Lana, for she was not only pretty, she was charming, friendly and witty as well.
“Why, if I were a man, I’d marry her,” Cherry thought, blushing furiously at the idea. She realized Lana was looking at her with a penetrating gaze that made Cherry feel all flustered.
“Why, it’s as if she can read my mind,” Cherry thought, feeling a flush race up her cheeks. She hurriedly handed back the ring and gave Lana a little paper cup containing two pink pills.
“Thank you for showing me your lovely ring,” she said. “Perhaps when I finish dispensing medication we can have a little talk and maybe you’ll remember something about your husband,” Cherry said.
Lana laughed merrily at this suggestion, squeezed Cherry’s hand, and said she’d be delighted to have a nice chat.
“I have a feeling I’ll really get somewhere tonight,” Cherry thought happily as she went about her tasks. “I’m sure in no time at all Lana will be home, safe and sound!”
She hummed happily as she resumed her rounds, and her cheerful mood seemed to lift the spirits of her patients. In addition to giving out pills, Cherry always took a moment at each woman’s bedside to ask about her progress. She became so engrossed in one patient’s tale that it was almost an hour before she finished.
When she returned to Lana’s bedside, she was surprised to see a nun sitting on the edge of the bed.
“Why, Sister, I didn’t see you come in!” Cherry exclaimed. The nun pulled her veil closer around her face and said nothing.
Cherry wasn’t accustomed to seeing nuns visiting during the night shift, and if the truth be known, the quiet creatures in head-to-toe black always made her a little nervous. The nun spoke to Lana in a low, hushed voice; Cherry could tell she wanted privacy. But Lana seemed to welcome the intrusion, and cheerfully called Cherry to her side.
“Nurse Aimless, I have that book you loaned me,” Lana said, reaching under her pillow. She held out the book she had been guarding so carefully the last few days, and smiled. There was a queer animated tone in her voice, one Cherry hadn’t heard before. She seemed like an actress playing a part.
“You were right—it’s a great book! Especially chapter fifteen. Oh, boy, I laughed so hard I cried!” Lana continued merrily.
Cherry stumbled for an answer. She hadn’t loaned this book to Lana. Was she playing a trick, Cherry wondered, or was her amnesia getting worse? Cherry decided the best thing to do was to play along, and took the book from Lana.
“Thank you for returning it so promptly,” Cherry said. “There are others waiting to read it. I’m glad you enjoyed it.”
Something was very queer here. “I’d better contact Dr. Spreck immediately!” Cherry thought.
But before she had a chance to telephone the doctor, she heard a shout.
“Nurse! Nurse!” came a muffled cry from outside the ward. Why, it sounded like someone was calling for help! Cherry raced out of the room and in the direction of the shouts, but by the time she reached the end of the long corridor, all was quiet. Strangely quiet. A priest sat calmly at the duty nurse’s desk, reading a tattered magazine. He smiled at Cherry as she caught her breath.
“Goodness, my child, where’s the fire? You don’t want to break a leg and end up a patient at your own hospital, do you?” he chuckled in an affable manner.
“I though I heard a cry for help!” she exclaimed.
“Nonsense, I didn’t hear a thing,” the priest responded.
“But, but,” Cherry stammered, her rosy cheeks flushed, her heart beating a mile a minute.
“But what, dear?” he asked, squinting at Cherry through thick black-framed glasses.
Cherry looked around the quiet room. Obviously, nothing had happened. Feeling foolish, she blushed some more. “I’ve got to get more sleep; now I’m hearing things!” she said to no one in particular, for the priest had gone back to his magazine, and the corridor was deserted.
Cherry strode briskly back to the ward, knowing she had broken a strict hospital rule against leaving patients unattended. She pushed open the double doors to the ward and looked around. She was relieved to see her patients all tucked quietly in their beds.
Except for Lana, who was nowhere to be seen!
“Where is Lana?” Cherry asked, trying to control the alarm in her voice. But most of her patients were already fast asleep.
She looked at Lana’s bed. The half-eaten pork chop and glass of milk abandoned on the pink cafeteria tray looked so forlorn. What had happened to Lana?
“I’ve failed in my duty as a nurse,” Cherry thought. Nurses were forbidden to leave their wards at the understaffed city hospital, and that went double for the psychiatric ward.
“Where is Lana?” she repeated.
“She left with that nun,” a sleepy patient yawned.
Cherry was relieved to find that Lana hadn’t wandered away on her own. “Maybe they went to chapel,” she mused aloud.
“Who went to chapel?” a stern voice from behind her demanded to know. Cherry whirled around and found herself face to face with Head Nurse Margaret Marstad. And she was not smiling!
“What’s all the commotion in here?” she asked, hands on her shapely hips.
“When Cherry left the ward Lana went away with a nun,” the patient repeated. “Come to think of it, she was an awfully tall nun,” she added helpfully.
As soon as she heard this, Nurse Marstad strode briskly to the telephone at the end of the room and called security.
When she returned, Cherry tried to explain why she had left the ward, but before she could open her mouth, Nurse Marstad spotted the book in Cherry’s hand.
“What’s this, nurse?” she asked, crisply. In all the excitement, Cherry had forgotten about the book. She quickly explained about Lana’s mix-up. “I fear her amnesia is worse, and now she’s disappeared!”
Nurse Marstad glanced furtively at the book, cleared her throat, and looked Cherry straight in the eye. “I loaned her the book, Nurse Aimless. She simply forgot which nurse gave it to her,” she said in a convincing tone. “There’s no need to mention it to security when they arrive; they have enough to deal with. You will report to my office as soon as your replacement gets here.” The head nurse took the book from Cherry and left.
Cherry was so confused. She was sure Lana had arrived with the book. “But Nurse Marstad would never lie about a thing like that. Oh, I must have imagined the book belonged to Lana the same way I imagined hearing a call for help!”
Cherry swallowed hard, fighting back tears. She knew she had made a major blunder which could threaten her chances of joining the staff permanently. “Why, I’ll surely be fired if I admit to Nurse Marstad that I’m hearing things!”
Nurse Mildred Middy arrived a few minutes later to replace the despondent nurse. Cherry was relieved to see someone she knew, and it took all her willpower to keep from
