We did not speak on the elevator ride back up to the fourth floor. The metal doors opened with a dull clang, and the smell of institutional bleach hit me all over again.
By four o’clock, the yellow autumn sunlight was starting to fail, throwing long, thin shadows across the linoleum floor of Room Four Hundred Seven.
Nurse Evelyn entered carrying a tray of small plastic medication cups, the wheels of her cart squeaking against the clean floor. She was young, only twenty-eight, her brown hair pulled back so tightly into a bun that it pulled at the corners of her eyes.
“Here is your water, Sarah,” Evelyn said, handing me a small plastic cup.
She did not look at Ben, who was busy flipping through a sports magazine on his tray table, his eyes scanning the pages without really reading them.
Her hand was unsteady, the water sloshing over the rim of the cup and wetting my knuckles.
I looked at her, trying to catch her eye, but she kept her gaze fixed on the floor, her plastic clipboard tapping a fast, nervous rhythm against her thigh.
“Is everything all right, Evelyn?” I asked, setting the wet cup on the bedside table next to the stack of unpaid tax notices.
“Fine,” she said, her voice flat, her eyes darting toward the hallway. “Just a busy shift on the floor.”
Ben did not look up from his magazine, but his shoulders seemed to tense under the thin blue gown.
“We’re doing just fine in here, sister,” Ben said, his slow drawl filling the small room. “Just waiting on Dr. Klein to make his rounds.”
Evelyn did not answer him. She adjusted the tubes on the IV pole, her fingers moving quickly, almost frantically, before she turned and headed toward the door.
“Thank you, Evelyn,” I said, but she was already backing out into the hallway without another word.
I watched her go, the heavy wooden door swinging closed with a soft sigh.
Ben turned a page of his magazine, the paper tearing slightly under his thumb.
“She’s a jumpy one, kid,” he said, his voice entirely casual. “Always has been.”
