LCMC

The rhythmic electronic beeps hummed in her ear. 

A small section of a room was covered from both sides with white cotton curtains. The middle of the section had a recliner stretcher and a single rectangular grid bulb fit in the ceiling. A middle-aged patient lay on the stretcher with an intravenous line placed in his arm. 

The quietude of the room made both of them able to hear the sound of the gulping of their saliva. A few drops of sweat trickled down his forehead despite the presence of cold air.

Apart from some introduction and assurance from Nivedita's part, no conversation took place between them.

She inflated and deflated the blood pressure machine wrapped tight on his right arm. His tongue held the digital thermometer in his captive, touching his lingual frenulum.

She noted down the measures of his blood pressure, body temperature, blood sugar level, pulse rate, oxygen saturation, and breathing rate. The whole process took ten minutes, give and take. The S-sized latex gloves had wrinkled her fingers and her mask produced an untimely itch on her nose. 

Her shift was supposed to end at seven but they had asked her to do an extra shift on the very first day of joining. She had agreed as it was just about making a patient ready for the operation in the Pre-op room. It would not take long, she had thought.

"Mr. Florice, the paperwork is done, your vitals are recorded, and I have reviewed your medications. Can you please tell me when was the last time you took your medicines?" she asked. She was ready to note down his answers on the report.

"Um...around five, I guess." Mr. Florice tried to hide his nervousness by avoiding her gaze. The wrinkles on his neck were evident as he had moved his head away from her.

"Okay, do you have any questions regarding the surgery? You don't have to be nervous. I'm here to answer all your queries." Nivedita clicked the pen down and put it under her scrub's pocket after closing the file. 

His neck slowly twisted towards her as his pupils dilated. "Will I make it?" 

His husky voice was only above a whisper that caused Nivedita to lean towards him. "I'm sorry, I didn't hear you."

"Will I make it out alive?" 

His question produced a string of questions in her mind. Is he scared because of the operation? Or because of the hospital's reputation?

"Don't worry, Mr. Florice. It's just an appendectomy. They will remove the appendix and you'll be back to your healthy state. And in your case, the infection has not even spread across any other body part. So, you will definitely make it out alive." She removed her mask to smile at him assuringly. 

Her vibrant smile and sweet voice were enough to calm his anxious state. 

"Ah, I see. My family is quite worried you know. Can you assure them that I will be fine?" He smiled back at her and closed his eyes to relax.

"Sure. I am just going outside. Your anesthesiologist and surgeon will arrive shortly along with another nurse. You'll have to listen to them and you can even ask questions to them if you have any." She rolled the control clamp on his IV line to start the slow dripping of the fluid. 

"I would suggest you not to worry about it much. Or else your pulse rate will shoot and they'll have to postpone the surgery." She noticed his anxiety and tried to calm him again.

"Yeah, you're right. I'm calm. I'll be alive. I'll make it." His chest heaved up and down as he started breathing heavily. 

"The call button is right beside your head. Just press it when you need anyone." She marched outside as he hummed in response.

"It's a very minor surgery, Mrs. Florice. You don't have to be worried about it." She had tried her best to assure his wife.

His wife cried uncontrollably while her son kept asking for details of the doctors. "They all will be here shortly. You can clear all your doubts then." She took her leave as soon as another nurse joined in. 

She was headed towards the locker room while trying to bring a conclusion to the previous events. Why is everything is so off here? People are getting killed with such brutality. Patients are scared to come to the hospital. There is hardly any medical supervision. Nobody in the team talks nicely. How do they even work here?

She changed her dress to the casual placket shirt and slacks and marched down to the reception. The creepiness raised the hair on her forearms as the hallway was almost vacant. Her shadow being cast on the wall as fewer lights were switched off now. A few murmurs were audible to her from the emergency room down the hall. 

The reception area looked slightly different from what she saw in the morning. The waiting benches were gone now and the left side area was also empty as the stretchers were nowhere to be seen. The receptionist was also not in sight.

Nivedita took some slow steps but the eerie silence was messing up with her heart rate. As if someone had tied her body upside down to a rope and all her blood had jammed up in her brain.

She stood near the area, tapping on the unattended desk, waiting for the receptionist to show up.

"Hey!" 

A wave of blood rushed up to her brain as a scream escaped her lips. The receptionist had come up all of a sudden in front of her face from under the desk.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. Did I scare you?" She apologised, making a cherubic face. 

"No. No...I'm fine. What were you doing there?" She let the words out, panting slightly.

"Ah, I was hiding a chopped head in the drawer." Her face was as serious as a man lying on his death bed.

"What?!" 

"Just kidding. I was looking for a file." She grinned. 

Her smile matched that of a Cheshire cat, grinning in complete darkness with all of her irregular teeth exposed.

"Yeah right. You better be! Anyway, what's with the shifting of waiting-chairs and stretchers?" 

