The Long Happy Life of Taffy Slummings, part five

[Arroyos]

The Long Happy Life of Taffy Slummings, part five


“Jesus comes, Jesus goes,” the security officer on Slummings’ right said. “And few bother to notice,” his partner on Slummings’ left added.

Slummings thought it wise to tell the officers that a dozen or more people back in Yuma knew where he was, and they would very much bother to notice if he didn’t report back this very evening.

One guard slapped him on the back and said, “Don’t worry, mate, we ain’t gonna crucify ya.” The other officer laughed. They led him down a long hallway, past a dozen or more doors. Slummings noticed that the hallway was sloped downhill, away from the Visitors’ Room. He asked why.

“For the gurneys,” one officer said. “Easier to roll,” the other explained.

“But then they’re harder to roll back the other way,” Slummings said logically.

The guards looked at one another and snickered. “Well,” explained one, “it’s a cold day in hell when a gurney comes back up this way.”

“At least with anyone aboard,” the other clarified.

“You roll someone down and … what? Just leave ‘em?”

“Hardly. When they’re done down here,” the guard on Slummings’ right said, pointing to a closed door they were nearing at the end of the hallway, “we roll ‘em into one of the wards.”

Before Slummings could ask, the guards pointed to the left and the three of them turned down another hallway, a short one, with double doors at the end. The sign above the doors read MEN’S WARD.

“You bring ‘em here?”

One guard pushed open the double doors while the other guided Slummings into the long, narrow Men’s Ward. Both sides were lined with metal beds covered in white sheets. About half the beds had occupants who looked up as Slummings and his guards walked by. The end of the room had a nurses’ station with a chair, a desk, file cabinet and phone. In the chair a nurse sat scowling at whatever she was reading. Next to her a line of carts took up the end of the narrow ward. They were filled with what Slummings presumed was medical equipment, though one cart had strange metal contraptions spilling off it. Before Slummings could ask about them, the guard grabbed his elbow and walked him up to an empty bed.

“This’ll be you tonight,” one guard said. “Nurses will help you with a shower and bed clothes.”

The other added, “And I think your pal Mayberry will be joining you for dinner. He’ll show you the way to the cafeteria.”

“Sleep well,” the guards said in unison, then smirked like a pair of Cheshire Cats. Slummings wasn’t surprised when they disappeared the moment he turned to look at his bed.

Who are those guys? he wondered and collapsed onto the crisp white sheets. They crinkled audibly beneath him. When he shifted his weight to turn toward the nurses’ station, the metal bed squeaked beneath him. He wasn’t convinced he would sleep at all tonight.

He waited for the nurse to look up from her reading, but she seemed unaware of him. Her dark hair didn’t hide the size of her nose or the downward arc of her puffy lips. Slummings could see she was reading some sort of magazine or journal, and as she turned the pages he noticed she wore gloves on her hands. Not the usual latex gloves nurses and doctors popped on and popped off like balloons, but white cotton gloves.

Slummings tried to get her attention, with no luck, so he raised his hand, like he was in some classroom, and saved. The double doors at the other end of the ward banged open and a burly old man staggered in, shouting, “Where is he? Where is that felonious old son of rattler?” That brought the nurse’s head up from her reading and an orderly sprinting in from the hallway, reaching for the burly fellow, who ignored the orderly’s clutching and stumbled down the line of beds until he nearly fell on top of Slummings, hugging him with a hug a bear might have found uncomfortable.

When he released Slummings, pushing back his head to get a good look at him, he snarled, “Happy birthday, you old revolutionary!”

Seeing him up close at last, and smelling him too, Slummings recognized the burly old man and managed to sputter, “What’re you doing here and how’d you know?”

[Sandgnats]

<3 Slummings