The Reckoning by Rachel Amphlett

Author:Rachel Amphlett [Amphlett, Rachel]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Saxon Publishing

Chapter Five

A comforting gloom had descended on the office by ten-thirty and, after a taking a break as Helen had suggested, Sadie was content to work in the warm light from her desk lamp that counteracted the glare from her computer screen.

She signed out of her personal email account, closed the window, and returned to the health and safety report she was typing up for Helen in relation to the altercation between Hendrick and Sanders.

Eyeing the growing amount of paperwork stacked in the tray beside the screen, she resolved to take care of the filing first thing tomorrow. The metal cabinet drawers that lined the wall behind her chair tended to rattle and scrape, and it would do no good if the residents complained about the noise while they were trying to sleep.

Humming under her breath, the memory of her grandmother still fresh in her mind, she rubbed at tired eyes and reached out for the mug of coffee next to her keyboard.

When she’d seen the job advertised at the nursing facility, she had approached it as a stepping stone – a way to gain some work experience to lend weight to the paper qualifications that sat in her personnel file in another locked cabinet under the windowsill to her left.

However, only a few weeks into the role, she could understand why people chose this as a vocation. Some of their residents were only short-term visitors, like Evelyn Price, but others had nowhere else to go. It seemed to her a harsh reality that in their time of need and despite what many of them had done for their country during the war and afterwards, they had been discarded by society.

People like her and her colleagues kept them safe from the harsh world beyond the ornate gardens of the nursing facility.

She pulled up the sleeves of her sweater, wondering if she should turn the thermostat down the next time she conducted her walk through the silent building. It was a fine balance between keeping their guests comfortable and not melting while on the job.

Putting the coffee aside, she exhaled and vowed to finish the report before eleven o’clock and the rostered changeover. At least that way, Helen could read through it when they switched.

She reached into her bag and pulled out a muesli bar, a small snack to keep her going until it was her turn to head upstairs to the twin room she shared with her manager.

It was a simple set-up – whoever was rostered for the night shifts shared a room on the second floor, away from the reception area in order that a few hours’ sleep could be taken in between keeping an eye on the residents and catching up with the administrative work.

Working four days in a row at a time, Sadie had become adept at packing the small suitcase she used for work. When she had first started, she had rather optimistically placed a paperback book inside – the reality was, the moment her head hit the pillow, she was asleep until her alarm went off the next morning.

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