Wrinkling my nose at the smell, I head towards the reception desk that’s tucked into an alcove inside of the entranceway. “Hi,” I say, smiling at the woman. “I’m looking for Robert Connell.”
After the morning I’ve had, I half expect her to say good luck with that or something equally sarcastic, but instead, she types the name into her computer and smiles up at me. “He’s in room 356. Take the elevator to the third floor and go to your right. The elevators are just at the end of this corridor.”
“Thank you,” I say.
I debate sitting down on one of the benches that line the corridor and rearranging all of my papers back into their proper order first, but I’m already late and I decide against it. I hurry into the first elevator that stops and ride up to the third floor. I turn right as instructed. I make my way along the corridor, peering into windows as I pass them, looking for Mr. Connell.
A nurse approaches from the opposite direction. She smiles questioningly at me.
“I’m looking for Robert Connell,” I tell her when it becomes clear to me that she isn’t going to move on without some sort of explanation as to what I’m doing here.
She leads me to a busy nurse’s station and looks at a printed sheet that’s on the desk. “Are you family?” she asks.
“No,” I say. “I work with Mr. Connell. He asked me to drop some things off for him.” I gesture down to the messy pile of papers in my arms and I’m sure I see the nurse wince at the state of them.
“What’s your name?” she asks me.
“Opal Collins,” I say.
She looks back down at her list and nods her head. “I can see your name on the approved visitors list. Bear with me one moment please.” She moves away and taps on a door and goes into the room. She leaves it ajar.
I hear the conversation they have.
“Mr. Connell? Opal Collins is here to see you,” the nurse says.
“About damned time,” Mr. Connell interrupts her. He’s noticed I’m late then and he sounds kind of angry.
I cringe.
“I assume the papers she’s carrying are some sort of work related thing. I must reiterate that you are meant to be resting, Mr. Connell,” the nurse says in a patient voice she is probably using to mask her frustration with Mr. Connell’s blatant disregard for her instructions.
“Noted,” Mr. Connell says. “Please send Opal in.”
“Robert …” a female voice that I assume belongs to Mrs. Connell says in a warning tone.
“Don’t Robert me. It’s more stressful for me to not know what’s going on with the company than it is for me to see Opal for ten minutes. Nurse, please send her in,” Mr. Connell says again.
I wait for the nurse or Mrs. Connell to argue with him, but it seems they’ve seen what I’ve known for years. It’s easier to do things his way than it is to argue with him.
The nurse steps back out of the room and nods to me. “You can go in. Please don’t do anything to stress the patient, and don’t be in there too long okay?”
I nod, although I’m pretty sure one look at the mess of papers in my arms is going to have Mr. Connell’s blood pressure off the charts. I move towards the door and tap on it although it’s still ajar.
“Come in, come in,” Mr. Connell says, gesturing through the crack in the door for me to hurry up.
I step inside the room.
Mr. Connell is sitting up in bed wearing a light blue pyjama jacket. He looks a lot better than I expected him to – he’s not pasty looking or anything – and to be honest, if I didn’t know he was ill, I would never have believed it.
He smiles warmly at me as I approach the bed.
“I’m so sorry I’m late,” I say. “The traffic was manic and then I nearly got hit by a car in the car park and I dropped all of the files.” I trail off, holding the files up for Mr. Connell to see.
He frowns and shakes his head. “It’s fine Opal. I knew you would have a good reason for being late, and it’s only a few minutes. I’m just tetchy because I’m stuck in here. I wasn’t really annoyed with you. Did you say you almost got hit by a car?” He pauses.
I nod sheepishly.
“Are you okay? Do you want me to ask one of the nurses to look you over?” he says.
“No, honestly I’m fine. I was just a bit shocked,” I say.
His whole demeanor has changed since he beckoned me impatiently into his room. I really should have used the, I almost got killed on my way here line before. “Just give me a minute to sort through all of this and get it into some sort of order,” I say.
Mr. Connell shakes his head again. “Don’t worry about it Opal. Honestly, sorting through it all will give me something to do while I’m stuck in here.”
Mrs. Connell is sitting beside the bed dressed in black slacks and a cream colored floral print blouse. Her hair is pinned up in a neat French pleat. She’s wearing a pretty gold chain with matching bracelet and earrings.
Her husband just had a heart attack and she looks more put together than I feel right now. But hey, she didn’t almost get killed getting here presumably.
“You already have something do while you’re here,” Mrs. Connell says firmly. “You heard the doctor. You’re here to rest, not sort out your secretary’s mishaps.” Mrs. Connell is completely focused on her husband right now and him on her.
He glares at her.
I really don’t want to be the cause of an argument between the two of them. “Really it’s fine. I’ll sort the papers.” I start towards the bed,
