She saw me.
Silently, I raised my eyebrows.
She held out one of the hands she'd clenched around the bed frame and I saw the fifty dollar notes she held. Ah. This was her way of supplementing her meagre student income. I touched my finger to my watch as a reminder that she had limited time for this sort of thing.
She gave a tiny nod of acknowledgement. "C'mon, Tony, baby," she murmured in a little-girl voice. "Come for me before our time's up in two more minutes and I'll give you a discount tomorrow. You can have me for my whole lunch hour for the same price as today."
He went into a frenzy of thrusting. "Fuck yeah! A whole hour for only three hundred bucks? Here I blow, baby!"
I retreated as quickly as I could before the rutting man saw me, but I heard his triumphant finale as I left the room.
I wanted to feel sorry for the girl, feeling she had to sell her body to finish her studies, but she was making a handsome profit on the sale. I wondered if I'd do the same, under similar circumstances.
I shrugged and dismissed the thought. A more important consideration was whether to report her to her supervisor. After a moment, I decided I wouldn't bother. After all, she wasn't one of my staff, nor my responsibility.
And while she was working in the ED, Emergency would be on top of the list for maintenance work.
10
"Did you find Tony or Lin?" Aidan asked as I returned to ED.
I nodded. "He's coming. Right away, I believe." I maintained my composure and looked at the bench where the drunk had been when I'd left. "Where'd he go?"
The door to the public toilets flew open and the man staggered out, answering my question. "I want to go home," he slurred, touching a hand to his bandaged nose.
The taxi pulled up behind him and beeped before anyone else could say anything. He stumbled outside to the waiting car.
Tony turned up, a big grin on his face, as he repaired the roof and every tap he could get his hands on. With a wink to Lin, he whistled as he left. Lin kept her eyes on the floor.
"Belinda, can you help me with something in the office?" Aidan asked, with a brief look at the students. "Call us if any more patients arrive."
Both girls nodded, standing side by side at the desk. Lin looked a little flushed, but the other girl didn't seem to notice.
I followed Aidan back to the duty doctor's office and he shut the door as soon as I'd joined him inside.
"How'd you do it, Belinda? You took over my ED and had it running smooth as satin or melted chocolate in about fifteen minutes. You even had the patients thinking I was in charge, though I knew I wasn't. How can I repay you? Let me buy you dinner. Please?" His eyes held both admiration and desperation.
Satin or melted chocolate? Unusual examples for smoothness or a hospital.
I summoned an uneasy smile. "I didn't do much. You took care of your patients and all I did was tell the nursing students what to do. Hardly worth a dinner. I'm just doing my job."
"You did a bloody amazing job. At least join me for dinner, even if you won't let me pay for it. Please?" he persisted.
I surrendered. "Okay."
His grin was fierce. "The Tanglehead again, right after your shift finishes?"
I nodded. The restaurant had just taken a delivery of bronze whaler fillets, I'd heard from the kitchen staff, and I had a taste for shark right now.
11
I agreed to meet him by the front desk at the end of my shift, before heading back to my ward. The ED was empty of patients and I was only a phone call across the hospital, after all.
The remainder of my shift passed without incident, so it seemed a very short time later that I collected my things and made my way back to ED.
Rob, the orderly, manned the desk as I approached it. He looked surprised.
"Is the intern around?" I asked him.
Rob's hands tightened on the edge of the desk, his knuckles paling to bone white. "I haven't seen him for a bit," he replied with difficulty.
My eyes darted around, looking for either the intern or anyone else I could ask. Movement in the reflective office window caught my attention.
I heard Rob make a choking noise, but I paid him no heed as I squinted at the window. Beneath the desk, reflected in the glass, little Lin was on her knees with her mouth inside Rob's unzipped work pants. Against the rear of Rob's pants, Lin's hand splayed like a sea-star, over the green rectangle I recognised as a hundred dollar bill.
