Station Five

Chapter Four

CHAPTER FOUR

Peering through a grimy side window near the rear of the nursing home, Chuck Tate had seen an elderly woman tied to a bed that had been stripped of linens, wrapped in plastic, and piled with cotton diapers.  Her legs were smeared with filth, her wrists and ankles scrubbed red and raw by leather restraints.  Her frizzy gray hair clumped together in greasy mats.  She was completely naked.  “Grandma Tate?” he said.  The woman rolled her head in the direction of his voice.  Chuck found a garden rake leaning against the wall and put it through the glass.

He was booked and charged with breaking and entering and disturbing the peace.  Once released on bond, he returned immediately to the nursing home and demanded his grandmother’s release.  Bewildered and angry, she complained bitterly and demanded that Chuck leave her be.  But he had made up his mind.  After what he had seen, he wouldn’t let her stay one more second in that place.  Three hours later, they arrived in Tucson.

Chuck and Danielle bathed the frail woman and made up a bed for her.  They stayed up until dawn discussing their options.  It was Danielle who first suggested that they should care for Grandma Tate themselves.  As Chuck described it later, “we didn’t know what to do or how we were going to do it, but we knew what we had to do.”

* * *

“He was just borracho, you know?  Drunk,” said Mia.  He gets like that.”

Analyn shook her head.  “Mia, you can’t keep making excuses for him.  And you have to get out of that house.”

Mia’s face reddened.  “And where am I supposed to go, huh?”

“What?  Here.  Anywhere.”

“Es más complicado que tú piensas.”

“Mia, you know I don’t speak Spanish.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.  It’s just, you know, I’m trying to get my green card and I have to be married.  And I don’t have a car.  And I don’t have any money.”

Analyn frowned.  “Hmm.  Well, you know you can borrow my car any time.  I hardly use it.  And I can help you out with money, too, you know, until you get back on your feet.  And I know a good immigration attorney, too.  We used him to bring my sister-in-law Marifel over from the Philippines.”

Mia blinked and shook her head softly.  “I don’t know.”

“Girl, what good is a green card if that bastard kills you one night when he’s… borracho?”

Mia’s eyes teared up.  “Actually, I don’t think I’m getting it anyway.  The green card.  Ramon didn’t go to an appointment.  And my work permit is going to expire soon.”

Analyn stood up and looked out the window and then at her watch.  It was almost nine o’clock.  “All right, then.  Let’s go.”

“Where?”

“I’m taking you to your house and we’re going to get your things.”

At Los Arcos, Patricia Haden put her feet on the nurses station counter and sighed.  Looking at her watch, she calculated the time remaining in her shift.  “Ten hours and twenty-seven minutes,” she said aloud.  She closed her eyes.

Shelly Patrick, one of the night CNAs, walked up to the nurses station and tapped on the counter.  “Okay, everyone’s down except Miggy and Mr. Simpson.  Miggy’s on Facebook and Mr. Simpson’s watching a basketball game.”

Patricia grunted her approval.  “Okey dokey.  Go ahead and take a break if you want to.”

“Okay, said Shelly.  “I wanna go see Abby, if that’s okay.”