Plain Wrong (Amish Romance Mystery)
(Amish Secret Widows’ Society Book 9)
Samantha Price
Copyright 2015 © Samantha Price
All Rights Reserved
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Thank you for respecting the author's work.
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This is a work of fiction. Any names or characters, businesses or places, events or incidents, are fictitious. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, or actual events is purely coincidental.
Chapter 1.
The wind bloweth where it listeth, and thou hearest
the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh,
and whither it goeth:
so is every one that is born of the Spirit.
John 3:8
“Have you ever lay in bed in the morning and tried to remember a dream, but find it’s just out of reach?” Still in her hospital bed, Ettie raised a stretched out hand in the air. “You lie there and when you almost remember, it’s gone.” Ettie coughed, and her lungs wheezed. She did her best to take a deep breath. “Although you can’t recall the events of the dream, you can feel the essence.” She turned her head toward her schweschder Elsa-May, who sat in the chair by her bed.
“Are you sure you’re alright, Ettie? You’re not making sense, and you shouldn’t talk so much.” Elsa-May stood and poured her a glass of water. “Here, have some of this.”
Ettie dug her hands into the hard bed and pushed herself up further. After she had taken a sip of water, she handed the glass back to Elsa-May. “I’m okay. It’s just that I thought I had a dream and when I woke up and tried to recall it, I knew that it wasn’t a dream at all.”
Elsa-May placed the glass back on the cupboard and sat down. “Should I call the doctor? I’m worried about you.”
“It’s not me you should be worried about; remember Judith in the next bed?”
Elsa-May half stood and peered over Ettie to the only other bed in the room. “Where is she?”
“They told her yesterday that she’d be going home today and this morning she’s dead.”
“Ach.” Elsa-May trembled and took a deep breath. “At our age we expect that Gott could take us home at any time. You close your eyes and rest for a moment. They’ll be bringing the breakfast around soon enough.”
Ettie relaxed her head into the pillows. She had woken up that morning with the familiar lurch in her stomach when she realized she was still in the hospital. Her desire to leave the place grew with each passing day. I knew I should never have come to this place, she thought as the stench of antiseptic invaded her nostrils.
Scenes from before Judith died swirled in Ettie’s head. When she woke that morning she glanced over at Judith and saw that she was still asleep. She had drawn comfort from the knowledge that her new friend Judith had the all-clear to go home. Ettie remembered Judith’s smile after the doctor told her the good news of being released; hopefully, she would soon hear similar news for herself. Earlier that morning, Ettie’s attention was drawn to the doorway as a nurse entered.
“Good morning, Ettie, how are you?”
It seemed silly to Ettie that people asked how she was all the time; after all she was in the hospital. “Still sick it appears otherwise I wouldn’t be here.”
The nurse smiled and glanced at the still sleeping Judith. Her smile turned into a frown as she moved closer. “Breakfast will be soon, Judith.” With her hand on Judith’s shoulder, the nurse whispered, “Judith, would you like some breakfast?”
Ettie grew concerned when she saw the nurse check Judith’s pulse. When the nurse hurried from the room, Ettie’s suspicions were confirmed -Judith was dead. The nurse returned with a doctor who made a thorough examination. He looked across at Ettie then whispered something to the nurse who promptly drew the curtain between the two beds blocking Ettie’s view.
Minutes later, the doctor strode past Ettie’s bed and out through the door. When the nurse followed, Ettie asked her, “Is she dead?”
“I’m sorry. I’m afraid so.” Moving closer to her bed, the nurse stared into Ettie’s face. “Can I get you anything?”
“Yes, an explanation. Judith was told she could leave the hospital this morning.”
The nurse averted her eyes and hurried out of the room without providing an answer. Ettie leaned forward and seeing no one nearby she got out of bed to have a closer look at Judith. She looked peaceful as though she were asleep. Ettie pulled the sheet down and noticed a small puncture mark on her neck. It was then that Ettie remembered the nurse hovering over Judith’s head in the dead of the night. From what Ettie could tell, the nurse gave Judith an injection.
In the dark it was hard to see which nurse it was. Ettie thought it unusual but had drifted back to sleep. Shaking her head, Ettie hurried back to bed. The orderlies wheeled in a bed and behind the closed curtain, Ettie heard the sounds of them lifting Judith’s body onto the other bed, then they wheeled her away.
Ettie’s mind drifted from the early morning events to the present moment when Elsa-May asked, “So what’s all this about?”
“She died when they said she could go home. At first, I thought it was a dream, and now I know it wasn’t.” The more Ettie thought about it, the more she realized that it was a recollection and not a dream. “A nurse gave Judith an injection. I assumed it was something relating to her condition, but now I think about it, she never had an injection while she was here. I know because we discussed how we both disliked needles. She only had pills and her blood pressure watched.”
“That is a little odd. Anything else?”
“Not yet, except for the puncture wound on her neck. I checked her quickly before they took her away.”
“So someone gave her an injection?” Elsa-May asked.
“Jah.”