Busy night for the nursing student, I thought acidly, turning away to peer out into the car park. Perhaps he thought I would meet him outside? Or at the restaurant?
"Perfect timing, Belinda." Aidan entered from the corridor, his hair damp as if he'd just stepped from a shower. He'd changed his clothes, too, making me feel uncomfortable in my work clothes.
"Should I go home and get changed, too?" I asked uncertainly.
"You look lovely already. I just wanted to look good enough to be seen with you, is all," he replied with a wide smile.
Behind us, Rob choked again, though it seemed like Lin had no issue with swallowing silently.
I shrugged and walked outside with Aidan. The students were now no longer my problem, nor his. Dr Tan had started his shift, as had the night shift nurse.
We parted to enter our own cars, then drove in convoy the few kilometres to the brewery.
The restaurant was half empty this late on a weeknight, so it seemed no time at all before my steaming plate of battered shark landed before me.
Aidan slurped his way through some ribbony pasta as I savoured every bite of hot shark. I considered ordering another.
"Hell, that was quick." Aidan laughed, nodding at my plate. "I've never seen a girl enjoy her food so much before."
I returned my raised hand to my lap, deciding not to signal the waitress for another serving if it made me appear strange. I'd return tomorrow to satisfy my craving instead.
Without the observant intern.
I excused myself, telling him I was tired, before paying for my meal and heading home.
12
A week passed. I passed Aidan occasionally in the corridors when our shifts coincided. On those days, he always seemed to appear in the cafeteria on my breaks. He wouldn't sit anywhere but at the same table as I did.
His lyrical voice inevitably burbled about something that made him smile. Only minimal input was required of me, so that's all I gave.
I said little and gave away less, but his interest in my company didn't lessen in the slightest. I resigned myself to his company, for it was not so unpleasant.
One morning his coffee clunked loudly to the table, the contents of the cup slopping around like the storm swell in the port that morning.
"I swear it's some kind of crazy conspiracy. Now the Nannup Tiger's broken a man's leg – or someone's pulling mine."
I looked up in surprise as Aidan slumped into the seat across from me. His hair was tufted and on end again. He took a slurp of coffee. For the first time, he looked annoyed.
"How can an extinct creature break a man's leg?" I asked calmly.
"Murray Piesse, a dairy farmer from over Elleker way. Swore he saw a thylacine on his lawn, drinking from the bird bath. So he grabbed a camera and went out into the dark after it. The beast disappeared, if it ever existed at all. Murray stumbled over a tree stump or something in the dark and broke his leg. He managed to crawl back up to the house by morning to call for help. The ambulance brought him in." Aidan's brows met over his nose as he gulped down more coffee.
"I wonder if he got a photo of it…" I mused.
Aidan snorted, then choked as he got coffee up his nose. It took him a few minutes before he could do anything but splutter, so I waited without speaking. "Do you honestly believe him? Or are you making fun of me, too?"
I wet my lips. "I believe it's possible – he might have seen a thylacine," I replied carefully. "But I'd want to see pictures or the beast itself before I'd believe it for sure."
He looked hard at
me, as if he was trying to decide if I was telling the truth. Finally, he spoke again. "Thing is, if Murray really did see the Nannup Tiger, it was headed toward my place. I live next door to him in Elleker and it's all bush except where the house is. If the beast's out there, it could be hunting my place at night, and it's just me out there."
"If you're so scared of the Tiger, don't go out at night then," I replied lightly. "Besides, it doesn't sound like the Tiger was the real danger for Mr Piesse, but the tree stump he tripped over. Take a torch if you go outside at night and you should be fine."
"I do that already," Aidan grumbled. His expression cleared. "You could come up any night you're free and watch for the Tiger, if you like. A proper stakeout. Maybe we could discover an extinct species in my backyard." He looked hopeful.
I forced a smile. "No, thank you. We'd probably just see a lot of darkness and no Tiger, or freeze if it's a clear, cold night."
