Halloween at the Hospital

A touch of yellow kissed the sky to her left heralding the promise of dawn; the still air carrying an early autumn chill. Sister Stapelli strode along the path through the trees to collect the ward reports in readiness for the morning staff takeover. She sniffed the air, smiling, as she breathed in the lingering scent of the Halloween fireworks from last night.

Entering the main hospital by the side door of Strelley Ward a student nurse was assisting a patient with a drink. Amused to see the nurse using the old-fashioned ceramic drinking cup with a long spout which always reminded her of Alladin’s lamp. These had now been replaced with plastic beakers with a spout in the lid rather like an infant’s drinking cup. Many wards still had a few of the vintage variety around as they were more efficient when a patient was lying down.

“Good morning nurse, can you tell me who’s in charge?”

Without speaking, or taking her eyes off her patient, the young nurse used the long spout of the archaic vessel and pointed it in the direction of the kitchen before tenderly bringing it back to give her undivided attention to her patient.

‘She’s an odd one but I like her style with the patients’ thought Stapelli.

“Good morning, Jenkins did you have a good night?”

Nurse Jenkins, a regular night worker, was in the office sorting the paperwork, wrinkled her face and shrugged her shoulders. “Not bad Sister”

Looking back down she grumbled “I’m glad it’s my last night for a while, I’m ready for a few days off. Staff Nurse is in the kitchen.” Staff Nurse Bennet was busy setting the tea trolly.

“Good morning, Staff I hope you had a good night,”

“Yes, thanks Sister most of them slept through the night. The reports are on the office desk. I hope you don’t mind but I’m a little late with this.” Turning she continued making the tea for the patients’ morning drink.

After collecting the rest of the reports from the female wards she proceeded to the main office to hand them over to the Nursing Officer before heading back to the Villa to attend to her own patients before her shift ended.

Returning to the main office to drop off her master keys she turned to make her way to the cloakroom before going home.

“A minute please Sister” snapped the voice of Noel the night Nursing Officer, “Close the door” The way he let his rage fly before the door was closed took her breath away.

“What the hell happened to you this morning, why didn’t you help out on Strelley Ward? You could see they were short staffed. I had to pull a nurse off another ward to help them out”.

Shocked at his attitude her cheeks burned with embarrassment and anger. Holding back the tears and sense of injustice she retorted.

“Excuse me but It’s always been a rule that we only ‘help out’ as you call it, when there are less than three staff and there were three staff on duty. That’s how it’s always been. If it’s changed why didn’t someone tell me?” Standing erect she continued, “Staff Nurse Bennet said the ward was quiet and they had a good night so I couldn’t see an issue.”

He looked taken aback and stared at her as if trying to compute what she was telling him. Sitting down he began fiddling with the blotting pad on his desk before looking directly at her with a piercing stare.

“Please don’t take me for a fool Stapelli, there was only Staff Nurse Bennet and Nurse Jenkins on duty, and you know … …

“What about the Student Nurse? She interrupted. “Don’t students count anymore?”

“Student what student? … There was no student. … Yes! There should have been, but she didn’t turn up for duty. We didn’t have anyone to replace her as she didn’t bother to let us know she wasn’t coming.” … … He abruptly stood up and came around the front of the desk, “I’ll deal with her when I see her, she needs a good excuse as this is her first shift and I’m not happy with her performance so far.”

“Can I sit a minute please?” Feeling dizzy and nauseous she sat before his reply.

“Yes, yes of course, but we don’t have long. The morning staff will need the office soon and I want to get home.”

Dropping the professional formalities, addressing him by his first name she tried to explain. “Look Noel, when I went to collect Strelley’s report I swear there was a young student nurse. She was by Mrs Bryce’s bed giving her a drink. You know I’m always happy to help out when any ward is short. I don’t know who she was as I haven’t met any of the new students yet.”

“Describe her”

“She was wearing a first-year student uniform. Young, slim, and quite pretty with her long blond hair twisted into a plait that she coiled around her head underneath her cap. I swear that’s all I know. She was giving Mrs Bryce a drink. She didn’t even speak but I was impressed with how gentle and attentive she was to her patient. There was just something about her and the way she engaged with the patient that caught my attention.”

“Well, we can’t ask Mrs Bryce can we. She died this morning before the shift change. That’s why they were struggling.”

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that she was a lovely old lady, but why did no one page me? You know I would have gone to help immediately.”

“We tried but you didn’t answer.”

“My pager only went off once and that was around two, Noel, Look” … Taking it out of her pocket she scrolled through the previous night’s alerts. The last one recorded was at 2-12 am when she had a call from one of the other villas asking if they could borrow some sugar for their drinks at the break.

