The King's Nurse [Elvis]

Chapter 10 - Sweet and Tender but Not Right

This was the dozenth time in the past couple of weeks that Elvis erupted like a volcano, leaving the whole house in an uncomfortable silence afterwards. This time, his temper flew at me, when at other times, he would lose it because of some little thing that someone else did. It was the usual for me... not allowing him to have his pills. His body and attitude were showing the withdrawals, and I had warned everyone that it would happen. It was a needed step.

A step that others in the house felt unnecessary since Elvis was worse than he was before. I was talked to rather furiously by Billy to give him what he wanted, but I had to tell him that it wouldn't help matters.

"You think this is helping?!" he shot at me in front of Vernon, Charley and Jerry after Elvis stormed upstairs the night before, and we all were in the living room. Vernon had to put a hand on the shoulder of the fuming young man.

"We all knew this would happen, Billy," he told his nephew. "Simmer down. We know this is hurtful to see, but all this is Elvis's body getting used to not taking those pills. Wasn't it you who got after me for not taking care of this problem fast enough?"

The guy's chin trembled, and he left the room, exiting out of the front door. Honestly, I was about to cry myself. Everyone around saw it. "You may think I'm hurting Elvis farther, but that's not what I'm doing. Elvis's body and mind are sick. The healing process is painful for everyone."

"We know," said Vernon, all of his features wary. "We just have to be patient."

I was normally pretty patient the other times I dealt with other addict patients, but this time, I just wanted it all to stop. I rubbed both hands over my face as I let the memory from the night before slide away. I had been at Graceland for almost three weeks now, and July hit. I thought I was making progress. Honestly, I didn't think Elvis would ever agree to give me his stash, but he did after a few days... and now, we all were facing the aftereffects.

Well, it was a good thing for two reasons: Elvis was on his way to recovery, and he seemed to forget about telling me that he had feelings for me. He was always so mad at me... It was a good thing, but it didn't make me feel any better. Yes, he usually apologized after blowing his top with me or whoever else, but it still hurt.

I sat at my desk and took a key out of my slacks pocket. I used it to open up the bottom drawer to my desk that I had found Elvis trying to pick the lock twice. Really, he had to be watched constantly, especially in his mindset.

I opened the drawer and took out the bag of pills that he didn't need. I had gotten permission from all his doctors to take these pills to the hospital to be disposed of or reused, I just hadn't gotten around to getting over there. Maybe it was time to do that.

"Today's the day," I said and took up the bag. I escaped Graceland without much notice and headed to the hospital in my '76 white Chevvy. Once in, I let out a contented sigh and took in the sterile hospital scent that I loved so much. Really, the place was a sight for sore eyes. People saw me and greeted me. It was my place of work, so all the nurses and doctors knew me. I came to the fifth-floor nurse's station and saw Midge. She looked up at me with her brown eyes, and they widened. Her aged face crinkled in a smile, and her graying brown hair was twisted in the back.

"Karen, oh my goodness!" She came around the counter and embraced me in a warm hug, and I took in her powder scent. "It's so great to see you. We've all missed you, as have the patients."

"I miss it here, too, Midge."

She hugged me for a little longer, then let me go. We started walking down a hallway that I walked and ran through before thousands of times in the past decade. This was the main floor I worked on—the addiction recovery floor, and there were some heart patients as well that were moved from the cardiovascular floor below us. It was the perfect combination for treating Elvis since he had both of those problems. I had the experience of both.