The End of Nothing

Chapter 2

Pulling into the parking lot of the retirement home was surreal for Margie. She had only visited once, after her mom had first checked herself in. She didn't want to think of her seemingly youthful mom as being in the same category as the other residents of the home, like Bernie the Alzheimer patient she met the first and only time she visited. He spent twenty minutes complaining to her about the type of pudding they serve, only to pause, stare off into space for a bit, then reintroduce himself, take another bite of his pudding, which would lead to him restarting his complaining again.

She sympathized with Bernie, the pudding really didn't look appetizing, but she knew the rest of the food they served was nearly Michelin star worthy. She had researched the facility after her mom had announced to her that she was going, looking into amenities, staff credentials, even yelp pages to try to find anything wrong with the place. After not finding anything but great reviews, she acquiesced to her mom living there. Apparently Bernie found the one flaw, the head chef's pudding recipe.

A small smile grew on her face as she recalled the memory of the head nurse telling her that Bernie always got the pudding, but complained because he claimed no pudding would be as good as his late wife's recipe.

Her smile slowly disappeared though as she recalled why she was there, her heart starting to beat faster at the thought of her mom's condition. Even though the time was only pushing 4:30 am, she knew there would be attendants on duty, another fact she found out through her research of the facility.

The outside of the building looked the same as she remembered. Large, sweeping entrance designed to look like that of a high end travel lodge, rather than a retirement facility. Two flourishing flower beds were stationed on either side of the main doors, maintained by the residents who enjoyed gardening, Bernie being the ring leader, at least that's what he told her as she left the first day, a wide smile stretched across his face.

Stepping through the main entrance doors, she entered an area that looked like a living room, with a large wooden desk placed in the middle. Approaching the desk, she saw one of the nice receptionists she met previously, smiling she asked what room she could find her mother in.

The receptionist smiled back, looking into the database on her computer with a few clicks. "Oh, I'm terribly sorry, here it says your mother's nurse put a mark on her account not to disturb her throughout the night," she said with a frown. "I could put you in one of our empty rooms until she's allowed visitors at 8 am, where you could get some shut eye too?" The look on the receptionist's face was apologetic, but rules were rules, any little thing she could do to make her mother better, even if not disturbing her sleep, she was going to do. With a shrug she consented to taking another room. The receptionist, named Judy she found out when she introduced herself, led her down a hallway decorated in neutral tones to a room near the end, opening the door she allowed her to set down her bag.

"This room is reserved for family members of the residents in case of emergency situations, so you can stay here as long as you'd like while tending to your mother," Judy explained politely.

"Thank you," Margie responded, offering Judy a small smile.

Judy took that as her cue to leave, but paused at the door. "Oh, just a little warning, Mrs. Wu next door likes to do early morning yoga with music, so I apologize for any noisiness coming from over there," she said pointing to the left wall.

"No, that's fine, thank you for this," she answered gesturing around the room. Judy just smiled and walked back down the hallway. How bad could yoga music really be? Besides she had to be up in a few hours anyway to get to my mother's room as soon as possible.

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"Sorry, I ain't sorry. Sorry, I ain't sorry. I ain't sorry, n-n-nah. He trying to roll me up-," Margie rolled out of bed confused and disoriented. Beyoncé's 'Sorry' continued to loudly play from the room to her left. This must be the infamous yoga music Judy was talking about. Curiously, she looked for the time on her phone, 6:00 shone at her from the display screen. An hour and a half of sleep, not too bad. Margie decided to get dressed for the day and go see if the nurses would let her into her mother's room earlier than eight, hoping her strategy of sitting outside the room and looking pitiful would grant her early entry. Quickly changing, this time to the tune of 'Too Good' by Drake courtesy of Mrs. Wu, Margie left her temporary room.

Glancing into Mrs. Wu's room she saw an elderly Chinese woman bent over painting her nails. The sight made her stop. Mrs. Wu happened to glance up at that moment, making eye contact and smiling.

"Hello! Are you my new neighbor? Just doing my daily yoga." She held up the nail polish bottle she was using. "Purple haze this one is called," she said wiggling her toes. "I thought it was fitting, considering the," she glanced up appearing to be fighting off tears, "unfortunate passing of Prince. He will be truly missed." Her voice cracking in the middle of her sentence with emotion.

Not knowing how to respond Margie just stared, the song now blasting on Mrs. Wu's speaker Taylor Swift's 'I Knew You Were Trouble'. Snapping out of it she muttered a quick agreement, saying a quick goodbye and "nice to meet you" before making her way the rest of her way to her mother's room.

Outside of her mother's room, she sat next to the closed door with the bright red 'Do Not Disturb' sign on it, wondering if nail painting was a new yoga trend, and who wronged Mrs. Wu for all of her favorite songs to be breakup hits.