Apart from her normal
duties as district nurse Shannon Pond took it upon herself to provide
additional services, partly to make sure they regained their self-worth, but on
occasions it was more than that but only once did it go beyond the
professional.
One of her all too
familiar haunts was Shaftsbury Towers in Finchbottom, a rundown modern day slum
tenement.
When she got there she
found, not for the first time, that the lifts weren’t working and so she had to
yomp up 15 flights of stairs up a stairwell that stank of urine.
She was more than a
little flushed when she reached her destination, short of breath and short of
patience.
Her first patient was
Dakota Hogan, a pretty terminally ill 19 year old girl, who was quite naturally
depressed.
Shannon was almost 35
and very experienced in her field and she had watched many young people dying
before their time.
Shannon knocked on the
door and a moment or so later Mrs Hogan, the patient’s mother answered the
door.
“Hello dear” she said
“Hello Mrs Hogan”
Shannon said “How’s the patient today?”
“The same” she said
blankly “I don’t know how to help her”
“Just be supportive”
she said
“It’s hard though
dear” she said putting on her coat and going to the foot of the stairs.
“Dakota! The nurse is
here” she shouted up the stairs “the pretty one with the blonde hair”
Shannon smiled and Mrs
Hogan said
“You can go up when
you’re ready, I need to do some shopping”
On that day Dakota was
in a very positive mood and Shannon had the easiest visit she had had with her,
which improved her own mood, but she knew from experience that it was likely to
be a false dawn and that there would doubles be darker days ahead.
When she reached the
stairwell the lift opened and Mrs Hogan got out.
“Oh wonderful, they’re
working again” Shannon said
“Yes dear, thank god”
she said “How’s the girl?”
“You know, I think
she’s a bit brighter” she replied
“Oh I do hope so dear”
Mrs Hogan said
She was thankful that
the lift was working again as she was feeling a bit leg weary.
Shannon said her
goodbyes to Mrs Hogan and stepped in and when she turned around she saw Tom
Hughes jogging towards the lift.
Although she was often
willing to go the extra mile for her patients she always drew a line at
crossing the line with family or friends of the patient.
But Tom’s mum wasn’t
her patient anymore, and as she fancied him like mad, she pressed the hold
button.
“Thanks” he said
“No problem, how are
you? How’s your mum?” she asked as the lift began to descend
“Good” he replied
“I bet you are” she
thought and began flirting with him but her flirtations were abruptly halted
when the lift started rattling and shaking and threw the pair of them into one
corner.
“I don’t mind if I do”
she said and kissed him.
“I’ve wanted to do that for so long” he said
“Me too” she concurred
and the lift started moving again.
By the time they had
reached the ground floor and emerged into the lobby she was the picture of
respectability again and they had a dinner date for that evening.
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