Maddy's Floor
approached, the sound mingling with the gentle whisper of a small cart rolling forward. A cheerful voice called out, "How are you doing, Dr. Lenning?"
     
    "Cold," he muttered, his teeth chattering uncontrollably. "So cold."
     
    The nurse frowned and immediately pulled out a thermometer from the medicine cart. She checked his temperature, before returning to a small computer on the cart to make a notation on the file. "I'll be right back."
     
    She took her cart back down the hallway. It seemed to take forever before she returned, but then she wrapped his shaking body in heated blankets. She put a second one over his shoulder and neck.
     
    "Ohhh," he moaned, sinking into the welcomed heat. He turned his face into the blanket, feeling the warmth on his cheeks and against his eyes.
     
    "It's okay. Let's give your body a chance to warm up. I'll come back in a couple of minutes."
     
    The nurse disappeared again.
     
    He didn't care. For the first time in hours, heat was seeping into his old bones.
     
    Warm and feeling safe, he succumbed to fatigue and his eyes drooped closed. His sense of balance reasserted itself. He almost believed he'd imagined the whole thing.
     
    Almost.
     

***
    Maddy moved through the morning, trying to ignore the sense of foreboding hanging over her head. Not an easy thing. Something had warped through her world, leaving a trail of unease and confusion in its wake and she didn't know what it was or where it had come from. What she did know is that she couldn't let fear or unrest take over her thoughts.
     
    Moving through the floor, she checked on each of her patients.
     
    At Beth's bedside, she spent a few minutes with the sixty-four-year-old woman. The patient had a zest for life that Maddy admired. Today, that spirit had disappeared. Beth lay curled up in a ball, the covers pulled to her neck. Tiny already, she looked like a child now.
     
    "Bad night, Beth?"
     
    Beth shuddered, her pink scalp showing through her sparse white hair. "Horrible. I had nightmares about death and dying. Nasty stuff." She lifted her liver-spotted hand and reached out for Maddy. Though she tried to smile her lips had a tired droop.
     
    Maddy sat on the side of her bed. She noted the pallor of the woman's skin and the tremors shaking her hand.
     
    It was obvious, Beth, along with every other one of her patients, had been disturbed last night.
     
    "Well, it's a new day, Beth, and that terrible night is over, sent into the annals of history with every other bad day in your life."
     
    Beth attempted a bigger smile. It failed. "I don't know, Dr. Maddy. It scared me pretty good."
     
    Maddy studied the position of Beth's bed. Looked around, wondered. Was it possible? Jansen's bed was at the far end of the floor. Beth shouldn't have seen anything, yet she'd obviously felt it. No surprise there.
     
    "Beth, what was the dream about? Maybe if you tell me about it, you'll be able to let it go."
     
    The old woman's trembling increased. "I don't think so. It seemed like death was sitting on my bed, watching me, waiting for me. There was no lightness or angels. Only darkness and ice." She gasped for breath, a thin film of sweat breaking on her forehead. "I can't think about it! I know my time is coming and soon. I'm petrified that death will be like my dream." Her eyes filled with tears. "Dr. Maddy, I'm scared."
     
    Not good. Beth's attitude toward her own health and death management had been spot on since Maddy had first met her. This dream had really sent her for a spin. Maddy pulled out a small bottle of Rescue Remedy, a homeopathic tincture, and gave the old woman several drops under her tongue. The natural remedy was used by many paramedics for shock and trauma of all kinds. Maddy had found it worked well for frights too. And being all-natural, it didn't mess with patients' energy or medications.
     
    Satisfied, once Beth rested comfortably, Maddy stepped over to her next patient. And found a repeat of the same story.

Similar Books

Unbound

Georgia Bell

Executive Privilege

Phillip Margolin

The Broken Blade

Anna Thayer

The Dark Between

Sonia Gensler

The Jilted Bride

Shadonna Richards

Deadly Force

Keith Douglass