Organ - Chapter 28 & Chapter 29
ORGAN
Chapter Twenty Eight
It would have been deplorably insensitive to attend Oscars wake and considering how Mary Rubens reacted at the sight of Katie attempting some closure at the funeral, it would likely have been suicidal for the nurse to show her face anywhere near Oscars family ever again. Several officers saw the attack, intervening perhaps deliberately too late to be of any actual help despite her screams and the shouts of the onlookers. They half-heartedly offered the chance for her to press charges or come down to the station and “Make a statement” but it was heavily implied by an officer Murphy that she drop it and put it down to a grieving woman’s outburst. Katie instead retreated home with the words she spoke, definitely heard aloud “Not safe” ringing through her ear drums beating in matching rhythm with her heart pounding away in her body that for the third time had been assaulted by a member of the now infamous Rubens family.
It was time for her to take a breath and calm down the worry that threatened to pull her beneath. That was in in the past now. Katie was decided that evening that it was time for her to leave Greenwood for good, it was never going to be home again, nor would it ever be safe knowing that the Rubens family tree, shortened as it had been, still remained rooted. One too many Rubens ghosts haunting her footsteps if she remained. Katie rested well that evening, her home was barely furnished, and the lack of materials had her feeling at ease with the idea of looking for a fresh clean and untainted start somewhere new. The only hurdle left to jump would now be handing in her notice at the hospital and still having the opportunity to find a different position in a clinic or hospital elsewhere. Boothe was not going to make this easy she thought to herself kicking off her socks and sliding into bed another badge of bruises decorated victoriously in defeat showing for her to admire through her pyjamas, it was a cool night and air cradled her wounded pride allowing her to finally sleep without fear.
Early the next morning she got dressed up from her civilian wardrobe and wrote up a piece of crude formal resignation on her laptop. Emailed it over to herself, printed it at the local shop near on the way and set off for the hospital to pass the nerve wrecking news to the hands of Chief in victory, Doctor Boothe.
“Morning good looking” Bev greeted her with surprise before Katie had reached the nurses station on the second floor.
“You okay?” she asked back giving Bev a quick one-armed hug and a scratchy grandmotherly kiss on the cheek.
“All good sweet, just getting tired of being a dogs body for the whole damn building” Bev was clearly fed up and her friends news was only going to make her feel worse.
“Don’t be mad at me. I’m leaving Greenwood” Katie explained throwing up the biggest puppy eyes she could form between her cheeks to soften the blow.
“I get it hun, you’ve been through allot. Too much for one woman” she replied with a softness that this adopted mother was famous for among the younger nurses who she begrudgingly took under her large wings. “Go and take a break, go away, find a beach and some big muscly men to wrap around you” Bev joked and poked Katie in the hips playing around with her friend before the tears could dare resurface.
Katie knew she had given her watery emotions far too much leigh way and refused to become more emotional as she rid herself of the shadowy cloak of Greenwood Heart Hospital that draped over around shoulders.
“I think I am done with strange men for a while” Katie lobbed back with a sly smile across her face.
Feeling comfortable had recently led to the worst moments, it was tepid waters she craved but did not want to get into her feelings too deeply with Beverly.
“Well find a muscly woman then and get crazy with it” Bev replied in a boisterous roar that would have been better suited for last call in a local pub and not the waiting area of a public hospital.
“I will miss you Bev” she said reaching out for another hug from her only remaining real friend.
“Get the hell out of here while you can sweetie” Bev whispered as the two released each other and parted ways.
Boothes door was closed, as she expected. Katie knocked on his door lightly in three quick taps, she heard shuffling from within the office.
“Come in please” Boothe called out as Katie turned the knob and entered slowly. “Ah! Good morning Katie, aren’t you off today? What do I owe the pleasure?” he said with joy growing over his face in that uncomfortable excitement that the old man adorned.
“Morning Doctor Boothe, I won’t waste any of your time. I have some news” she explained sitting down and riffling through her bag to find the letter she prepared earlier that morning, sealed in a neat little white envelope that had become slightly creased through the journey to his desk. “I am handing in my resignation.”
As the doctor fumbled with the seal and slowly read over the letter, his eyebrows dropped, and the smile became a flat line splitting his face in two unpleasant pieces.
“Well,” he started leaning back in his chair and flicking the letter free from his hands, it landed upside down on the desk. “I can’t say I am surprised; it has certainly been some ordeal you’ve been through.”
Boothe took off his glasses and rubbed his eyes in frustrated melancholy at the news he was losing a nurse he felt some unreciprocated attachment towards.
