Nubbin but Trouble (8 page)

Good, someone who is willing to speak to me about what happened.
I had to think about how to proceed.

“Kathy said something happened to Nubbin. Is he okay?” I pretended not to know anything about the circumstances.

Sarah was eager to fill me in on all the juicy details. She took a deep breath and then starting speaking at rapid fire. I had trouble keeping up with her.

“I'm on break, so let's go sit down in the ice cream parlor and I'll tell you all the juicy details.” Sarah took my arm and led me and Barney to the in-house ice cream parlor, designed with residents and guests in mind. They sure put a lot of money into the aesthetics, but completing ignored the fact that most of their staff members were completely and utterly useless in my opinion, most notably Kathy Sauer – the wicked nurse of the Great Plains.

She was one of those people that became a nurse because she didn't want to be a teacher. Her heart wasn't in it. From everything I'd learned while working here last winter, she never let anyone forget that nursing wasn't her ideal profession. She behaved like everything about her job was an inconvenience and poor Nubbin was the biggest inconvenience of all.

“Ice cream?” Sarah offered me a tiny cone.

I shook my head. All I really wanted was a warm bed and about a thousand hours of sleep, but that wasn't going to happen any time soon.

“Are you sick?” Sarah sat down opposite me, licking her strawberry ice cream.

Think, Mercy, think. Tell her and hope she doesn't rat you out or lie and hope that your mucous membranes cooperate long enough to get the information you need and then get out and make a pit stop at the sheriff's office before checking into the motel?

Lying sounded like fun. “No, it was just a long trip and I'm exhausted.”

Sarah shrugged. “You sound congested.”

Challenge me. I dare you.

“Anyway, so I was working that night and everything was kind of normal. You know how it goes around here. Someone is always griping about something or other and someone else is always pushing their call light for no reason.” Sarah paused to wipe ice cream from her mouth. “So, I had to work the evening shift that night and we we short-staffed as usual. I had to work the unit by myself. Kathy told me that Nubbin was all bent out of shape about something or other and I...”

I had to stop her there. “Bent out of shape about what?”

Sarah took a bite of her cone. “I don't know. He's always like that when Kathy is working.”

I looked at her with a grin on my face, but all I could think was,
It's your job to know. Isn't that what they are paying you to do?

As evenly as I could, I asked, “Why has he only acted that way when Kathy is around? What does she do to upset him?”

With a quick wave of her hand, Sarah batted her big, green eyes at me and shrugged. “Who knows. Hey, my break is almost over. Did you want to go to the unit with me? I'm sure everyone would love to see Barney.”

And, that's where this train stopped. Sarah was either unwilling or unable, due to her flightiness, to give me the answers that I needed. I would have to try a different approach, but first I had to figure out where her loyalties lay.

“Do you think that is such a good idea,” I asked, doing my best to imitate her doe-eyed look.

“Of course, the residents would love to see him. Kathy, well, not so much, but who cares, right?” She giggled like a hyena, swinging her long blonde hair as she moved.

Well, this is confusing. Is she friend or foe, Mercy?

I followed her down the hallway, to the back of the facility, where the Memory Support Unit housed thirty-six men and women in various stages of Alzheimer's Disease. It was both the happiest unit and the saddest unit to work on at the same time.

Depending on which stage they were in, the residents were pretty unpredictable most of the time. The latter stages of this dreadful disease took almost everything from the poor souls who were living with it. The beginning stages of the disease were often met with denial and hints that something was amiss and made for quite a few debates, if you so happened to be a member of the nursing staff, trying to convince them to do what you asked. The line between independence and dependence was a blurry line for everyone, but for those suffering with dementia and Alzheimer's, it was even more troublesome to navigate.

“I'm looking forward to seeing them too,” I lied.
What was wrong with me? Why was I making this sound like this was some kind of vacation? I was a woman on a mission. Someone around here saw something. Experience told me that nothing and I mean nothing happens in a small town or a small facility, in this case, without someone else seeing it.

Sarah scanned her key card to open the doors. I took a deep breath to calm my rattled nerves.

“There she is. That's the one I told you about,” Karen pointed her stubby finger in my direction, explaining to a woman who looked remarkably similar to the gruff-looking Nubbin, but in an almost softer way. “That's Mercy.”

The woman's face reddened almost matching the color of her lipstick. I couldn't take my eyes off of her. Something about her, maybe her bulbous nose or her deep set eyes, but something wouldn't let me turn away. Her shoulder length platinum blonde hair sat in stark contrast to her crimson shade. I had a feeling that whatever it was Karen had told her about me was the reason behind her anger.

Great! These two were my welcoming squad.

“What did you do,” the enraged blonde asked.