Emma, a dear friend of Ettie and Elsa-May’s, appeared in the doorway and hurried to Ettie’s side. “Ettie, things seem to be rather tense amongst the staff in this ward. Is everything okay?”
“I’m fine.” Ettie’s voice was monotone.
Emma sat on the bed after she glanced at Elsa-May who was unusually quiet. “I’ve known you two long enough to know when you’re keeping something from me.”
Ettie glanced at Elsa-May and exhaled deeply. “The woman sharing the room with me died this morning.”
Emma’s hand rose to rest against her lips. “That’s awful, the nice lady in the next bed?”
“Jah, she was nice.” Ettie nodded, and her eyes drifted to Judith’s side of the room.
“But that’s not unusual is it?” Emma asked.
Elsa-May said, “Ettie thinks that it is unusual.”
Emma frowned. “What do you mean? Wasn’t she ill?”
“She was here to have her blood pressure monitored. She wasn’t here for any life threatening condition. That’s why Ettie is so upset,” Elsa-May said.
Emma looked from Elsa-May back to Ettie. “Do they know how it happened?”
“I know,” Ettie replied, her jaw flexing. “I woke last night and saw a nurse give Judith an injection.”
“I would imagine that happens a lot here; it is a hospital,” Emma said.
Ettie shook her head. “She wasn’t receiving any medication apart from pills and I know that for an absolute fact. I am certain it was the injection that caused it and that it was intended.”
Emma stared at Ettie and Elsa-May for moments. “Ettie, do you realize what you are saying?” Emma shook her head. “Maybe it was simply s
omething you were unaware of. What if she was in pain or asked for something to help her sleep?”
Ettie pursed her lips. “They would have given her a sleeping pill if she couldn’t sleep, and she had no actual pain with her condition. I asked if she had any pain and she told me that sometimes her face burned, and she got dizzy when her blood pressure became too high. She never complained of any pain. I’m right, and I will stay here and find out what happened.” Ettie folded her arms across her chest and looked straight ahead.
“What are you thinking?” Emma replied in a high-pitched voice. Lowering back down to just above a whisper, she continued, “If you are right, then you could be in danger.”
“If I’m right, think of the others who could be in danger.” Ettie pressed her lips together. “I could not live with myself if I left and others were to fall victim to whatever is going on here.” Reaching out, Ettie took hold of Elsa-May’s hand; she looked at her schweschder with pleading eyes. “I need to do this, Elsa-May. You’ll let me stay in here, won’t you?”
Elsa-May patted Ettie’s hand. “If the doctor says you’re okay to leave then you must go. They don’t like people taking up the beds for no good reason.”
Ettie looked up at the ceiling “Yesterday, I asked the doctor if I could go home as soon as possible. I will say I have no one to look after me at home, and I need to stay until I’m fit and well.”
Meeting her sister’s gaze, Elsa-May gave a soft nod of her head. “If the doctor says you can stay it’ll be fine with me.”
Emma said, “Did Judith have any enemies? What possible reason would someone want her dead?”
Ettie put a hand in the air and said, “I know none of that yet. I know that something is not right, I can feel it.”
Emma looked between the two elderly ladies once again. “Suppose there is something wrong what could you do?”
Elsa-May leaned forward in her chair and said, “The same as we always do, Emma.”
Chapter 2.
For God so loved the world,
that he gave his only begotten Son,
that whosoever believeth in him should not perish,
but have everlasting life.
John 3:16
After Emma had gone home, Elsa-May left her sister to go to the cafeteria.
The doctor was doing his rounds early because he was operating mid-morning. He walked into Ettie’s hospital room with two students behind him. “Morning,” he said in a gruff tone. He picked up her chart and read it. “You appear to be doing much better. You still drinking plenty of fluids?”
“I am,” Ettie said while trying to work out what nationality the doctor was. He wasn’t American born. He had a heavy accent and every sentence he uttered seemed to end in an upward lilt. His skin was olive toned, his bushy eyebrows were dark and his nose rounded. She did not like to ask him where he was born even though she was interested to know.
He plugged his stethoscope into his ears. “I’ll listen to your lungs.” After listening to her lungs and tapping her on the back, he said, “Still some sounds there.”
“I did say that I wanted to go home as soon as I could, but I fear my sister is too frail to look after me, and I’ll have no one.”
“I’d rather keep you in for now.” The doctor smiled. “We nearly lost you. What you’ve got is serious; you’re over the worst of it now, but I’d still like to keep you in.” He turned around and said something to his students in a low voice before he turned back to Ettie. “You might be able to leave here in two maybe three days. We’ll see. If you have no one at home to look after you, we can organize a place for you somewhere else. Alternatively, we can arrange home care. Do you have any questions for me?”
Ettie shook her head. He was not the same doctor Judith had, so it would do no good to ask questions about her.
“I’ll be back to check on you tomorrow. Keep the fluids up. It would also do you good to walk around to get your lungs working.”
Ettie smiled and nodded, but she had no intention of doing any such thing; she was far too tired to walk around.
