The Case Of The Not-So-Nice Nurse

Her next stop was Women’s Psychiatric to ask about Lana. Nurse Gerry George reported that Lana was still missing, but they were certain she would be found soon.

“Now, don’t you worry about a thing,” said Nurse George as she escorted an anxious Cherry to the elevator. “Marstad said if you came around to send you on your way,” Nurse George laughed. “I guess she knows you pretty well, Cherry. First to volunteer and last to leave. You’d make a great army nurse! Now, get out of here and have some fun!” She gave Cherry a quick hug and playfully shoved her into the elevator.

Cherry felt drawn to the handsome woman with her warm manner and soft brown eyes. Nurse George was someone she would certainly like to get to know better. “I’ll send her a postcard, too,” she decided.

She walked briskly to the hospital garage where she stored her 1953 dark blue Buick. “It’s not a very glamorous car,” she thought, comparing it to the flashy red convertible with white leather seats parked in the next space.

“But it’s sturdy and dependable, just like me.” She smiled at her reflection in the car window and patted her dancing black curls into place.

She put her suitcase and cosmetics bag in the trunk, checking twice to make sure the lock was secure. “If you must leave home, at least leave in style,” her mother had sighed when she gave her the luggage as a high school graduation present.

Cherry hopped into the car and put her purse containing Nurse Marstad’s package on the passenger seat beside her. Cherry sighed and settled into her seat. The drive home to Idaho would take at least eight hours, and she was eager to be on her way.

She pulled her car into a nearby service station, and while the attendant filled her tank, Cherry checked to make sure she had her maps of Washington and Idaho. Although she knew the route by heart, it comforted her to know they were available if she ran into trouble. Although Cherry had an excellent sense of direction, she refused to go anywhere without a map.

She was engrossed in planning the first leg of her journey when a strange man wearing a fedora pulled low over his face reached into her car and snatched her purse!

Cherry screamed, and the startled man dropped her purse and ran. The attendant raced after him, but to no avail.

“He disappeared around that corner,” she said apologetically, handing Cherry her purse. “Are you all right, miss? Do you want me to call the police?”

Although Cherry was frankly shaken, she didn’t want to lose any time. She wasn’t as worried about her purse as she was about Nurse Marstad’s precious parcel. What if it had been stolen? “I’d have to change my name and move to another town,” she though grimly. “I’d never be able to face Nurse Marstad and admit I let her down.”

She paid for the gasoline, thanked the attendant for her help, rolled up her windows and locked her doors. “No one’s getting this purse away from me again,” Cherry vowed.

She drove with her eyes securely on the road ahead and her thoughts back at the busy hospital, her many nurse chums, and the now even more mysterious Lana. At times she wanted to turn back, and as the miles passed, taking her further and further from Seattle, she felt a sense of apprehension. Had she failed as a nurse? Nurse Marstad didn’t seem to think so. Cherry replayed the hour of Lana’s disappearance again and again in her mind.

If only she hadn’t left the room! “But I thought someone needed me,” she consoled herself.

Still, she had a nagging feeling that somehow there was something she had missed. She mulled over the two lengthy conversations she had had with Lana. Although Lana was friendly, she had a way of turning the conversation away from herself, and both times Cherry was surprised to find herself the focus of the conversation.

It had been Lana who had urged her to fly in the face of family disapproval and visit her Aunt Gertrude in San Francisco. Cherry had wanted to visit her beloved aunt many times, but each time she talked of going, it seemed some family emergency had come up. Or was it that her family just didn’t like Aunt Gertrude? Cherry knew that couldn’t be. Why, everyone loved the attractive, vivacious Miss Aimless!

The thought of seeing her aunt after all these years put Cherry in a better mood. Still, she would have felt even happier had she been able to solve the puzzle of the lovely Lana.

Cherry was proud of her sleuthing abilities. Hadn’t she saved poor Miss Pringle’s farm from being sold out from under her by her unscrupulous nephew? Cherry smiled as she remembered how, working as visiting nurse to Miss Polly Pringle of Pleasantville the summer after getting her R.N., she had uncovered the nephew’s spiteful scheme and stopped the sale just in time.