Instinctively, I looked behind me. I knew she couldn't have been using that tone with me,  a woman she'd not had the pleasure of meeting yet.

Sarah mumbled under her breath, “Uh oh, watch out for her.”

What? No words of wisdom? No heads up as to who she was or what her issue was. And, why does she remind me of Nubbin so much?

She stepped closer to me, her ample bosom in my face. My breath caught as the pungent scent of the worst smelling perfume I'd ever had the displeasure of smelling before overwhelmed my senses. She all but drained the fluids right out of me with her perfume.
What did she do, bathe in a tub of patchouli and Corpse Flower? Seriously, was I the only one who could smell that?

“What did you do to my father? Where is he?” She spat in my face, the pungent aroma of stale cigarettes started to mix with the already deadly scent wafting between us. Suddenly, I felt faint and I was pretty sure that not one person here would be willing to provide emergency care for me.

I took a step back, doing my best not to choke from the nostril invasion. My eyes watered. My taste buds fought with desperation for immediate relief. I needed air. I needed something and, I'm pretty sure, getting yelled at by an angry fake blonde wasn't it.

“Excuse me,” I said between gagging and trying to will myself not to faint. “I don't know you. I don't know what you're talking about.” I had more to say, but since I could barely breathe, speaking wasn't a viable option for me in that moment.

“You're the nurse who encourages my father to do all sorts of nonsensical stuff. Do you realize what you've done? Do you realize how much danger he is in? For all I know, he could be lying dead in a ditch somewhere.” She seethed with anger.

“Your father? Nubbin is your father?” No wonder she reminded me so much of him. I didn't know whether to feel sorry for her or to laugh at her misfortune. Some women could be considered handsome if they looked like their fathers, but I'm pretty sure that was only possible if they inherited their father's good features, and clearly, this woman had not.

Karen sneered. “Yes, she's Nubbin's daughter. Why do you think she's so upset? This is all your fault, you know? I hope you're satisfied because now look at what you've done.”

What is she talking about?

“Are you out of your mind? I live in California. How could I possibly have had anything to do with this? I haven't seen Nubbin in months.” I stood up for myself.

Sarah watched in amazement as this woman and Kathy raked me over the coals. For several minutes, Nubbin's daughter berated me for encouraging bad behavior. All I could do was stand there and listen to her, but I also couldn't help to assess her large features. Her hands were nearly as big as her fathers. Her deep-set brown eyes were plastered behind layer after layer of mascara and the darkest muddy brown eye shadow I'd ever seen someone intentionally put on their face.

I'd finally had enough and had to stop her to get a clear understanding of what it was she thought I did or didn't do. I walked around the wall of angry women and walked to the resident's dining room to sit next to our captive audience members, Sarah and two residents. I nodded a greeting to the residents. They nodded in return.

After I was situated, I yelled, “Will someone explain to me what it is she thinks I did?”

It took a moment for my words to register with Kathy and Nubbin's daughter. They glanced at each other before turning to face me again.

“I'll have you know that my father is a very impressionable man. He hasn't been the same for years and I don't appreciate you showing up out of nowhere and putting all these ideas in his head. Now, look at what he's done. My name wouldn't be Donna Lee Schmeckpepper – Schwartz if I didn't do everything I could to protect my father.”

Schmeckpepper – Schwartz, really? You couldn't drop the Schmeckpepper when you got married?
Remembering the horrid stench,
I thought
, Someone married you?

“Listen Donna,” I started.

“Donna Lee!” Karen screamed.

Of course, forgive me, Walking Book of Knowledge.

“I'm sorry. I mean, Donna Lee, but I really have no idea what you're referring to.” I said.

Donna Lee made a beeline for my table. “And, if you think I'm ever going to honor his will and let you take everything, you're sadly mistaken!”

What?

              “He's not here,” Jean, Charlie's secretary, waved me off with her hand and quickly shut the thin screen of plexiglass that separated her and me.

I sniffled, willing my nose to stop running. It was bad enough that it was already red and sensitive to the touch in such a short amount of time; I didn't need to be dripping all over the place. “Do you think that you could get a message to him for me? I'm the one who called yesterday. Charlie and I are old friends. I think he'd like to know that I was here to see him.”

She rolled her brown eyes as she sighed. “He's busy. Like I told you on the phone, there are some serious things happening in the county and the sheriff is very busy these days. I can leave him a note and tell him that you were here, but I can't and won't interrupt him when he's working.”

The long drive had finally begun to catch up with me. I desperately wanted to check into the motel and lie down, but first I needed to talk to Charlie. I needed to know where things stood as far as the search for Nubbin was concerned.

“Would you happen to know where I might be able to find him right now?” I didn't think there was even a slight chance that she'd give me that information, but what other choice did I have? I'd already driven all this way. I had to ask.