He scrolled himself and gave it back to her. “Ok, let’s leave it at that for now, we need to get the changeover done. I suggest you take a different pager when you come back tonight while we get yours checked out. We wouldn’t want you to be unable to call for help if needed at the villas”

“I’m really sorry Noel but I swear to you there was a student nurse I saw her with my own eyes.”

“Leave it for now, go home” dismissing her with a wave of his hand.

“Bad night love? You look shattered.” asked her Mum pouring her a cup of coffee as she took her coat off.

“Mum, I wish you wouldn’t get up early to wait on me” she whimpered hugging the mug as if drawing comfort from it.

“Tell me to mind my own business but you look upset” her mother coaxed.

Tears spilt silently down her cheeks. “I don’t know Mum. Something doesn’t add up and I’ve had a really weird feeling of something being wrong even before all this blew up.”

Joan pulled up a stool at the breakfast bar. “You know I’ll listen if you want to talk.”

“I’m not sure where to start. Maybe I’m just tired. I thought I had met a new student nurse today but there is no such nurse according to Noel” Resting her elbows on the worktop Sheryl stared at her coffee. “I know I saw her Mum because there was just something about her. Something I can’t put my finger on but the feeling I got when I spoke to her was so intensely … odd … no, not odd, weird. That’s weird. I can’t explain it, but I felt it.”

Her Mum’s patient silence encouraged her to go on.

“She was giving one of the patients a drink and I swear for all the world it was as if there was only the two of them in the world. I felt that I was intruding when I spoke to her. … she didn’t speak back. She did respond but didn’t take her eyes off the patient, she just pointed me in the direction I needed to go.”

Patting her shoulder “Well you can ask the patient tonight who she is. Now come on and have something to eat before you go to bed.”

“That’s the problem Mum, I can’t. The patient died shortly after that.” A cold shiver went through her body, and she shuddered. “I’m not really hungry Mum I think I’ll have a shower and go straight to bed.”

Unable to sleep Sheryl eventually got up to make herself a drink.

“Are you OK love, you look shattered” Her mum’s voice was gentle and full of concern.

I can’t sleep. I think this morning upset me more than I thought, and I keep having bad dreams. … … What’s that saying from the bible Mum about the dead caring for the dead?”

“What on earth brought that on?”

“It’s just something I thought about. It came out of nowhere and I can’t get it out of my head.”

“Actually, I think it’s ‘let the dead bury the dead’ or something like that”

“Thanks,” said Sheryl as she made her way back to bed.

When Sheryl arrived at work later that evening Noel pulled up alongside as she turned into the corridor leading to the head office.

Opening the door to let her go first he softly said, “Side office please Sheryl.”

This time he closed the door carefully before speaking. “Please tell me again about this student nurse you said you saw last night.”

Gripping her hands into a fist she could feel her cheeks burning with anger. Not trusting herself to speak she lowered herself slowly into the chair facing Noel who was now sitting behind the desk.

“Noel I didn’t just say I saw her; I know I saw her. She gave Mrs Bryce a drink from one of the old spouted ceramic cups. … … … “

“Please Sheryl” leaning back in his chair “just describe her to me. Let’s not make a drama out of this.”

“OK, she was in a first-year student’s uniform, tallish; an inch or so taller than I am and she was slim. She was rather pretty, and her hair was a soft golden blond. It looked like she had put it into side pigtails and then wrapped those around her head before putting her cap on. So, I guess it must be very long. Rather like you see in films when they show girls from the Swiss Alps.”

Noel opened the desk drawer and pulled out a folded newspaper. Looking intently at the quarter fold page facing him he placed it on the desk in front of her.

“Anything like her?”

Gaping at the face staring back at her “Exactly like her” Tapping her fingers on the desk Sheryl tried not to raise her voice as a sense of fear came over her. “What’s this about? Why is she in the paper Noel, what’s she done?”

Open it and read it yourself.

Trembling hands made her fumble but eventually, she opened the page and saw the headlines.

‘Tragic Death of Swiss Nurse on her way to visit her Grandmother.”

Monica Forbes, a 21-year-old student nurse from Switzerland was found dead in her car by a dog walker this morning. She had been on her way to visit her grandmother who was a patient at the local hospital. A local man was out walking his dog when he saw the overturned car lying in a field. The car seems to have left the road, and the police believe that it rolled several times before landing on its roof behind the hedge out of sight of the other road users. The accident is believed to have taken place between 6.30 and 7.30 pm. Her grandmother also passed away shortly afterwards.

No further details are known at this point. The police are calling for witnesses. Please see below for contact details.

Dropping the paper on her lap she stared at Monica’s face looking back at her. Words began echoing inside her head. All she could hear was … “let the dead care for the dying” She knew it should be ‘let the dead bury the dead’ but all she could hear was ‘let the dead care for the dying.’

Halloween 2024