Her thoughts drifted to her family. She knew her mother would be happy to see her, yet her mother’s habit of scrutinizing her daughter from head to toe, starting with her short hair-do and ending with her ungainly size-nine feet, was a bit unnerving.

But she felt so good after hearing the glowing report from Nurse Marstad, she was determined not to let her mother bother her this time. “I’ll just pretend I don’t hear her,” Cherry decided. “And if she’s upset about my leaving so soon, I’ll just explain that I’m transporting important medicine!”

She checked her watch. It was after noon, and she felt ready for a good stretch and some lunch. She stopped at a tidy roadside café and stepped out of her car for some quick calisthenics, to the amusement of the other travelers. Cherry was aware that her actions looked odd, but she ignored their giggles. As a nurse, she knew that sitting for too long was bad for the circulation, and a good stretch was the best medicine for sleepy limbs.

After a nourishing lunch of an egg salad sandwich, jello and milk, she purchased steaming coffee in a paper cup and took it to her car. She hoped it would revive her for the last leg of the trip.

Cherry balanced the paper cup on the seat, and while she waited for the coffee to cool, she opened her purse, took out her compact, and reapplied her lipstick. She reached for a tissue from her glove compartment and clumsily knocked over the cup of coffee, spilling it inside her purse and all over Nurse Marstad’s important package!

“Oh, dear!” she cried, grabbing the cup before its entire contents could empty into her purse. She used a tissue to wipe the package, but when she did, she erased the name and address right off the brown paper wrapping!

“Jeepers!” she cried. “How am I going to deliver this now? I can’t call Nurse Marstad and admit I dropped hot coffee on her package.” She looked at the map the head nurse had given her, and was relieved that her destination was clearly marked. “At least I know the town I’m going to,” she sighed.

“Now if I can just find the name and address of the person who’s supposed to get this. Maybe their name is on the inside,” she thought brightly.

Cherry carefully untied the string holding the parcel together. Inside the brown-paper wrapper was Lana’s book!

“Why, this isn’t medicine!” Cherry cried. “Nurse Marstad must have goofed and given me the wrong package!” Although it was hard for Cherry to believe that Nurse Marstad ever made a mistake!

While she was loath to call her boss and admit she had opened the parcel, she knew, as a nurse, she was bound to deliver that special experimental medication!

“Even if I have to turn around and drive all the way back to Seattle General Hospital, I’ll do it,” she declared. “For there’s no such thing as a vacation from helping others!” She hopped out of her car and made a bee-line to the nearest public telephone. She fished through her wet purse for the correct change, and a minute later, she was on the line to the main desk at Seattle General Hospital.

“I’d like to speak to Head Nurse Margaret Marstad, please,” she said in a shaky voice.

“I’m sorry, miss,” the operator replied. “Nurse Marstad is on vacation.”

“How queer!” Cherry frowned. Why, she knew Nurse Marstad had just come back from a vacation.

“I’ll transfer you to our replacement head nurse. Hold, please.”

In a minute, Nurse Gerry George was on the phone. “I need to speak to Nurse Marstad,” Cherry said, trying not to sound frantic. “It’s very important.”

“I’m sorry, Cherry, but Nurse Marstad is gone.”

“Did she leave a message for me?” Cherry asked, not wishing to give away the nature of her call. “About a package?”

“She didn’t leave a message for anyone. It was the queerest thing. I got to work at eleven and was told I would be the replacement head nurse for a while. I’ve got to go, Cherry. Golly, I never realized how hard Marstad’s job was. Have a great vacation!”

Cherry went back to her car feeling more confused than ever. “What am I going to do?” she wondered. She glared at the book in her hand, “All this trouble,” she cried, “over a silly little book!” She tossed it on the seat next to her. A piece of paper fluttered to the floor. “Hmmn. Look, there’s a note!” Cherry felt a sense of guilt creeping over her. She was aware she was reading correspondence not meant for her eyes.

Midge—Mother having problems with Father. Holiday plans canceled. Trouble at home. Can you advise?

Pegs

“If Nurse Marstad simply gave me the wrong package, this note wouldn’t be in here,” she reasoned, remembering that the package had been addressed to a Miss Midge Somebody. “I bet Nurse Marstad went away because of her family troubles, only she was too ashamed to tell anyone about it.”

