a baby’s destiny thread. And I hope my gift will prove useful in this situation too. Unfortunately, I’ve never been able to control it, and right now I’m not seeing thethreads.

“When do you plan to start your internship?” the caregiver asks. “And how did you learn about our home? It’s pretty remote.”

Kate responds with a friendly smile. “We’d like to start here after we graduate. We’re in our last year,” she lies, “and we figured it was a good idea to start looking for a suitable placement. I love this area. My family used to spend vacations in the State Parks around here, and we visited San Gregorio a few times.”

I raise my eyebrows in astonishment. I had no idea Kate was such a good liar.

The caregiver nods with pleasure. “I’ve lived here all my life, and I couldn’t imagine a nicer place.”

We go up a flight of stairs and step into another corridor. The dementia ward. The doors are all closed, and the caregiver’s not about to take outsiders into the residents rooms. But she shows us one of the empty rooms so we have an idea of how the patients live. We’re introduced to the head of the ward, and then we go to the intensive care ward, but aside from an empty room and another caregiver wheeling a woman in a vegetative state along the corridor, I don’t see anything interesting there.

Finally, we go downstairs to a large, sunny room.

“This is our main recreation room. Residents from all the wards come together here. And this is the last room I’ll be showing you. Take a look around and feel free to talk to the residents.”

The atmosphere is pleasant. Some of the home’s residents are sitting on comfy sofas, laughing and talking or reading books. Others are sitting at tables, painting or busy with handcrafts. And a few are playing chess or bridge. There are more caregivers here too, taking care of the old people, helping them with their arts and crafts, and having conversations with them.

Kate and I observe the staff closely. But I don’t see anything unusual. They all look very friendly and caring toward theresidents. How can I find out on the fly whether one of them is a goddess of destiny?

Kate shrugs and murmurs to me, “We should take a look around.”

So we approach some of the residents and watch them play chess or create complicated knitting patterns. I can’t help noticing a small woman with tangled curly hair who doesn’t take her eyes off us for a moment. She’s sitting a little aside from everyone else on one of the sofas, watching us mistrustfully.

“Don’t look at me like that. I know what you’re here for. I can tell by looking at you,” she hisses at me as I approach her. “But you’re not getting your hands on my porcelain figurines. I hid those long ago. Plenty of swindlers wandering around trying to part an old woman from her worldly belongings.”

“Okay,” I reply, a little confused. “But you don’t need to worry about me. I’m visiting because I’m considering doing an internship here. I’d never touch your figurines.”

“That’s what you say, child. But I can see that you’re searching for something. I have a sense for these things.”

I nod and wonder if I’m actually that transparent. “I’m just interested in seeing how you live and what a typical day looks like. That’s all.”

The old woman nods. “It’s nice here. But you have to keep your eyes peeled. If you don’t, they suddenly rearrange everything, and then my room is gone. They put me in a different one. But I’m not stupid. I notice. And my figurines are never there.”

The woman sounds absolutely convinced of what she’s saying, so I just nod. I realize she must be one of the dementia patients, and I take a seat beside her. “I can totally sympathize. That would make me really angry.”

She nods. “And there are other annoying things. Dinner time comes, and there’s nothing to eat. If I complain, they insist that I’ve already eaten. Can you imagine that, child? But I’mnot stupid. I always keep things to eat in my room. Hershey’s chocolate. It’s simply the best.”

“I like Hershey’s too,” I reply with a smile.

She instantly wags her finger in front of my face. “Don’t even try looking for it. It’s very well hidden. You’ll never find it. And tell that to your hungry cat too. He looks as if it wants to eat me out of house and home.”

I get goosebumps and turn around nervously, but I can’t see Yoru anywhere. Was the lady talking about him, or is she just imagining things?

“Don’t look so mortified. I saw plain as day the way your cat crept in here after you. I’ve been here for years, and I always notice when one of those animals is wandering through the hallways. That dove is always flitting around. I call him Rudy. It’s absurd that other people are allowed to keep pets. When I ask, they always say no.”

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