Without saying another word, Jean turned her attention to a pile of paperwork sitting in front of her on the desk. I was left with no choice but to turn around and walk out. It seemed that no matter what I did, Western Nebraska had no intention of welcoming me properly. I couldn't win for losing around here. I figured, I'd show them and take matters into my own hands. I didn't need them anyway. If anything, they needed me. Not that I was conceited or anything, but I just thought that I had a tad bit more experience with reading people and understanding their clues than most, excluding perhaps Charlie, but I was even beginning to doubt his capabilities.

As a nurse, it was my job to pay attention to the signs and symptoms. I'd already failed Nubbin once; I didn't intend to ever fail him again. I came here to get answers and find him and that's what I was going to do, no matter how much resistance I met.

“Looks like we're on our own here, Barney. Someone knows something and, whether Charlie liked it or not, he would have to speak to me and not in the way that he'd been speaking to me as of late, and at least help me eliminate possibilities, so I wouldn't waste time on leads that had already been followed. I didn't care if he didn't want to be friends or whatever we were anymore. None of that mattered. What I wanted was answers and some sort of direction of where to go on this Nubbin thing.

Charlie was born and raised here. He knew the lay of the land. He knew everyone and everyone, I assume, knew him, so he would know exactly who to talk to and who to trust, if there existed such a person here in Nebraska. I had my doubts. They had never been the warm, friendly type with me. I couldn't fault them for that. I just didn't understand why, even after all this time, it still had to be this way. If anything, they should be thankful that I'm back in town. I'd already saved them once. I didn't think that I had to prove myself again with this crowd.

"C'mon, Barney, let's see where the oh-so-powerful sheriff is. I bet he's at home, drinking a cup of coffee and wishing bad things about me because I didn't listen to his demands. Let's find out. I have plenty of things to say to him about all that nonsense." I trudged through the wet snow and took a moment to spiffy up. With the dance of death taking over my body from head to toe, I didn't have much hope that I'd be able to make myself presentable, but I could try.

Now, if I could only remember his address
, I thought.
How hard can it be to find? This is a small town.

*

An hour later, I thought I'd finally found the house after several minutes of circling O Street over and over again. Who knew that ten thousand people called the small town of Gering home? Who knew that streets in small towns don't get swept as quickly as streets in large cities? Apparently, I was the only one who didn't know that because it took me over an hour to drive the equivalent of five blocks before I finally arrived.

"Here it is," I announced to Barney.

The house wasn't at all what I'd pictured. I figured that because Charlie was a self-proclaimed bachelor that he would live in a plain and simple home without a lot of ornamentation. The quaint bungalow had character. There was even a hand carved welcome sign hanging on the mailbox.

"It almost looks like a real person lives here," I mumbled, admiring the gables.

Charlie's car wasn't parked in the drive, at least, not a vehicle I recognized. There was a newer model Acura sitting in the driveway, covered in snow, so it obviously had been sitting there for quite some time.

Why didn't he ever mention that car to me
, I wondered, but quickly shook my head to make the thought disappear. After all, why did I care what kind of car he had? He wasn't my boyfriend. I had to remember that I was getting worked up about a man, who took pleasure in making fun of me from time to time and who liked to scold me like I was a child more often than not. I didn't need to worry about what his life was like. We weren't a couple.

Lost in thought, I didn't even notice when the front doors to the house opened. Suddenly, there was a small, woman standing at the end of the driveway, staring at me. She waved hesitantly. I froze in place, my fingers clutching the steering wheel.

Who is that?

She stepped closer tentatively and smiled. I nodded at her. She motioned for me to open the window, still staying a safe distance from my car, in case I was some kind of crazed maniac who had intentions of doing her harm.
Yes, clearly, a woman with a low-grade fever and draining nostrils was a real threat in these parts.

"Are you looking for someone?" She asked.

She had such a friendly smile. I could feel her warmth. I figured, she couldn't have been from around here, because my experience with the locals didn't come close to matching her almost angelic like demeanor.

I didn't know what to say. She had just come out of Charlie's house. Who was she? In a panic, I pushed the button to close the window and shouted, "No, sorry. Wrong house." I pulled the car away from the curb as quickly as the snow and ice would let me and took off like I'd stolen something.

The motel was only five minutes away. I think I made it there in two. Good thing there were no other cars on the road and good thing my subconscious took over because the rest of me was falling apart. My hands were shaking. My heart rate increased tenfold. Every inch of my body was both hot and cold at the same time.

I checked into the motel without much of a problem. I could be thankful for that at least. By the time I managed to get settled in the room, tears were rushing down my cheeks and my heart felt like it had fallen into the pit of my stomach.