"I wouldn't let you get cold. I'd keep you warm, Belinda," he replied instantly, the sound of longing in his voice.
I surged to my feet, repeating my polite refusal as I headed back to the ward. While I walked, I wondered if I'd find time to speak to Murray Piesse about what he saw. Without Aidan, I suspected I could find the creature, if it wanted to be found.
13
I had five minutes left of my break, so I decided to detour by the general surgery ward to speak to Mr Piesse, if he was up. The ward rest period was about to start, so he'd have no visitors.
The murmur of voices in his room told me I was mistaken and he did have visitors, but the curtain 'round his bed wasn't entirely closed, so I peeped through the tiny gap. I could see the white sheet and cell blanket at the end of his bed, but that was it. To see, I'd have to stand right up against the curtain.
If it really was a visitor, I needed to ask them to leave, but if it was another staff member I decided I'd return later, when he was alone.
I held my breath, stepping forward so I almost touched the cotton curtain. My eye to the gap, I surveyed the scene with some surprise.
The murmuring formed audible words now, a litany of, "Yeah baby, yeah baby, yeah baby…" as Lin, her uniform dress hiked up to her waist once more, rode her cowboy home. Through the fabric of her dress, I could see the fifty dollar notes folded into her pocket before I stepped back, not wanting to see any more.
I hesitated, torn between the welfare of the patient and my desire not to be noticed. I'd heard that Mrs Piesse had taken off to meet some American bloke she'd met and fallen in love with online, so Mr Piesse was a very lonely man. Wavering, I turned and walked away. The naughty nursing student wasn't endangering his health, nor was he my patient.
I returned to my ward, where I found a new patient had arrived, swearing a blue streak with each contraction. Jill was helping her to the birthing suite and I quickly moved to assist her.
In the ensuing birth, I forgot all about nursing students shagging patients or tigers hunting interns. A ten-pound boy was going to be born – without anaesthetic, or so his mother insisted. It was going to be a long afternoon.
14
The morning sun shone through the cafeteria window, dust dancing in its rays. I'd just received word that Miranda and her premature baby had been allowed to go home for the first time. I smiled at Aidan as he sat across from me.
He looked surprised. "So you've heard the news about the mum and baby you saved?"
I smiled more broadly and nodded. "Both are well and they've been released from hospital."
He brought a hand out from behind his back, where he'd been hiding something. "So, we should have cake to celebrate!" He placed two of the cafeteria's signature brownies on the table, the plates clinking as he set them down a little more heavily than necessary. He watched me nervously for my reaction.
I smiled and laughed. "Cake it is. Cheers." I lifted one brownie, bumped it against the other, before taking a bite of mine.
The gritty cake was still warm inside. "This would be wonderful with vanilla ice cream," I said, savouring the warm chocolate with my eyes closed. I thought of how my mother would enjoy this and resolved to find some brownies and ice cream next time I saw her in Perth. For the first time, I missed her.
"I don't think they have any," Aidan said quietly. I heard him crunch into his own brownie.
I swallowed and opened my eyes, to find him staring at me.
"I've known you for four weeks, but that's the first time I've heard you laugh." His smile was rueful. "I thought it was because my jokes weren't funny."
I smiled to soften my words. "I guess I just don't laugh much. I don't find many things funny any more."
He nodded, taking a huge bite of brownie. He had chocolate icing on his nose.
My smile remained as I finished my brownie, thanked him and finished the rest of my shift, wondering how long he'd keep his brown nose. Perhaps a kinder colleague than I would tell him he looked like a wombat.
I tried not to laugh when I met him in the corridor, perhaps an hour later. He still wore his wombat nose. I hadn't the heart to tell him about it.
15
The nursing students' last day dawned with audible relief from some of the staff, though I admit some of the male staff and patients were looking happier lately. Perhaps I was imagining it.
