Sunday, November 6, 2011

Dying Scene 1: The Perfect Touch

The nurse is slim and carries herself well. She's around 40, maybe late 30s, and lean, trim. She's the Complete and Loser's type, but he's not really thinking along those lines now as this nurse is caring for his dying mother. 
The nurse, her name is Lauren, is the day shift nurse and works a 12-hour shift, which she tells the Loser she likes because she can get involved with her patients and get a better feel for what's happening with them. It also means a four-day week, but her schedule is complicated and she works weekends sometimes. When the Loser worked in a hospital in the 90s it was a pediatric hospital and the nurses wore a variety of brightly colored scrubs. This is not a pediatric unit and the nurses wear tailored scrubs, all dark -- but not navy -- blue. They look professional in these. (One poor nurse is so fat she wears a maroon top as they don't make a uniform her size. The Loser's heart aches for her.)
When she says goodbye to the Loser at the end of her shift, she reaches out with her left hand and sort of rubs his right arm up and down a few times, ending with two pats. It's the perfect way for her to touch him. It's human contact and consoling, but its duration and method don't indicate intimacy. 
The Loser's cynical enough to know he's not the first to merit physical contact with this nurse, but charitable enough to think it's not a practiced method she's been taught. 

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