Ten to the power of thirty three

Chapter ten

Chapter ten

On his next shift into work Ezra began to have issues. They were with the staff and not with the patients. As he walked into the staff room his boss, Simon asked him to come to his office.
As Ezra walked into the office, he noticed how small it was but also how much it had in it which was what was taking the space. In the small space, maybe eight foot by ten there was a desk and pc, a printer, a bookcase, two chairs and a bin. All of that itself took up most of the room. Simon gestured to Ezra to sit down and when he did he began talking about the issue that had been raised.
‘How are you finding it?’ Simon asked him, no actual concern in his voice, seemingly going through the motions.
‘It’s good, very different from what I’ve done before but definitely an interesting place to work’ Ezra answered honestly.
‘That’s good, now I’ve called you in here due to something that’s been brought up by multiple people. You have a lot of dog hair on your clothes, it’s not exactly professional’ Simon brought up.
This caught Ezra entirety off guard, he had some hair on him from Rocky, but he wouldn’t have said it was a lot. It was visible only because it was white against the black but it wasn’t a lot. Still he didn’t want to argue straight away with his boss and so he just accepted it.
From there he went back to work, wondering who had brought it up as an issue but he got on with his job as best as he could. He spoke to most of the patients, getting out a razor for Levi so he could shave. As he shaved Ezra had to stand and wait for the razor back and after Levi and him had a conversation about Levi’s most recent interest which happened to be philosophy. They talked about Lao Tzu and then about some of the news storys in the papers that the ward had delivered each day. Afterwards Ezra made Henry some toast, but had to deny him coffee as it had been identified that caffeine made Henry worse. Henry tried to argue, probing the weakness of the newest staff member but soon gave up sensing no chance with Ezra.
Later Ezra had to search the storage area for a lost charger for a man called Scott that was a patient there. Scott was a large man, chubby but not fat but still wide and tall. He was bald and his head looked slightly like a potato but he seemed a nice man. Ezra had been warned by the staff that Scott didn’t like anyone, and that his sister was a local councilor so Ezra should watch what he said. Despite this when Ezra eventually came back with the charger (forty minutes later having searched through thirty two big bags and boxes), Scott was gregarious.
‘Thank you Ezra, I appreciate it. I’ve been asking the other staff for days but they haven’t even looked’ Scott said before walking off with the charger.
Ezra finished that day only a little later and was soon home with Rebecca who had made a brilliant meal. It was a curry made from scratch that as Ezra tried it made him realize how much he’d been missing out by having premade curry sauces before. Her curry was rich and creamy. Ezra liked currys hot and though this wasn’t it was so delicious that he didn’t mind in the slightest and would have happily taken Rebecca’s curry over a hot one. It had lamb in it and he could taste the almonds as well as a hint of cardamom in there too. He finished it long before Rebecca did and even asked for seconds. They then relaxed cuddled up on the side watching a series from both their childhoods.
When he went back to work two days later Ezra took a lint roller with him, and as he got ready by the lockers he lint rolled himself to get rid of any hairs. Ezra didn’t know it, but it wouldn’t make any difference.
As he got into the staff room on the ward, Honest looked him up and down as if he was less than human before opening his mouth.
‘You still have hair on you’ Honest said to Ezra with a mild current of disdain in his voice. It was obvious now that he was one of the ones who’d complained about Ezra before.
‘I’ve got rid of all the fur I can’ Ezra told him, obvious that he wasn’t going to simply lie down and take it.
‘Can’t you keep the dog away from the clothes entirely?’ Honest asked with a slight distaste in his tone, as if he had an issue with dogs.
‘Not unless I get changed here, and even then I’d have to take the clothes home to wash’ Ezra answered with Honest now simply turning away as he couldn’t think of anything else to argue about.
Ezra went to carry on working on one of the computer in the staff room when there was a knock on the door. Scott was there waiting, and though a different staff member answered Scott asked for Ezra.
When Ezra went out to help Scott, he explained that he needed someone to check his mail, and as he only trusted Ezra, he wanted him to check. For that reason Ezra was soon down by the reception, searching the mail bag for anything with Scott’s name on. He found one envelope only and took it back to the ward thirty minutes later. Scott was there by the main door waiting for him and when Ezra handed over the letter Scott thanked him. With the task at hand finished Ezra went to head back to the staff room only to be called into the office by Simon again.
‘Sorry to do this again, but I have something else to discuss’ Simon told him, gesturing to the second seat in the office just like he had the time before.
Ezra sat down and simply stared at Simon. He’d had enough to the other staff members. The job itself was interesting, and kept you busy but the staff seemed be finding any reason they could, even making them up to cause issues.
‘So some concerns have been brought up that you don’t seem to be building trust with the patients here’ Simon said, acting as if it were a valid concern.
‘Scott says he only trusts me, I talk to each patient every day I see them, and I even sit out in the dining room often so they can talk to me if they need to. Apart from that I’ve only been here a week, it takes time to build rapport’ Ezra answered, no longer bothered about arguing with his boss and more enthusiastic to stand up for himself.
Simon wrote this answer down, and then dismissed Ezra, not even telling him if his answer had assuaged concerns or not.