Cherry’s heart went out to the gruff-seeming nurse. “She hides a broken heart under all her brusqueness,” she thought, tears filling her eyes.

Cherry examined the cover of the book. The Lost Secrets of the Sisters of Mercy. Cherry was not a big reader, and religious stories did not appeal to her in the least. Still, the nun on the cover was awfully attractive, she thought.

She opened the book to the inscription page.

“With love from G.A. to C.M.,” it said.

“This proves this is Lana’s book, for these are the same initials I saw engraved on her ring!” Cherry exclaimed. “Why did Nurse Marstad claim this book belonged to her?”

Cherry laughed at herself. “I’m sure there’s a very simple explanation for all this. Why, I’m starting to think everything’s a mystery! I’ll just deliver this parcel as promised, and when I get back to the hospital, I’m sure Nurse Marstad will clear all this up.”

But she still had a kernel of doubt in the back of her mind.

She decided to have a closer look at the book. “As long as I’ve already opened it, I might as well have a peek,” she reasoned.

She skimmed the first chapter. “I can’t quite put my finger on it, but there is something very different about this book!” Cherry mused as she flipped through the pages. Why, except for some men hired to haul heavy furniture in chapter three, all the characters in the book were women! Fascinated, Cherry read on. Before she knew it, more than an hour had passed, and she was a quarter of the way through the book. She was so deeply engrossed she had lost track of the time.

“Oh, dear!” she cried when she finally checked her watch. Cherry prided herself on her promptness, and although she hadn’t called her mother to tell her she was coming, she had a schedule of her own to keep!

She put the book on the passenger seat, turned on her engine and put her car in reverse. But she found her exit was blocked by two men in a red convertible. She politely beeped her horn to let the men know they were blocking her way, but instead of moving, the driver got out of the car.

He threw his cigar butt on the ground, buttoned his black overcoat up to his chin and pulled his hat low over his face. He sauntered menacingly over to Cherry’s car. His companion had slipped behind the wheel of the convertible and was gunning the engine.

Cherry didn’t want to acknowledge the man, but she didn’t want to be rude, either. “Perhaps he wants my parking spot,” she thought.

“I’m leaving right now,” she said in a cheerful tone that belied her true feelings. Frankly, this man gave her the creeps! “There’s something about him that seems awfully familiar,” Cherry shuddered.

He leaned on Cherry’s car in an insolent manner and grinned. He squinted at her through thick black-framed glasses. “What’s the hurry, sister? My buddy and I just pulled in here for a nice cold beer. Care to join us?”

“No thanks,” Cherry gulped. “I simply must be on my way.” The man’s fresh attitude angered her, but she tried never to engage in a quarrel.

“Always turn the other cheek,” her mother counseled, and those were words Cherry lived by.

The man acted like he hadn’t heard her and opened her car door. Cherry gasped indignantly. “How rude,” she cried. “If you don’t quit pestering me, I’ll be forced to call for assistance!” she declared.

Beep! Beep! A large man wearing a loud Hawaiian shirt and driving a wood-paneled station wagon full of noisy children was trying to squeeze past the two cars. “Hey, buddy, you’re blocking the road!” he yelled. “Move it!”

The rude man in the black overcoat scowled, slammed Cherry’s door, and skulked back to his car. Cherry waited a few minutes after they drove off, hoping to put some distance between herself and the rude men. She pulled out of the parking lot and cautiously maneuvered her car through the heavy late-afternoon traffic. It would be dark soon, and although her mother wasn’t expecting her, if she happened to call the hospital and find out Cherry had left many hours ago for Idaho, she would surely worry.

She stopped at a service station and drank a refreshing orange soda while a capable young girl with a darling short haircut checked her oil, brake fluid and tires and cleaned her windows.

“Great story,” the girl said, pointing to the book on the seat next to Cherry. “You’ll love the ending.”

“I can’t wait to finish it,” Cherry enthused, waving good-bye to the friendly girl. She put all thoughts of the two rude men out of her head and concentrated on the miles ahead of her.

So many peculiar things had happened to her in the last few days. “Once I get to San Francisco I can really relax!” she thought happily.