“Is there anything I can do to get you to stay here with me, with the hospital” he muttered placing those thick round lenses back atop his always oily nose.
“Unfortunately, no, I am going to start somewhere new and get this whole Oscar thing far away from me for good” she replied with firmness.
“I understand, I am just disappointed. Honestly, I thought you was tougher than that” his voice lifted as though he was joking but she knew it was hateful.
“I think its best if I leave” she replied sensing his spitefulness bubbling up behind his doughy reddened face.
They sat in silence for a half a minute as Boothe thought of his next words carefully, Katie began gathering her things.
As she reached the door he called back “I will give you a call when I have published my research.”
It did give her a pause, “Did you figure it out?” she asked inquisitively over her shoulder without turning around to meet his eyes.
“That’s information I only feel safe discussing with staff, perhaps you could read about in the newspaper or journals when they make this hospital and myself famous” the wounded doctor spat across the room the words with childish weakness.
Katie left and shut the door firmly behind her. The now former nurse of Greenwood Heart took a deep breath of air outside the hospital doors, Boothe and this nightmare leaving her life with the exhale that followed drifting off into the fine days breeze.
Chapter Twenty Nine
It was four months since she left Greenwood, the memories of Boothes fat unhappy face as he read her letter of resignation still satisfying her deeply. Katie had moved on, in spirit, career and locale.
Having found an apartment to rent for a decent monthly fee in a city four-teen hours’ drive away from her old digs in Greenwood, her new job was assisting the staff at a family clinic with some people that neither knew or cared about her story or the events of some murderous rogue child. With the horrors of her past life becoming weaker in physical trauma and manageable emotionally with the help of a survivors of assault therapy programme, Katie had discovered the strength to trust men, for the most part. It was a couple of days into her therapy that started over the phone back in Greenwood before she moved that Katie unearthed the strength to visit the local pubs in town, one by one knocking them off over the first few lonely days and discovered what would be her favourite.
Even then she felt unsafe, every loud bang of a table or a glass hitting the wood would send fear coursing through her body, this idea that Oscar might somehow lurch from the shadows and pull her down through the floor into the abyss he now rests in. The idea made her shiver all over. It was one of these lonely evenings, the third night into her new home that she sat in the pub adorned with Irish flags and listening to the jaunty music that some old locals kept churning out of the jukebox. Katie caught the stare of a young good-looking guy who sat across the room with some friends, immediately dashing away her wandering stare as she sat alone filling her body with slow gin and lemonade.
“Hey, I’m Stanley, I saw you drinking alone. Would it be completely freakish of me to ask if I could join you for a bit?” the man asked after leaving his friends looking on giggling.
“Ummm, sure. I’m Katherine, everyone calls me Katie” she replied hesitantly gesturing to all the invisible friends around her that would shorten her name.
“Fine, but only if you can call me Stan” he joked back offering up his hand to shake in gentlemanly fashion.
They drank for a little while together, Katie watching her pace as the fear of dangerous seductive men still haunted her mind. Stan would tell her about his work at the university in town that she did not know existed before that night, Katie excitedly spoke about her new job in a family clinic for children and vented openly without judgement to a stranger for the first time since her ordeal. It was freeing, the young former nurse breathed deep into her chest this exciting chance to unleash the poison from her lungs and shine glowing normality back across her life. Hours ticked past and the last bell rang out for drinks, Katie was feeling in her stomach a sense of hunger that she had not for a long time and with her newly acquired, drink inspired, bout of bravery shot Stan the question.
“Do you want to walk me home?”
“Absolutely, probably best to get the lay of the land in a new city before you start knocking back with strangers” Stan replied giving her a little playful jostle with his elbow.
So, they walked and talked, Katie opened up about her dealings with Boothe and the mother of her attacker finding her at the funeral. Stan walked at her side like some emotional support animal nodding and holding her hand when she became upset or flustered by a particular vivid memory and the two enjoyed the night air free from danger. Katie woke up the following morning with Stan naked in the bed beside her, clothes dotted around the room and the smell of lovemaking lingering in the air for her to shamefully acknowledge. After the initial few minutes of shock worth off, she stared over and lifted the sheets to catch a glimpse of the bare bottom she brought up from the pub and gave a large smile into her ceiling. Stanley left, Katie gave him a lingering kiss at the door and the two swapped numbers.
“Not bad for the first week” she whispered to herself watching him strut comically down the hallway and away from her new apartment.
Katie had done something incredible; she had buried the remnants of the chains that had been slowing her recovery down since leaving Greenwood. Oscar was in the ground and with the assurance that she could once more trust herself and apparently trust her judgement.