What is wrong with you, Mercy? Why does that bother you so much?
I couldn't get that woman and her face out of my mind.

She was the polar opposite of me, even underneath all that winter gear she wore. Her eyes were a warm blue. There wasn't a wrinkle on her face. She was small in stature. If I had to guess, I'd say that she was all of a hundred pounds, give or take a pound or two. I couldn't see her hair, but by her fair complexion, I'd guess that she was probably a blonde. Men loved blondes. I suspected that Charlie had a thing for blondes too.

Stop this right now, Mercedes Mares! He is your friend, not your boyfriend. He's allowed to do whatever he wants with who he wants. Leave it alone, Mercedes.

I did my best to keep that mantra in my head as I prepared a hot bath.

Barney settled in nicely, choosing to make himself comfortable at the foot of my bed. He had the right idea. We needed a good sleep. I needed sleep. I also needed a healthy dose of medication to at least ease some of the symptoms I was experiencing, but that would have required stepping back outside and taking yet another drive through town. Who knew who I'd run into if I did that? For all I knew, I'd run right into Charlie and his lady friend. I didn't need any of that to add to my stress. Nope, bath, a bite to eat, and a warm bed; that's all that I needed.

A knock at the door interrupted my desperate trek to the bathtub.
Who in the world could this be?

“Who is it,” I called out.

“It's the front desk.” The woman cleared her throat. “I mean, I'm from the front desk. I have a message for you and a package.”

Did she say package?

I opened the door, completely overlooking the fact that I hadn't bothered to check to make sure she was who she said she was first. Clearly, I'd let my guard down, the moment I laid eyes on the future Mrs. Charles Wagner.

“Package?” I asked.

She handed a small bag from the local drugstore to me. “Sheriff Wagner said to give this to you when you checked in. I'm sorry, I forgot to give it to you when you were downstairs.”

I must have had a confused look on my face because she started to tell me again, only this time slower than before. “The... Sheriff...”

“Yeah, I understand. Sorry. I just didn't realize that he'd been here for me. When was he here?” I tried to keep my voice even and not let on that I was surprised to know that he'd come looking for me.

The young clerk adjusted her name tag. I read the name and asked again. “Tammy, do you remember what time he was here?”

She blushed.
Great! Another woman smitten with the good old sheriff. That's all I needed.

“Oh, sorry. He was here about an hour ago. He said to give this to the lady that checked in from California. You're her, right?” Tammy asked, still holding on to the bag with one hand.

I nodded. “He said 'the lady'? He didn't call me by name?”

She shook her head. “No, I don't remember him saying your name. I hope it's okay to give this to you. He said that he thought you'd appreciate it.”

I thanked her and closed the door, figuring she'd already peeked in the bag to see what it was and, knowing Charlie, it was probably something I'd be a bit embarrassed about. That was his modus operandi. He enjoyed embarrassing me and I usually unwittingly obliged him.

Barney opened his eyes when he heard the rustling of the plastic bag. “Oh, that gets your attention. Not the sound of your owner screaming when she almost killed us, but the sound of a plastic bag? That excites you?” I laughed, taking a moment to rub his head. He was such a male sometimes.

I dumped the contents of the bag onto the bed. A bottle of cold medication, a bag of throat lozenges, and a couple of packages of tissue fell out of the bag, alongside a chew toy and a can of dog food. No note. No explanation. Just a friendly gesture from a man who continued to surprise me at every turn. I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. How could someone who took every opportunity to get under my skin also be such a nice, kind man at the same time? It just didn't make any sense.

Barney whimpered when I put the chew toy down in front of him. “Look what the sheriff bought for you. Isn't he sweet?”

Now, what was I supposed to do? I'd spent the whole day being mad at Charlie. It all seemed like such a waste of time all of a sudden. Since when did he decide to do something nice and what about his lady friend? What would she make of all of this?

“I have to call Ruby and tell her.” I said, reaching for my pocket to grab my cell phone. “Darn, I forgot. Somehow, I managed to lose two phones somewhere between here and California. I looked at the phone on the nightstand and took a deep breath. If I called from that phone, I'd be charged for it. The question was, did I have enough money in the bank to cover extra charges? I was a nurse, not a doctor. We did all the real work; they got all the glory.

Barney was happily gnawing on his chew toy, oblivious to me and my dilemma. All that mattered to him was that he was fed and he had someplace to sleep. Yep, living with Barney was pretty reminiscent of living with a man. Not that my ex was a slob or anything; he was just a man and men had their way. Good or bad, you couldn't live with them and some of us couldn't live without them.

“I'll suck it up and make the phone call. How much could it possibly be?” I walked over to the nightstand and dialed Ruby's number.