CHAPTER 4

What a Conundrum

When Cherry pulled into the driveway of the tidy split-level house at 17 Badger Avenue, it was just after eight p.m. She knew her mother would be finishing the dinner dishes while her father sat in his easy chair, The Pleasantville Times in one hand and a highball in the other.

She wanted to surprise them, but Lady heard the car pull into the driveway, and her barking drew Mrs. Aimless to the screen door.

“It’s Cherry! Cherry’s come home!” her mother exclaimed as she flew out the front door with Lady at her heels. They raced across the front yard, Mrs. Aimless staying on the tidy brick path but Lady bounding exuberantly through the flower bed. Lady reached Cherry first, and in her enthusiasm muddied Cherry’s skirt.

“Oh, I wish I had known you were coming! Why, the house is such a mess! Oh, dear!” cried Mrs. Aimless, holding her daughter at arms length while looking her up and down. She brushed the mud from Cherry’s outfit. “Oh, I wish I could keep this dog out of my petunias. She’s ruined your skirt. Well, never mind; I never did like that shade of blue on you anyway!” The collie jumped around the two, barking with pleasure.

“And I must look a sight!” she added, taking off her apron to reveal an immaculately-tailored cream-colored shirtwaist with a scoop collar that set off her tan to perfection.

Cherry grinned. Same old mom! She hugged the older woman and assured her that she looked just fine. But Cherry was fibbing, for despite the deep tan and attractive coiffure, Mrs. Aimless looked tired. Cherry hoped her absence wasn’t putting those worry lines across her mother’s forehead.

“Is Father home?” Cherry asked, retrieving her luggage and purse from the car.

Her mother frowned. “He’s had a bad day at work, and he’s in one of his moods,” she warned. “I’d wait until he speaks to you before bothering him. Let’s go in the back way so we don’t disturb him.”

Cherry followed her mother to the back door. Once in the kitchen, they relaxed over some key lime pie and coffee. Cherry began chatting happily about her work in Seattle but was interrupted several times by questions from her mother.

“Do you have to wear those ugly white nurse’s shoes, dear?”

“Do all nurses have such short hair?”

“Have you met any attractive doctors?”

Each time Cherry tried to open her mouth, her mother interrupted with another question. Could it be that her mother didn’t want to hear about her nurse chums and their fascinating patients?

Cherry suddenly felt very tired. It had been a long drive, and her pleasure at being home had dissolved during her mother’s interrogation. A good night’s sleep will cheer me up, she thought, barely stifling a yawn.

Her mother shooed her off to bed. “There’s plenty of time for catching up, dear,” she said, kissing her good-night. “Why, we’ve got almost two whole weeks together!”

Cherry didn’t have the heart to tell her mother she was going to be in Pleasantville for only a day. She was glad she had agreed to deliver Nurse Marstad’s package. She didn’t feel quite as selfish, knowing she was going to do something important for someone else. Somehow she’d make her mother understand.

CHAPTER 5

An Odd Occurrence

Cherry snuggled under the quilt Aunt Gertrude had made for her and yawned. Finally, it felt right to be home, safe and snug in her little attic bedroom with Lady sprawled at her feet. She was just drifting off to sleep when Lady jumped off the bed and raced to the door. “She seems awfully agitated about something,” Cherry thought as she slipped out of her warm bed, donned her pink chenille robe and fuzzy slippers, and quietly crept downstairs with Lady at her heels.

Once downstairs, the collie gave a little yelp and ran to the den, where Mr. Aimless lay fast asleep in his recliner, the pages of the evening paper scattered at his feet.

“It’s freezing in here,” Cherry shuddered, covering her father with a comforter from the davenport.

“Why, the window’s open!” she exclaimed, creeping across the room to close it, taking care not to wake her father. “Mother always closes this before she goes to bed; the wind must have blown it open. Good thing the noise woke Lady; otherwise Father might have caught a terrible cold—or worse!” She latched the window firmly.

But the collie still seemed agitated. She climbed on Mrs. Aimless’s favorite chair—an act which was strictly forbidden in the spotless Aimless house—peered out the window and growled. Cherry looked, too, but saw nothing but a quiet little street lined with majestic maple trees.

“That’s funny,” she thought. “It’s not windy at all.”

