Range of Motion by Elizabeth Berg

Author:Elizabeth Berg [Berg, Elizabeth]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Retail
ISBN: 9780345515414
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: 2012-03-27T07:00:00+00:00

Wanda has Jay today. She is filling up the basin for a bed bath when I come in the room. I hold out my hand, introduce myself.

“Yes, I know your name,” she says. “We talk about you sometimes.” Then, hastily, “Nicely.”

I wonder what that means.

“I can bathe him if you’re busy,” I tell her.

She puts the basin on the bedside stand, pours some oil in it. “That’s okay. We have a lot of help today. I’ve only got five others. They’re done already.”

I look at my watch. Nine-thirty.

Wanda lowers the head of Jay’s bed, begins to wash his face. She is tender, thorough. She makes a little mitt of the washcloth so water doesn’t drip off the ends. You don’t always see that. Most times Jay’s face gets scrubbed like a kitchen floor. But Wanda is the kind of nurse who takes her training seriously, the kind who won’t hold dirty linen against her uniform, the kind you see washing her hands in the little sink out in the hall many times a day. I sit down in the chair, watch her. She’s a very pretty girl, honey-blond hair pulled back into a braid, clear blue eyes, cheeks a nice pink color without the assistance of makeup. She wears tiny gold hoops in her ears. Her uniforms have flowers embroidered here and there—you have to look closely, because it’s white on white. I wonder if she does it herself.

“You’re new, huh?” I say.

“I’ve been here about three weeks now. I used to work at St. Mary’s. In the oncology unit.”

“You didn’t like that?”

She turns around. “Oh, no. I loved it. They had a problem with my … Well, the truth is I got fired.”

I stifle an impulse to leap up and grab the washcloth away from her. Instead, I begin watching her more carefully.

“I’ll tell you about it,” she says. “It wasn’t for incompetence or anything. But for now, just let me … I’d like to just pay attention to him.”

“Of course.”

She turns back to Jay, starts talking to him in a low, friendly voice. Her new car, she’s talking about. Five speed. Moves out. Smells like leather, though there’s none in the car. Paid sticker price, couldn’t help it. And then how her garden has been planned, what vegetables she and her husband will harvest in the summer. “You’ll be out of here by then, of course,” she tells him. “I’ll bring some tomatoes over to your house; you can make your kids some BLTs. Your daughters are beautiful, Jay.” I lean back in my chair, and one-twentieth of my brain says wearily, “Say thank you, Jay.”

When she gets to his hand, Wanda exercises each finger independently, then moves all of them together. Yes, that’s right. She’s doing it right. I’ll go get a cup of coffee.

In the day room, I see Flozell sitting by the window with Johnny. And then see that a baby is lying in his lap. I stop, stare, then go up to him. When he sees me coming, he pulls the blanket down from a tiny, sleeping face.

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