Sunny Oaks

Sunny Oaks
-By Coralee Bryant

     She was sitting at the other end of the room, in her floral nightshirt and slippers. Mrs. Mildred Jackson looked radiant in the sun beams that danced between the blinds. She had arrived here at Sunny Oaks nursing home just last week. I had overheard from some of the nurses that her family had to move to another county and wasn’t able to take her along. I hadn’t yet had the pleasure of introducing myself and I figured now would be the perfect time.
I gave her a smile from the doorway. She returned a glance at me before looking out through the slits in the window. Ha, I knew she couldn’t resist my charms. But no woman ever could. The nurse entered the lounge from the doorway behind me. She wheeled in a stainless steel cart with the all too familiar small plastic Dixie cups filled with various types of colored pills. I looked in the gaudy brass mirror that hung on wall to check my appearance, ‘you handsome dog, you’. I then began to glide over to Mildred; my cane was my pimp stick, as the kids say on TV. I stood over her and cleared my throat to get her attention, when she looked up at me I smiled and brushed my fingers across my nearly bald head. But then she looked away from me again, not even a smile had graced her face. I sat down next to her and leaned back casually, resting my ‘pimp stick’ on the arm of the sofa. “I noticed you were looking at me across the room there.” I said to her placing my arm over the back of the sofa behind her. “I can’t entirely blame you, a beautiful dame like yourself must find me hard to resist.” At last she turned and looked at me but only smiled, not saying a word.

     The nurse interrupted with her plethora of pills and cups of orange juice.  Leaving the medication on the coffee table before us she turned to me. “I believe you have an appointment with the physical therapist very soon Mr. MacDougall, you shouldn’t be late.” She spoke in the usual overly nice almost condescending tone. I gobbled down the pills with ease, grabbed my cane and stood up from the chair, admitting my defeat in this battle to woo Mildred, but this war was not over.

     By the time I had returned from the therapist Mildred had left the lounge, she could have gone back to her room, out to the patio or even to an appointment of her own but nevertheless I would just have to wait and hope to see her. I sat on the couch on the lounge and watched what was on TV. Some dribble about alien babies and such. It was enough to put any man to sleep, so I did.
By the time I woke up the room was dark, the TV was off and the only light coming in the room was from the moonlit windows. I was surprised one of the nurses hadn’t noticed me there and escorted me back to my room. “I guess assisted living at Sunny Oaks means I have to do everything myself.” I stood, my back was in more pain than before my therapy session earlier.
I turned towards the exit and the door opened, a silhouette of a woman stood there. The hallway was almost as dark as the lounge, though I thought for sure that some of the hallway lights were always kept lit for safety reasons. The female figure was making heavy breathing sounds and gasping, maybe in this darkness she got lost and couldn’t find the nurses’ station. I walked up to her, her appearance getting slightly clearer as I got closer. “Hey doll face, don’t worry old Johnny-Boy is here to save the day.” When I was a few feet from her I could see her facial expressions more defined, her eyes bulged from her sockets and staring into space, her face pale and frightened; it was Mildred.

     “Mildred. Mildred!” I spoke louder putting my hands on her shoulders. “Can you hear me?”  She didn’t respond to my voice, she was just staring with those terrified eyes and heavy breath. I couldn’t help it, I panicked. “Help!” I yelled “Anyone! Please!” There were strange noises coming not far from where we were. Creaks and groans emitted from the walls. For a moment I looked to the windows, the light began to swirl and distort the features in the room, the creaks grew louder, and Mildred’s breathing grew with them in song. “Anyone? Help!” I yelled louder, my hands still clasped to Mildred’s shoulders. My legs suddenly grew weak I fell to kneel at her feet, exhausted. She still stood there wide-eyed, unconscious of the world around her. “What the hell is going on, where is everyone?” I said exasperated. My mind became dizzy I could no longer hold my body up. My head hit the floor; my sight began to match the surrounding darkness. Then there was nothing.

     …and in local news today arrests have been made at the Sunny Oaks Nursing Home. Two nurses were suspected of replacing some patients’ medication with hallucinogens. The discovery was made after two patients; Mildred Jackson and Jonathan MacDougall were found dead in the home’s lounge at eight AM this morning. The names of the suspects will be released later this evening. More at eleven.