"Oh, nothing. Just usual stuff. For creating more space to take emergency patients in. How was your first day?" she asked, again smiling.

"It was...okay, I guess. I got acquainted with the team and doctors, which are obviously very less in number. And was busy most of the time doing my work. But I have a few questions." She managed to lean slightly towards her. "Can I see the chief nurse now?" she whispered.

"Oh, I'm sorry again, but she's still unavailable." The receptionist mirrored her actions and whispered back.

Nivedita pushed her body back and gave her an annoyed look. "Anyone who can answer my questions? Apart from you, Sofia." She faked a smile and rolled her eyes when the receptionist laughed back.

"Of course. Why don't you go and talk to the head of the board of directors? He is the head psychiatrist in the Chestwood Psychiatric hospital. He'll be in his office right now." She leant in again and whispered. "He owns the hospital. And doesn't talk too much." 

"Oh, I got you. Where's his office?" Her eyes widened at the mention of the owner.

"Let me take you there. I'm totally free right now" She held her elbow and swooshed her away towards the lift. 

As if you weren't free before. Nivedita mentally rolled her eyes.

If her mind were not occupied with rage, she would have surely called it a Déjà vu out loud.   

The lift door opened on the second floor. Half of this floor was made into the Critical care unit and the other half was the Post-op unit.

Sofia dragged Nivedita until they reached near a door with the golden nameplate that said 'Dr. Erik Eskont. Head Psychiatrist at CPH.'

"Here we are. I'll take your leave now. All the best." Her lip muscles flexed as her eyes crinkled again and her thumb lifted up. She smiled beamingly as if she had set her best friend on a blind date and was excited about her reaction.

"Ah, thank you so much, Sofia. You've been of great help today." She shook her hands and waited till Sofia entered the lift and vanished behind the metal doors.  

She exhaled out a sigh and inhaled a deeper one. The time on her wristwatch showed half-past eight. Ma must be really worried right now. 

Her wrinkled fingers rubbed her sleepy eyes and her stomach almost growled due to lack of intake of any type of grain. Her hands hovered over the doorknob as her mind created an image of a snarky, old man with a serious look and a white coat sitting on the chair.

She rotated the knob and the door opened. The room was an absolute delight to the eyes. The bright walls and the furbished furniture created a soothing effect on the brain. Her eyes averted to the person sitting in the middle of the room on a black leather chair. 

"Can I come in?" She knocked on the open door. 

His head shot up when his ears registered a foreign voice. Only to reveal a snarky man with a serious look and a white coat. But young.

"Yes," he replied, his voice stating another fact that there might be an addition of 'rude' to his descriptions.

Nivedita entered, her wobbly legs trying their best to walk straight. He is the owner? A twenty-seven or something old guy?

His black eyes sieved through his glasses and scrutinised her facial expressions. He was engrossed in reading a file when she interrupted.

"Hi. I'm Nivedita Rai, a registered nurse, and have joined today." She faked a smile to show her politeness.

"And? What do you want me to do about it?" He closed the file while resting a pen in the middle and shot a glare at her. 

At first, she was taken aback by the response. But after a moment, she was satisfied that there existed someone who balanced the receptionist's cheesy behaviour.

"Actually, I have a few complaints." She forwarded towards the chair, the fake smile sustained on her face.

"I'm sorry. Complaints?" He rested his elbow on the desk to pay attention to what she had to say. The cool air of the air conditioner ruffled his messy brown hair.

"Yes." She marched towards his desk and laid a file on it. "You see, I wanted to do it in a formal way. So, I have all of my complaints written on the page inside this file." She slid the file in front of him.

"When I was floating to the Post-op unit, I noticed that the Pyxis machine showed a few names of patients that were not even admitted to the whole unit. This means that the master machine in the main pharmacy has registered those names. Who are these people? I have their names in the file. And the bandage and gloves that are stocked in the hospital are so cheap. It increases the chances of infection to even a healthier individual. These things demand attention. It's about life after all." She stopped to catch a breath and kept staring him directly in the eye.  

He was, on the other hand, calm. Too calm. "I see. Leave this here. I will discuss it all with the board." 

He placed the file in one of his drawers and motioned her to leave, his head tilted towards the door.

"Okay. Fine. That's great." She nervously headed outside, without looking back. 

She closed the door behind her and boarded the lift in three leaps. 

Douchebag! She huffed. Her eyes burning a hole in the lift door from the inside.

She stomped her legs outside of the lift and reached the main entrance door. She was in no mood to greet the receptionist a good night and earn another creepy smile. 

But her voice stopped her in her tracks. 

"Nivedita!" Sofia called, in a tone never used before.

She had to look back as her tone was alarming. "What?"

"You are messed up big time." Her voice slightly quivered. 

She put the telephone on the receiver and worriedly looked at Nivedita. Her face lacked a smile this time. 

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