"Hello?"
I enter the hospital and the nurse greets me "Oh, Fortune, welcome back! Do you have any injuries?"
"N-No... I am here to inquire about job opportunities... I remember you mentioned wishing that my sister would've been permanently employed here, and so I thought--"
"Oh? You want to be an assistant? That's great! But, um... There are caveats, because it is a very responsible job."
"... If it provides me good money and is stable - I'm in."
"Well, first of all, unfortunately the payment isn't all that high. I work on a patient-to-patient basis, meaning the payment relies sorely on how many customers we have, so at times it's not much, sometimes there can be quite plentiful. But overall not many people come over here, disgusting the medicine and whatnot... Being called a scammer isn't a nice feeling - people who actually came in for the treatment do say positive things though!"
"Hmm..."
"Second of all, despite this, I work all day. I have to be on high alert in case of an emergency. You can never know when you have to save a person's life that day... That means you too have to be here all day."
"Aw man... That friend that I made - she doesn't stay here for very long, so I want to make the best out of the I do have..."
"... Well, I did say the job of a nurse is a responsible one? You have to undergo training under my wing to learn all the basic stuff for you to become the best nurse you can ever be, because the worst ones put human lives at risk. So you'll be put under a probation period, which is shorter, so you can hang out with a friend of yours."
"Yay!!"
"Please make sure to attend daily though. If you won't, I will get mad." She pouts
"Thank you, Ma'am."
"A-Ah! I haven't told you the third caveat yet!"
"Urgh, what is it?"
"I promise it's the finale and it's... Uh... I don't have any male uniforms."
That's it?
"I-I didn't expect a boy applying for a job! I-I Cathy in plans to take over my job! Oh god I'm so sorry!"
"H-H-Hey, Ma'am, I used to wear my sister's clothing before we were able to buy boy's clothes, i-it's no biggie!"
".............. Was your family that poor?"
After that... Questionable exchange, I put on the uniform the nurse handed out to me. It doesn't look too girly actually, dunno why she was freaking out.
"I'm ready, Ma'am"
"Oh please, just Carolyn. Y-You make me feel like an old woman..."
"But you are"
"I-I'm only in my late 20s! I'm not old!"
"???"
She begins to teach me the basics of first aid and how to properly bandage various wounds. "Given how many drunks there are, it's natural that some will end up in a fight. In case those wounded rowdy individuals will try to do something funny to me, I just restrain them, and if that's impossible to do, I knock them down cold. Though I have to restrain myself, I don't want to make things go from bad to worse."
"Hmm..."
"I also run a pharmacy, which is another bag of worms... Ahh... To be assigned to such a place and facing understaffing... Urgh."
"Assigned?"
"Oh right, I'm kind of recent-ish resident here. Well, three years isn't all that recent. The previous nurse that was here retired and I was reassigned here as a rookie. It was scary. That village was very rampant with bandits and such, so I was given some weapons of self defence as compensation. Dear god, it's a miracle that I didn't go insane... Probably because not many people seem to be interested in a run down hospital."
"Oh... You must hate it being here then?"
"... Not really? I mean it's hard, but I suppose I got pretty used to it. Plus it is a small village, so it's not that stressful in the long run. Back where I was from, it was very bustling - compared to that, Praeya feels like a ghost town."
"..."
We then start wrapping up a corpse. She asked if I would be comfortable with seeing a dead person, and I told that I am... Well, lying is bad, and now I understand why. Even when looking at the complete stranger, the feeling of dread doesn't go away. Still, if I agreed to it, I must put on a brave face, there's no backing away.
"Say, why didn't you go to the hospital before? Again, considering, you know."
"... My sister told me to not come here under any circumstances. She said that she can patch me up instead."
Coralyn seems to be genuinely upset when hearing this.
"... Did I really make her mad that day?"
"What do you mean?"
"Well, when she told me about your situation... I told her something stupid that I regret saying to this day. I told her that I didn't think that was a big deal and there was nothing I could do about it, and she got genuinely upset at me. She yelled that she doesn't need my mindless sympathies stormed off."
"She is a difficult individual that's for sure..."