Over the next few months more and more concerns were brought up that seemed to have no basis in reality. As well as that though Ezra kept finishing late. It wasn’t because he wanted to and at least a few times he thought of simply walking out it had become that ridiculous. The issue was unless someone came in to take over your position then you couldn’t leave as you would leave the ward short staffed.
Despite the fact that Ezra always made sure he came to work early, it seemed no one else had access to a clock, or they didn’t care coming in ten minutes to an hour late which obviously became an annoyance as it happened frequently. Furthermore though there were times when he was even later finishing. One was when Levi had ended up in isolation at the same time as Thomas. This meant that two staff members were off the ward leaving them short staffed already. Ezra was one with Levi, simply sat outside the room watching him, and as Levi had been the second one to need to be in isolation his isolation room wasn’t on his normal ward (there was only one isolation room in each each). This meant that Ezra was on another ward, and as expected when calling in more staff to help with being short staffed, the normal ward got priority. It meant that Ezra wasn’t replaced until an extra staff member for his ward could be convinced to come in (as those scheduled to come in were needed to replenish the ward staff numbers). It took nearly three hours for someone to give up their free time to take over from Ezra so that he could go home. While Ezra didn’t blame the staff member who took over for him, he did blame the management who didn’t seem to care about the issue.
After months of the problems with staff and scheduling, Ezra booked some time off and when the holiday days finally came he found that Rebecca had again organized something for them. She drove them from Alverstoke to Portsmouth and onto the ferry to the Isle of Wight. As they went across the channel, Rebecca and Ezra stood on the deck of the ferry, watching the mainland of the United Kingdom get smaller and smaller as it went further into the distance. Rocky stood with them, his front paws on the bannister, that Ezra and Rebecca were resting their hands on, as if he were a person as well. His furry haunches waved in the wind slightly as the hairs in the edge of his tail did too.
It wasn’t a long journey but they managed to have a hot drink there as they sat, watching the ocean waves now that no land was in sight. They saw the gulls flying overhead, soaring seemingly without much effort. They held hands, simply smiling to each other as Rocky lay on the deck and relaxed. When the announcement came to head back to the cars they did so and were soon heading out onto the Isle of Wight. It was a bustling city that they headed out into, driving into the city streets before they headed into the countryside of the island.
The roads in the countryside were narrow, with hedges on each side that meant at every corner Rebecca couldn’t see around the corner to tell who was coming. Despite that though the beauty of the landscape wasn’t lost on them. The trees they passed were old and gnarled by age, their leaves were still as no wind reached them. All around farm and forest were evident, spreading far out into the distance. If they had stopped they probably would have seen all the wild animals moving through the landscape yet as it was the noise of the car would have scared them off. Far above though birds floated among the winds, and a falcon circled as if searching for prey. It felt like a different time as they both looked out of the car windows, the Isle of Wight seeming to have held onto some beautiful natural qualities of the past century. Rocky though was in the back, his head sticking out the window. His tongue lolled and streamed backwards like a rhythmic ribbon in the Olympics. His jowls pushed back and waving in the wind.
By the time they stopped it had only been half an hour since they got off the ferry and yet they felt the calm of a holiday upon them. Something about the surroundings, the environment there had calmed them even before they reached their lodgings. When they did reach their lodging, Ezra saw that they were pulling into a caravan park, and as they drove through the small roads he looked at the caravans. The first ones were like he used to go on holiday to himself, basic and old with very little evidence of maintenance done on them. As they went further they came across caravans that had a veranda, obviously more expensive and larger. Still further they came across what Ezra would have said were more like cabins than caravans. They were larger than the other caravans on the park, with a more square shape than rectangular. They were still raised off the ground though, and had a veranda, as well as ramp to get up to the veranda and door. On the veranda was a hot tub, which obviously had a cover on at the time as no one had checked in yet. It was one of these cabin style caravans that Rebecca had booked and after picking up the keys they were soon unpacking. Rocky was resting on the veranda, tied up with food and water available while he people watched (which he loved to do).
They settled down for the night after unpacking, and Ezra spent at least an hour on his phone as he looked for things to do. He did order a meal (which he said was all he was doing) but it seemed to take some time considering how decisive he normally was. Still they enjoyed a pizza together, as well as the sides that Ezra ordered with it and watched a film on TV. They talked about what activities they might want to do that the park offered. After a quiet night in a nice meal it wasn’t long before they brought Rocky in and went to bed. In bed Ezra cuddled up to Rebecca, his hand across her stomach even as his face was slightly away from her head to avoid getting her hair in his face. The bed was smaller than Rebecca’s at home and so though Rocky tried to fit on, he couldn’t get comfortable as he kept having to lay on Ezra or Rebecca. Rocky therefore lay on the floor at the foot of the bed, snoring loudly like a lawnmower as the humans slept on the bed.