Free A Penny's Worth by Nancy DeRosa Page A

little better and now,” she paused and emphasized, “We have my
shred of hope to share with one another.” She smiled and added, “Now you can
say ‘we’ and it will mean something.”
    Penny realized that she had meant
something to this woman and she had, if only for a brief moment, touched her.
She smiled down at Julia and said, “Thank you.”
    As she gently arranged a green sweater
over Julia’s shoulders, she realized that she had not made a mistake by coming
to Wayside Hospital. Penny could only hope that she would learn how to deal
with delicate matters regarding her patients. If she could touch someone for a
moment, or even a second, that was far better than never touching anyone at
all.

Chapter 17
    Penny’s first day of work went by in a flash. She was so
busy that she did not know where her ten hour shift went. Working on the
oncology floor of a hospital was fast paced, so unlike the long tedious hours
she put in at Fernfair Elementary.
    Penny met a few nurses on the floor. She
noticed they displayed some curiosity when she politely nodded their way, but
they kept their distance. The doctors on the other hand barely noticed her as
they hurried to and fro.
    On her lunch break, Penny had eaten her
strawberry yogurt pretty much on her own. A young nurse at her table was
totally engrossed in having a fight with her boyfriend on the cell phone.
    “You slug sucking son of a bitch,” the
girl hissed into the phone.
    Penny averted the nurse’s eyes and
pretended to wipe something off her nurse uniform.
    The nurse was oblivious to Penny. “You
cheating low life scum bag. You’re a liar, you piece of shit, stay away from
me, I hate you!” The young woman abruptly flipped her phone shut and noticed
Penny sitting at the table. “Sorry,” she muttered as she stood up to leave.
    “No problem,” Penny offered with a shrug.
It was the only exchange she had with anyone other than Reins.
    At the end of her shift, Penny passed
Reins on the way out.
    “I see you have survived your first day,”
she called out airily as she waved a quick goodbye.
    And a good day to you too, Penny thought,
already feeling a wave of grumpiness take hold. That woman is really beginning
to get on my nerves.
    She passed through the revolving doors
without mishap, and that put a small smile on her face. Any victory, however
small, was good. Then she realized she should have gone out the side door. She
reminded herself not to forget that tomorrow. She didn’t want Nurse Reins to
have another laugh at her expense.
    She slumped into her car with a wonderful
sense of deserved exhaustion. Beyonce’s Irresistible danced around the
car’s interior. She fished out her cell phone. To her great surprise, her father’s
voice boomed out.
    “Penny, are you there?”
    “I’m here dad.”
    Ron yelled, “Come over to the house and
tell me all about your first day at your new job.” As if reading her thoughts
he added, “Mom’s out with Amber, and Theo to find a dress for Paul and Alex’s
Communion and I’m about to order Chinese. Chicken with snow peas sound good to
you?”
    She allowed herself to topple sideways
onto the passenger seat. She was exhausted.
    “Penny just come,” Ron pleaded. “I’ll
order the beef with cashew nuts too. I know how you love that.”
    Her stomach grumbled and she gave a short
laugh. “Okay, you got me with that. But please order it now because I’m bone
tired and I want to get home early. I have another ten hour shift starting in
the morning.”
    Thankfully, her parent’s house was only
ten minutes from the hospital. She walked in without knocking just as she always
did. The house was lit up like Grand Central Station: no partial blackout going
on tonight.
    Ron was hunched over the kitchen table,
immersed in a crossword puzzle from the local newspaper. Penny said hello and
he flinched with a yelp, crumpling the newspaper. “Jesus, can’t you give an old
guy a little warning?”
    She put her hands on her