To celebrate, the cafeteria announced that there would be cake after lunch, so it was unusually full on my lunch break. Aidan still managed to find me in the crush, sitting across from me with a plate of curry and rice that tasted nothing like the spicy dishes that passed for curry back home.
Little Lin sauntered past and I noticed Aidan's eyes following her. I bit back a smile as I wondered if he'd used her expensive services, too.
As if he'd read my thoughts, Aidan leaned over and hissed, "You see the nursing student with the dark hair?"
I nodded once, without looking at Lin. I kept my eyes on the intern instead. I wanted to know whether my surmise was correct.
"She…she offered to spend the night with me. At my house. She…said it would only cost me fifty dollars for the whole night!" He kept his voice low, looking shocked.
I thought of all the other men she'd shagged and how much she'd charged them. "She must like you, then," I replied.
"Like me?" Aidan's whisper sounded almost hysterical. "She wanted me to pay for sex like she was a prostitute!"
"I heard she charged someone three hundred dollars for less than an hour," I whispered back. "She must have liked you, to offer you a whole night for much less."
His eyes widened as he stared at me. "She offered her…services to you, too?"
I shook my head, smiling slightly. "No."
Lin was deep in conversation with her supervisor, the picture of innocent bewilderment. The supervisor's red face looked furious. The two women hurried past us and out of the cafeteria. "Never…in all my years of teaching nursing…unprofessional behaviour…" I heard the older woman mutter.
Aidan paled more than usual. "Do you think she's in trouble for…for…"
I nodded once, before turning to stare at him. "Why do you look so worried? Did you take her up on her offer?"
His face shifted from white to red, into a deep bottlebrush blush. He opened his mouth, but no sound came out. He cleared his throat and tried again, hoarsely. "I'd never…I…NO! Belinda, you know I…she…" He swallowed and it looked like he found it painful. "You're the only person I've ever invited up to the house. No one else." His eyes seemed to be trying to convey some emotional message that I couldn't decipher.
I nodded. "I remember. You invited me to come fishing and hunt the Nannup Tiger."
He looked sad. "I'd ask you over for dinner, but I can't cook very well, so we're better off going to a restaurant if you want something to eat. We could always get a pizza or something…"
"If we got a pizza from the place in town, it'd be cold by the time we made it to Elleker," I replied smoothly, standing up. My break was over, along with our awkward conversation. So he hadn't used th
e prostitute's services after all. "Enjoy the rest of your shift."
I headed off to do the same. Like the nursing students, my time here was coming to a close, too. I felt a tiny tinge of regret, but banished it quickly. Once my exams were over, I could return home as a qualified midwife. Everything I'd worked for, complete. What more could I ask for?
16
Cake, speeches, a small gift and plenty of coffee. It was my farewell morning tea in the cafeteria. My practical placement was over and my assessment came with a glowing reference.
The biggest surprise was Miranda. I hadn't seen her since I'd helped load her into a plane five weeks previously. A sleep-deprived man had his arm around her and in her arms was her tiny, sleeping daughter.
"We called her Felicity Belinda," Miranda told me shyly, as the man handed me a bunch of pink flowers.
Good luck, beautiful serpent. What a name for a little girl. I smiled and thanked them both. I held the tiny child for as short a time as I felt was polite, before handing her back to her parents. As soon as I could, I intended to escape back to the ward to take care of patients. I didn't like being the focus of so much attention, particularly when I was supposed to blend in.
I shook hands and smiled back at people until I managed to retreat into the corridor, where I bumped straight into Aidan. The crushed pink flowers sent up a heady cloud of scent.
"I'm so sorry, I wanted to make it to your morning tea, but I had to finish my rounds and there was this kid in the ED who broke his arm…" Aidan was at full speed in voice and motion.
I smiled reflexively and told him there was plenty of cake. I walked past him, headed back to the ward and my patients.
"Wait," he said breathlessly. "When's your last day?"
Water and Fire Page 3