“There’s no one out there, girl,” Cherry said, scratching Lady behind the ears. “Hush.” She certainly didn’t want her father awakening in a grumpy mood, especially since tomorrow she would tell him she was going to visit her Aunt Gertrude.

“Let’s go back to bed,” she said, tugging gently on her pet’s collar. Cherry stopped in the living room long enough to find something to read, in case she couldn’t get back to sleep. All she could find stacked in tidy piles on the kidney-shaped coffee table were fashion magazines and several issues of Reader’s Digest. Nothing piqued her interest.

“I haven’t finished Lana’s book yet!” she suddenly remembered, going to the kitchen to get her purse. But it wasn’t on the table where she had left it earlier. “Mother must have moved it,” Cherry reasoned, noticing how tidy the kitchen was. But her purse wasn’t in the front hall closet, nor was it in the deacon’s bench in the entryway, where her mother stored her spare handbags. She found it in the tiny room off the garage that served as her mother’s laundry room. The contents of the purse, including the book, had been placed in a neat row on the ironing board.

“Mother is such a dear,” Cherry smiled. “She must have discovered that I spilled coffee in my handbag and cleaned it after I went to bed.” She took the book and crept back upstairs, pulling a reluctant Lady behind her. Cherry settled in for a good read, but before she could finish even one page, she was fast asleep. But for Lady, there was no such slumber. She maintained her guard all through the night from her station at the foot of Cherry’s bed.

She knew there was something out there in the night, even if her mistress didn’t!

Cherry awoke to brilliant sunlight streaming across her face. Lady was awake and waiting patiently on the rag rug beside the bed. “Rise and shine!” her mother called from the kitchen. From the fragrant smells wafting up the stairs, Cherry could tell her mother was preparing her award-winning strawberry waffles. She jumped out of bed, donned a simple kelly green dress with a sweetheart neckline, and raced down the stairs, taking them two at a time. Why, she hadn’t had a decent waffle for a whole year!

Cherry spent the morning in a whirlwind: chatting on the phone with chums, standing still so her mother could measure her for a new party frock, and making rhubarb tarts for her mother’s bridge club luncheon the next day. Mid-afternoon she slipped into a gingham sundress and soft white moccasins and walked downtown. The heat was stifling, and she ducked into Tilly’s Drugstore for a refreshing vanilla soda. She was just deciding whether or not to have a second, when Miss Molly Mathers, the high school physical education teacher, plopped down onto the stool beside her. She was so full of questions about life in a big city hospital that before Cherry knew it, two hours had slipped away.

“Golly,” she gulped, taking a last sip of her second soda. “I’ve got to get home to help Mother prepare supper. Bye, Miss Mathers.”

Cherry ran all the way back to Badger Avenue and found her mother had everything under control. The dining room table had already been set with the good china, and azaleas from Mrs. Aimless’s garden had been arranged in a festive centerpiece at the center of the table.

Cherry took a quick shower, ran a comb through her disheveled curls and applied fresh lipstick. Resplendent in a dressy mint-green crepe frock and festive gold sandals, she made her way downstairs. “Why, I forgot to eat lunch!” she exclaimed, sniffing appreciatively. Her mother had prepared a special supper of pot roast, baked potatoes and green bean casserole. A strawberry cake sat cooling in the kitchen, awaiting a final frosting of vanilla icing.

Mrs. Aimless sent her daughter into the living room to finish arranging the hors d’oeuvres. Mr. and Mrs. Cleaver, her parent’s closest friends, arrived a few minutes later.

“Why, Cherry, you look splendid!” gushed Mrs. Cleaver, hugging the blushing girl to her cashmere-clad bosom. “And, Doris, your table could win a prize!” Mrs. Cleaver complimented Mrs. Aimless, who beamed with pride.

Mr. Aimless was delayed at the office, so Cherry, her mother and their guests sat patiently in the living room, sampling the yummy treats her mother had spent the afternoon preparing.

“Delicious cheese ball!” Mr. Cleaver exclaimed. Mrs. Aimless confessed that she was testing a new recipe for entry in the upcoming county fair. Her guests assured her she would surely win first prize, and reached for seconds. Half a cheese ball later, Mr. Aimless arrived and dinner was served.