No Happy Ending

Chapter 4: The Priest and the Oranges

Rubbing my tired eyes, I looked to the side and smiled when I saw the pile of completed paperwork. It had taken me half a day; I had been at it since six in the morning and it was now midday. I had requested that no one disturb me.
Getting up, I stretched my arms and yawned widely before bending to pick up the pile and head to the door. Opening the door was quite a challenge, considering my arms were loaded with what felt like a ton of paper and files. Oddly enough, I felt quite proud of myself when I finally managed to open said door. I stopped short however, there in front of me stood none other than Alexandria. "Is everything alright?" I was relieved when I received a nod from her and smiled down at her.

"I'm bored."

Oddly enough, I had never heard those words in all my time at the hospital and I simply stood there and blinked, "pardon?"

The girl sighed and repeated her statement, "I'm bored. I do not know what to do."

Shifting the papers and files into a more comfortable position, I racked my brain for suggestions, "how about you go and play with the other children?" I took her silence as a negative. Narrowing my eyes, I kept thinking until I came to the only other solution, "I am on my way to drop these off, " I gestured to my paper loaded arms, "you can come with me if you like?" The response was immediate; an enthusiastic nod and then we were off.

As we made our way to the main block, Alexandria chatted away, telling me all about her home and family. I listened in wonder, this girl was so full of life and energy.
I had never been so happy to see the receptionist as I gladly unloaded my stack to her. "I am never leaving it to pile up like that ever again!"

The receptionist gave me a look that told me she did not believe a single word, "you said that last time Irene and the time before that," the small note of amusement in her voice did not help my case. I could not help but smile, she was right; I was the worst when it came to paperwork, always leaving it until the pile was taller than me. Nodding my thanks, Alexandria and I left the building. On our way back to the ward, I spotted a pile of crates filled with beautiful ripe oranges. Being fond of the fruit, I deviated to them and picked out two, one for me and one for Alexandria. Handing her the fruit, we continued on our way.

As we were passing the hospital chapel, our resident priest, Father Augustine came out. He was a pleasant man and the patients liked him as did the staff. He was really quite friendly and easy to talk to. Noticing me, he raised his hand and waved, I promptly smiled and waved back; he was a good friend of mine and had been ever since I first arrived.
As we continued on our way, I noticed that Alexandria had gone oddly silent. Even though I had only known her for two days I could tell that this was not normal for her. "What's the matter?"

My question seemed to break her from her train of thought and she looked up at me and seemed to think carefully about her answer. "Who was that?"

Considering the last person we had seen was the priest, I assumed that she meant him. "That was Father Augustine. He is the priest here."

She seemed to be letting my words sink in before replying, "I don't like him."

Her statement stopped me in my tracks, "but why?!" As far as I knew, everyone liked him, even those that weren't religious.

Shrugging her good shoulder, she replied, "I do not know." Her answer left me stunned and for once, I felt myself at a loss for words so we simply continued on our way. My questions and her responses kept playing over and over in my head and left me more confused than I had been for a long while.

I spent what remained of the day doing my rounds with Alexandria accompanying me and asking all kinds of questions. I had never met anyone so curious in my life! I would answer them to the best of my ability and get beaming smiles as rewards.

After dinner that night,  I was saying goodnight to the children as usual and when I came to Alexandria, she surprised me by giving me a little kiss on the cheek, followed by a simple but heartfelt phrase, "I really like you Nurse Irene."

I simply smiled down at her and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, "I really like you too Alexandria," with those words I left a gentle kiss on her forehead and tucked the blanket around her.

Evelyn was waiting for me in the hall.

"I had the strangest day today."

She looked at me curiously as we made our way outside. "Really? What happened?"

I proceeded to tell her about what Alexandria had said about the priest. By the time I was done Evelyn looked as confused as I felt, "she actually said that?" I simply nodded.

"How strange."

I could not help but agree. With those words hanging between us, we said goodbye and left the running of the hospital to night shift workers.