{"id":950,"date":"2020-08-30T23:22:48","date_gmt":"2020-08-31T06:22:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/?p=950"},"modified":"2020-08-30T23:23:02","modified_gmt":"2020-08-31T06:23:02","slug":"sheltering-in-place-at-the-magdalena-arms-episode-xviii","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/2020\/08\/30\/sheltering-in-place-at-the-magdalena-arms-episode-xviii\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheltering in Place at the Magdalena Arms: Episode XVIII"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Previously: Angelo ventured out to a clandestine cocktail party and returned tipsy and tense. When his\u00a0 hangover and headache turned into a full -blown attack of hypochondria, he ventured out in search of aspirin, only to find the nurse on the fifth floor has caught the dreaded flu.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Missed the earlier episodes? You can find them all\u00a0here<\/a><\/em>.\u00a0Or start from the beginning with\u00a0<\/em>Episode I<\/em>\u00a0<\/a>and use the \u201cnext\u201d button at the top the screen to move between episodes.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Quarantined<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

In silence, Dolly and Angelo contemplated the sign on Apartment 503\u2019s door.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

QUARANTINE!
Do Not Enter
Covid-19 Patient<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe even drew a skull and crossbones, like on a bleach bottle,\u201d Angelo murmured softly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It was the middle of the night. Despite Beverly\u2019s ordering him back to bed, Angelo had followed the newly-afflicted nurse to her apartment on the fifth floor and then stood outside the door, listening to the faint rasps of coughing within, wondering what to do next. Beverly had refused everything\u2014food, water, medicine\u2014reminding her neighbor with exhausted asperity that she was<\/em> a nurse. \u201cIt just has to run its course,\u201d she\u2019d said, before closing the door with finality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angelo hadn\u2019t been reassured. Beverly had lived in the Arms for ten years, as long as he had. In fact, he, Jackie and Beverly had all arrived at the Magdalena Arms the same year; the older residents still referred to them sometimes as \u201cthe kids.\u201d They\u2019d seen other tenants come and go, and they remembered when the garden out back was a scraggly patch of weeds, when breakfast was included with your rent, when there was only one phone for the whole building. It didn\u2019t matter that Angelo had few interests in common with the tall, serious nurse\u2014she was family.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So he’d woken Dolly, to tell her that the steadiest, the most practical of \u201cthe kids\u201d had been laid low. Beverly, the health nut who lectured them on their drinking and never stopped pushing her bran muffins on everyone, who reassured you about alarming rashes in uncomfortable places without making a big deal of it, who always added vitamins when you came to her for aspirin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And since the pandemic began spreading, they’d leaned on her even more. She was the Magdalena Arms\u2019s source of scientific information, explaining the difference between a virus and a bacteria, not that Angelo could exactly recite the details back. She\u2019d stopped early excesses of prevention, like when Terry was telling everyone to wash lettuce leaves in soap, or when Dolly wondered if she should be bleaching the books in the Lounge. Beverly had\u00a0 pooh-poohed the quinine and other miracle cures, the way she\u2019d once rolled her eyes at the fad diets Sylvia was always trying.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angelo glanced at Dolly and saw by her knit brows and the muscles working in her cheeks that similar thoughts were passing through the landlady\u2019s head. Dolly always boasted to newcomers, \u201cWe have our own hairdresser with a shop on the first floor\u2014discounts for all the Magdalena Arms girls\u2014 And of course, our own nurse on the fifth floor, better than any hotel doc!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now the hairdresser couldn\u2019t style and the nurse was sick.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDo you think she\u2019s asleep?\u201d Dolly wishispered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angelo listened intently for a few seconds. \u201cI don\u2019t hear her coughing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of the corridor, Kay waved at them from the doorway of 502. \u201cI made coffee,\u201d she said low.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The demoralized pair shuffled back to Kay and Dolly\u2019s apartment. On the threshhold, Angelo hesitated. \u201cI shouldn\u2019t come in\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ve opened all the windows,\u201d said Kaye. \u201cWe\u2019ll leave the door open and our masks on. This is kind of an emergency, isn\u2019t it?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dolly collapsed on the couch, and Angelo perched uneasily across the room. He shook his head at the coffee, and asked for a glass of water. \u201cAnd aspirin, maybe?