Page 21 - Vol. VI #3

Olivia nods and grins. She reaches in her purse and extracts an unlabeled amber bottle. Angie stands and passes the money to her, though
this time Olivia does not throw it in her face but instead gives the RN the bottle, which passes between them with a lively jingle. Then she issues orders concerning her breakfast: two tanger- ines, half a cantaloupe, a small low-fat yogurt. Angie nods and heads down the corridor to let the cooks and care assistants know she’s here, then scrambles to the resident’s kitchen to turn on the AM radio and make decaffeinated coffee. Olivia watches her bustle about before spinning her wheelchair and buzzing back to the window. She pulls a white ball of silk from her purse and commences to embroider, listening to the coffee percolate over the political commentators’ rants on the radio. As always, the country is headed in the wrong direction. Occasionally Olivia looks up to frown at her reflection in the window again, her face veiled in shadows beneath her painted eyebrows.
“The Good Lord has provided me
another day to curse this miserable hellhole. Somehow this is cause for great celebration?”
Outside, the horizon catches fire. Blue glistens off palm trees. Sparrows twitter. Distant ducks honk.
Drawn by the scent of the coffee and the voices on the radio, a couple of other residents shuffle in the room. Louie appears first, still in his pajamas but wearing his Marlins cap. He rubs his sizable belly, holding it like a dear object, like a pregnant woman. Following him comes Ms. Gretel clad in
a brand new red dress and wearing eyeliner and pink lipstick. To Olivia she looks almost garish, like some cross-dressing rodeo clown.
Peeping Toms, Lou, I’m telling you! Ms. Gretel declares. They were watching from the parking lot, spying through my window!
Maybe they’re as excited about the talent show as you are, Gret, Louie replies.
Both pour coffee and settle into facing sofas, tak- ing up pencils and their daily crossword puzzle, as Olivia wonders if her memory is slipping. Could it be the pills? But somehow she’d for-
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