A VERY DARK TIME - Part 2

I don't know how long I was in the hospital.  At first, I slept all the time, but then they began decreasing my dosage a bit and I went to Arts and Crafts.  I tried to make things but it felt like my  fingers were sausages and I kept dropping my little piece of leather on the floor.  I was hopeless.  Of course, now I love arts and crafts.  The psychiatrist seemed to recognize talents in me I didn't know I had.  I was asked to take an elderly widower for a walk and it went very well.  Every day after that he and I walked together.  Then I was asked to play shuffleboard with a suicidal teenaged boy which I was happy to do as I really liked shuffleboard and was a pretty good player.  But my severely depressed young man was a shark and soundly beat me every single time.  He would hit the disk so hard that I thought he would split it.  We played in a long hallway with the court painted on the floor.  Our violent play stopped traffic and the drugged patients just stood by, watching, until the game was over and then they scurried down the hall, probably on their way to making small leather pouches.  

There was never conversation of any kind during our intense play, but one day he said, "I'm going home tomorrow."

I just stood there, but I realized I would miss him.  "Oh," I said.  My slowed down brain could think of nothing to say.

Then, "You're a really good player."

His expression didn't change, but he said, "Yes.  I know."

Every evening we all met in the common room for snacks.  Our gathering was presided over by a big, smiling, good-natured Black nurse whose ready laugh warmed the room.  Her name was Melba and I wanted her to be my grandmother; everyone did I think.  That night I noticed a very old lady spreading peanut butter on a napkin and I was afraid she would eat it.  She did eat it.  I jumped up, ran to Nurse Melba and whispered, "She's eating a napkin with peanut butter on it."

She gave me her big, generous smile and said, "Help me up, Baby; I got a bad knee."  So, together, we walked over to the lady who was ripping up her napkin sandwich into small pieces.

"Now, Honey, let's get you some bread that's easy to eat.  Here, this bread is real soft; I'll put some peanut butter on it.  This kind don't have any nuts in it.  Should be easy to eat."

The elderly lady took a bite and smiled.  "It's real good."

Thank the Lord for Nurse Melba.  I went back to my seat and bit into a chocolate chip cookie.  When I looked around the room, I saw the Wonder Boy of Shuffleboard looking at me.

He smiled.  HE SMILED.

TO BE CONCLUDED