\u201d His head was pounding again. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll have to organize her care,\u201d said Dolly, after the first restorative sip. \u201cRound the clock! Constant attention! I\u2019ll phone the hospital and find out what the ideal invalid diet is. What\u2019s the old saying, \u2018feed a cold and hunger a colic?\u2019 Or\u2014well, a coddled egg for breakfast maybe, and some of that ginseng tea she likes. You can\u2019t go wrong with a coddled egg. I\u2019ll make up a tray.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019ll take it in to her,\u201d Angelo said. \u201cI live alone and if I get sick it\u2019s just me. If you get sick it\u2019s Kay too.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dolly looked startled. \u201cThat\u2019s right,\u201d she said after a moment. \u201cI forgot about the contagion\u2026But then how\u2026maybe\u2026\u201d She knit her brows again. \u201cHow are we going to manage nursing and staying safe? The cooking part is easy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou should make her some bran muffins, for breakfast,\u201d Angelo told Dolly. \u201cYou know how Beverly is about bran.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019re cooking too?\u201d said a new voice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They all turned. It was Lon, leaning against the open apartment doorway.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLon!\u201d said Dolly. \u201cWhat are you doing up?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lon shrugged. \u201cI\u2019m a light sleeper.\u201d They looked around the circle, at Angelo perched on the plaid-covered club chair, which had been pushed next to an open window, Kay and Dolly huddled on the matching couch, the percolator on the low coffee table. \u201cWhy the coffee klatsch?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The seated three exchanged glances: we can\u2019t keep this a secret<\/em>, and then Dolly broke the news. \u201cBeverly\u2019s sick, and she told Angelo it was Covid-19.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lon gave a low whistle. \u201cShe would know.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Kay spoke up. \u201cMaybe she\u2019ll be one of the light cases, you know, nothing worse than a bad flu. She\u2019s young, and lord knows she\u2019s healthy.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe\u2019ll still need nursing,\u201d Dolly began.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI can do that,\u201d Lon volunteered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou!\u201d Angelo exclaimed. He noticed a stray lock he\u2019d missed over the Lon\u2019s left ear, and his fingers itched to cut it even as he protested, \u201cBut what about Maxie? You can\u2019t risk infecting her!\u201d And if Maxie gets it, that\u2019s it for all the Arms<\/em>, he thought privately. We’d be one big sick ward!<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI have nursing experience,\u201d said Lon, with lowkey stubbornness. \u201cI was assistant medical officer aboard the Bossa Nova<\/em>. Maxie can get along without me for a little while. I\u2019ve been sleeping on the roof these last few nights anyway.\u201d Lon added the last almost as an afterthought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Angelo began \u201cBut\u2014\u201d thinking but what about your mysterious afternoon excursions?<\/em> Kaye made a calming gesture, like a conductor calling for piu piano, and Dolly was saying, \u201cThe problem, as I see it, is the darned PPE suits,\u201d when Lon held up their hand and looked over their shoulder.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They all heard the hoarse whisper, \u201cWhat on earth is going on?\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Lon turned back. \u201cIt\u2019s Jackie.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next:<\/strong> Who will nurse Beverly? Are her friends motivated by pure selflessness, or simply a desire to escape pandemic ennui? How will the feverish nurse react to these bohemian Florence Nightingale’s? And are any tenants in the Arms actually asleep?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Previously: Angelo ventured out to a clandestine cocktail party and returned tipsy and tense. When his\u00a0 hangover and headache turned into a full -blown attack of hypochondria, he ventured out in search of aspirin, only to find the nurse on … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[210],"tags":[224,222,258,218,246,219,215,223,211,239],"class_list":["post-950","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-serial-siping-at-the-magdalena-arms","tag-angelo","tag-beverly","tag-coddled-egg","tag-dolly","tag-jackie","tag-kay","tag-lesbian-career-girls","tag-lon","tag-magdalena-arms","tag-pandemic"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=950"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":952,"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/950\/revisions\/952"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=950"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=950"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=950"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}