Coralyn then looks at me sadly "I'm... Truly sorry for butting in to your affairs so much. It's just... It started to nag me more and more. Especially when I saw... It was brutal, my heart sank at this. I feel like a failure."
"It's none of your fault, Ma'am. You're just a stranger that happened to know Sylvie. Don't beat yourself over it."
"I-I know... But still... The fact that I still can't help is... Awful."
"Understanding is good enough, I suppose. But yeah, I don't appreciate you going into our laundry, Ma'am, especially after my mother's passing. It's all in the past."
We finish wrapping up a corpse and she says that she'll deliver it to the cemetery, so I'm tasked with ventilating the place and to play with Cathy. I nod and Coralyn leads me to her secret room.
There I see a small girl, quite younger than me, having a tea party with her stuffed friends.
"Cathy~, I brought a new friend, say hi to him."
"F... riend?" She curiously asks
"Y-Yeah! I'm your new friend, Cathy." I greet and she smiles. Coralyn leaves and Cathy hugs me. It's the second time I was hugged by someone else other than family, but this one feels oddly ordinary compared to what I felt when Sol hugged me.
"Wanna play, friend? Mr. Tibbles is giving out cookies to everyone."
"S-Sure."
It's an ordinary tea party. Mr. Tibbles is a brown bear who is extremely generous with his cookies; Mr. Webbit is more of a snide gray rabbit, only being here for food; and Ms. Kallie is a pink-ish cat with a gentle attitude. Later, Ms. Eaglet joins and she's a very wise and knowledgeable bird, who arrives late because she's that busy with sharing her knowledge. It's odd having actual stuffed toys around, and not pillows as our guests.
Cathy is much more calm than Sol is, no doubt because of the trauma she went through. Losing your parents at such an early age... It's a miracle that she has someone like Coralyn to watch over her. She's pretty much her guardian angel, and it's nice that in spite of all of this - she cares for her a lot.
"Cathy, do you mind me being a bit curious?"
"No."
"How long have you lived with your aunt."
"Hmm... Three years! Auntie Lyn picked up Cathy when she was eight and I had my eleventh birthday, so it must be three years!"
"And how's it like to live with your aunt?"
"It's fine. Just lonely, I wish auntie Lyn played with Cathy a lot more."
"Well, auntie Lyn too wishes to play with Cathy a lot more."
Continuing to play with Cathy, I feel much more calmer. She is less energetic than Sol, preferring to play with stuffed toys and reading books... And I can't read them. There are words I can recognise, a lot of them, but there are some I can't recognise. I feel so stupid compared to an 11 year old.
"Yawn... I'm tired, friend. Cathy wants to go to sleep."
"Sure thing."
I help her get into her bed and tuck her in. I ask if she needs any toys and she says to give her Mr. Tibbles. Apparently she has a routine of friends that she sleeps with.
"Will you sleep with Cathy, friend?"
"Sorry, can't do. Friend has his own home to attend to, with his own friends and family."
"Hmm... By the way, what's your name, friend?"
"... Fortune. Just call me Fortune."
"'Kay, Fortune. See you again."
I leave the room and close down the windows. The stench is now more manageable, but still pretty lingering. Apparently this hospital is also some type of morgue as well.
Coralyn returns and sits down. I bring her some water, and she drinks it "Thanks, Fortune. How's Cathy?"
"She's sleeping."
"Okay. Phew, I feel a bit exhausted from carrying that guy to the cemetery centre."
"Who was that?"
"Apparently some beast started to lurk near the village in the forest and this was one of the victims, judging by attire it must be a civilian. You must've noticed the wounds."
"Oh yeah... It's scary..."
"Well!... Hopefully the guild settled here isn't a bunch of good for nothing charlatans and will be able to take care of the threat."
I then look at the time... Damn it, it's 7PM. I must go back home, or else.
"Alright, I'll go back home. Thank you for having me."
"O-Oh? Goodbye!"
That day was truly pretty eventful. Got to befriend both Sol and Cathy, though Cathy feels like more of a younger sister to me... Shit, it's no time to reminisce about them. It was a good day.
Sadly that can only mean one thing...
"A[___]..."