Just when the doctor and his two students left, the sound of the food trolleys rattled in the corridor. The staff bowled in the room with two trays, left one on Ettie’s tray table and seeing the empty bed took the other back out with them. Ettie pulled the table toward her. She always ordered scrambled eggs and bacon, but always got porridge and toast with marmalade. Porridge was Ettie’s least favorite food; she was glad she had lost the taste for food since she’d fallen ill otherwise it would make the task of eating the porridge more painful.
As Ettie closed her eyes and spooned the watery porridge into her mouth, she recalled her early memories of porridge. Her bruders and schweschders all ate their porridge and were all allowed to leave the table once they finished. She sat there alone telling her parents she could not possibly eat it. Her vadder told her that back in the old country they often had no food for days and would have been delighted to eat porridge.
Ettie laughed as she remembered her vadder’s face when the five-year-old Ettie offered her porridge to be sent to the old country. Not only did she still have to eat the porridge she got a whipping for her trouble. One day, she sat there ‘til nearly midday mealtime before she ate the porridge. One of her bruders told her to put loads of brown sugar on the top and eat it quickly. Ever since then, Ettie followed his suggestion and ate her porridge quickly. Looking back, she realized that her vadder’s harshness was because they were dreadfully poor. If she had not eaten that porridge there might not have been anything else to eat.
Back in the present moment, Ettie thought over what she wished to achieve by staying longer at the hospital. She would need to be inquisitive, but not so much that it would attract unwanted attention. Being conversational and friendly came easily to her. She knew that she had a way of making people feel relaxed enough to tell her things.
As she swallowed the final mouthful of the tea that came with breakfast, she offered a smile to young nurse McBride who entered the room. Nurse McBride was Ettie’s favorite nurse because she was always bright and happy. Ettie guessed her to be in her mid twenties. She was a small woman, with dark eyes, dark hair, and skin which Ettie considered far too pale.
“Has your sister gone home?” the nurse asked in a chirpy voice, pushing the large laundry trolley to the far side of the room.
“No, she was feeling hungry. She’s gone to find some breakfast. She’s in the cafeteria I expect.”
Placing her teacup aside, Ettie decided now would be a good time to begin her investigation. “My sister left home in such a hurry to come see me this morning that she missed breakfast. I do wish she wouldn’t worry about me so much.”
“She’s your sister,” the nurse said with a smile. “That’s her job.”
Ettie wasted no time getting to the point. “It was awful hearing about Judith this morning, wasn’t it?”
“It was.” The young nurse briefly took a sideways glance at Ettie then turned her attention to the sheets in the next bed. “But it’s a common sight in a hospital.”
“That’s quite a depressing thought,” Ettie said with a frown. “I know death is inevitable, but Judith hardly seemed sick at all.”
“Depressing, but also true. I guess everyone who works here has their way of dealing with death. Although...” Almost as an after thought, the nurse shook her head and remained silent.
“Although?” Ettie repeated the word as a question. “Although what?”
“I don’t know how anyone could deal with something like that, not properly. I have seen so many people work in this hospital who seem cold and indifferent towards the patients. At first I thought it was a normal part of the job, to stop you going crazy.”
Ettie remained attentive as the nurse spoke, scrutinizing every word she said. If she knew anything about Judith, Ettie hoped she might say something useful.
The nurse continued, “But the longer I work here, the more I realize that you need to care. If you
don’t, then surely you cannot do your job properly.”
“Balance,” Ettie stated wearing a wise grin. “It’s balance that you need.”
“Yes, I believe so.” The nurse pulled the sheets from Judith’s bed and placed them in the trolley. As she was stripping off the pillowcases, she said, “I care too much that’s my problem.”
“Like my sister,” Ettie said.
“Yes, quite right. That’s why I wanted to be a nurse, but ironically it might be why I might not make a good one.”
“I think you make a wonderful nurse, Nurse McBride,” Ettie said, glad that the young girl was so talkative. "Surely being able to care for someone should be the most important part of your job?" Ettie kept a smile on her face as she spoke, although she still felt nervous not knowing which nurse could be the perpetrator. "When you say you care too much, you make it sound negative. You should see it as your strength, the thing that keeps you going to help those who need you."
The nurse was silent for a moment. "I suspect you could teach some people around here a thing or two with words like that, Ettie." Returning the older woman's smile, nurse McBride finished sorting through the clean bed covers ready for the next patient. When she was done, she moved closer to Ettie's bed and sat down at the end of it. “Call me Melanie. Or I shall keep calling you Mrs. Smith.”
“Melanie it is then.”
Letting out a sigh, the nurse appeared to study Ettie thoughtfully before she spoke again. "You're right, you know, about Judith. It was so sudden I still don't know how it happened." The young nurse looked down toward her lap as she spoke. "When I began working in medicine I thought that I would be saving people, helping them keep their hold on life. But all I seem to be doing is drawing things out, delaying the inevitable."
Ettie felt the warmth of her own smile spread inward hearing the young girl speak. She radiated sincerity while discussing her job role. Melanie McBride could not be the nurse she was looking for, but Ettie thought she still might be able to help with information.
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