Irresistible Compulsions

||Ch. One||

                             ***Present Day***

When will this week end?

I've been called in to do four double shifts this week. Four!

That's four sixteen hour shifts in a row. I'm surprised I can keep my eyes open let alone work solo on the dementia ward tonight.

Why am I working solo you may ask?

Well. Since we're short staffed again, we've had to divide 6 nurses amongst 74 patients.

Was I happy about it? Fuck no.

But at the end of the day it makes the most sense to have multiple nurses on the wards with the most high care patients - patients who needed several people to assist them with mobility.

So yeah, that's how I got stuck here working on the dementia ward by myself.

Don't get me wrong, I love all my patients to bits but there's only so much a girl can handle without backup.

It's a full moon tonight which means several patients are experiencing the effects of sun downing whilst others are just blatantly having their everyday behavioural issues.

Only having 35 minutes left of my shift, I'm just praying I make it through.

I look up to see room 34 buzzing again. Walking over to his door with a huff, I make sure to take a deep breath to compose myself before opening it.

"Is everything okay Allan?" I ask, switching off his buzzer as I check on him.

"Yes darlin'. Just want to know where Maggy is." My heart aches as I take in his words.

Maggy's his deceased wife.

She'd lost her battle with thyroid cancer a few years prior but due to his Alzheimer's disease, Allan never quite came to terms with it. Sometimes he can go weeks without mentioning her, but then every once in a while he'd have a night like tonight. He's asked me about her every hour on the dot.

Due to his state it's often easier to tell him she's away visiting their great grandchildren and will be home soon. I know if I were in his position that would be an easier pill to swallow than being told that my wife's been dead for years.

I like Allan. He's one of those old men that you can tell has lived a full life.

He'd fought in the second world war, earning him almost as many medals as he has stories to tell. I remember the first time I gave him a bed bath and seeing the large scars on his torso and legs from where he'd been hit by shrapnel in battle.

He met Maggy eight months before he went away to war. By the time he left they'd been married for a couple months and had their first baby on the way.

They didn't mess around in those days clearly.

I desperately long for a love like theirs. They'd been together since he was 21 and she was 19 only parting ways due to old age taking it's course.

I remember him showing me the love letters they'd sent one another, displaying them to me so proudly that you could tell they were some of his most prized possessions.

She'd write to him saying that she longs for his touch, for his smell. He'd respond back saying that she was the most beautiful woman he'd ever laid eyes on and that one day when the war was over he'd pick her up, hold her tight and never let her go.

"Maggy's just popped out for some fresh air, I'm sure she'll be back in soon." I explain, praying that he'll take my word for it as he's done so many times in the past.