{"id":986,"date":"2020-11-01T23:25:59","date_gmt":"2020-11-02T07:25:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/?p=986"},"modified":"2020-11-01T23:25:59","modified_gmt":"2020-11-02T07:25:59","slug":"sheltering-in-place-at-the-magdalena-arms-episode-xxvi","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/2020\/11\/01\/sheltering-in-place-at-the-magdalena-arms-episode-xxvi\/","title":{"rendered":"Sheltering in Place at the Magdalena Arms: Episode XXVI"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Previously<\/strong>: Dolly peddled pecan buns to the Arms’ inhabitants but found no takers. Laura’s mysterious telephone call finally bore fruit, when another nurse shows up at the Arms demanding to be taken to Beverly’s sick bed, while a distraught Lois brings Pam to the Arms for aid.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Audley<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Beverly was drowsing fitfully, balanced on the border between sleep and wakefulness, an unpleasant no-man\u2019s land filled with reptitious dreams that were more like reprises of the dreariest bits of daily life: Buses that didn\u2019t come, doors stuck shut, the supply closet out of PPE.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then the door opened and a nurse robed in white protctive gear surged into the room. For an instant Beverly felt a jolt of irritation. How did this nurse rate PPE when Beverly had none? Then the feverish woman woke up fully, and realized with horrified dismay that her carefully guarded sickroom had been breached!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cGet out!\u201d she croaked, pushing herself into a sitting position.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cLie down,\u201d countered the nurse. \u201cI\u2019m going to take your temperature.\u201d She\u2019d already pulled out a thermometer from the black leather bag she\u2019d set on a table covered with a layer of newspaper. She shook down the mercury with a few forceful flicks of her wrist and stuck it in Beverly\u2019s mouth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cAudley?\u201d Beverly tried to talk around the thermometer. \u201cWhat are you\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHush,\u201d said the nurse. Beverly noticed that she wore blue beneath the transparent white of the protective gear, the uniform of the visiting nurses. It must<\/em> be Audley, disguised as she was by mask, goggles, and hood. And now she was out of view, clattering in the tiny kitchen, putting the kettle on by the sound of it. She reappeared, but only to whisk away the remains of Beverly\u2019s last meal, a bowl of swiss muesli she hadn\u2019t been able to finish. Then she was back again, and with a vigorous tug or two straightened the coverlet and sheets, then plucked the thermometer from Beverly\u2019s mouth. \u201cHmmm.\u201d She picked up the fever chart, and told Beverly, \u201cStill 104. Maybe we can bring that down a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beverly lay back on her pillow and coughed, grabbing a tissue to cover her mouth. \u201cI wasn\u2019t going to see you anymore,\u201d she said weakly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know, Bev,\u201d said her ex. \u201cBut you don\u2019t have a choice.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

**********<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIt\u2019s not that I doubted your medical expertise Lon,\u201d Laura said earnestly. \u201cBut I know how stubborn Beverly is, and she needed someone\u2014\u201d the civil servant hunted for a tactful way to phrase what the new nurse had that Lon didn\u2019t and settled on, \u201csomeone who\u2019s a nurse like her. And of course Audley projects a certain, well, authority, if you know what I mean.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dolly grumbled, \u201cShe\u2019s pretty pushy, that\u2019s for sure!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She, Lon, and Laura were standing in the entrance hallway, conferring. The visiting nurse had insisted that Dolly use her master key to let her into Beverly\u2019s studio after she\u2019d explained who she was and that she\u2019d been called by Laura.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now Lon said, \u201cYou did the right thing, phoning her. Anyway, it looks like we have another patient.\u201d She gestured at Angel\u2019s Hair, where Ramona had stowed Lois and Pamela while Dolly dealt with the demanding nurse in blue. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As if on cue, the door opened and Ramona emerged. \u201cAcute melancholia,\u201d she pronounced. \u201cThat\u2019s all that\u2019s wrong with Pam! And she hasn\u2019t been eating. Won\u2019t eat, Lois says. I told Lois to try feeding her one of your pecan buns. So you broke down Beverly\u2019s door? I like that new nurse. She\u2019s a go-getter!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe\u2019s more than that,\u201d interjected a voice from above. They all looked up, except for Lon, who had silently slipped away to check on his new charges. It Maxie, leaning over the first floor balustrade. \u201cI\u2019ve seen this nurse Audley before, in Beverly\u2019s company. Last fall I spotted them sitting  in a Dockside cafeteria. They were looking pretty cozy, I must say!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYes,\u201d Laura admitted. \u201cAudley and Beverly were involved. They fell out late last year\u2014over politics. You see, although Audley\u2019s profession is visiting nurse, her passion is organizing. I met her when she came to the Housing Department with a delegation of docksiders demanding that something be done about the plumbing problems at the Truman Homes, the public housing project there. And then I introduced her to Beverly, at last year\u2019s halloween party\u2014\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe was at the party?\u201d Dolly furrowed her brow. \u201cI don\u2019t remember her seeing her.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cShe was dressed as the grim reaper,\u201d Laura told her. \u201cShe had a skull mask and a big cloak and carried a scythe.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI remember her!\u201d Maxie exclaimed. \u201cAnd Beverly came as Louis Pasteur. Not a very promising pairing!\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThey were made for each other,\u201d Laura contradicted her. \u201cThey both fell hard. Then came the nurses\u2019 strike right before Christmas\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cBeverly was part of that strike,\u201d Ramona remembered. \u201cWhat, this other nurse was a scab?\u201d she scowled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cJust the opposite!\u201d cried Laura. \u201cAudley was part of a cadre of hard-core, anti-establishment types who hoped to use the nurse\u2019s strike as a springboard for a general strike! She was furious at Beverly for voting to settle after the hospital offered them a pay raise. She saw it as a personal betrayal, Beverly said. But I couldn\u2019t believe\u2026I mean, I thought with Beverly sick\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cSo you played Cupid, you sly thing!\u201d said Dolly, with admiration. \u201cYou and Covid-19 of course.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

**********<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Upstairs Audley spoonfed Beverly from a bowl of steaming broth. The stricken nurse has a clean napkin spread over her chest and tucked uner her chin, and a neatly folded cold, damp rag draped over her forehead. Audley had changed her pillowcase, and the sensation of fresh, uncreased linen under her head was heaven to the feverish woman. For the first time Beverly felt like she might recover from this virus. It made her realize how despairing she\u2019d been, barricading the door against Lon and the rest of the world, her only ambition to prevent the disease from spreading to the rest of the Magdalena Arms\u2019s inhabitants. At the thought, she gripped Audley\u2019s arm. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cYou\u2019ll have to quarantine here too,\u201d she told her urgently. \u201cNo two ways about it.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDid you think I don\u2019t know that?\u201d Audley poured another spoonful into her. \u201cI brought supplies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beverly swallowed the soup, remembering the last time she\u2019d seen Audley, and their lacerating quarrel. They\u2019d gone round and round getting angrier and angrier until Audley called her a \u2018reformist tool\u2019 and Beverly had walked out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI\u2019m still a reformist tool,\u201d she said now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI know,\u201d said Audley, in the low, sweet tone she saved for late nights in bed. \u201cDrink your soup.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A tear slid down Beverly\u2019s cheek, and Audley swabbed it with the napkin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s just fever,\u201d said Beverly. \u201cI may be reformist, but I\u2019m not sentimental.\u201d And she slurped another spoonful of soup.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next<\/strong>: Will this Covid crisis fueled reunion last? Or will politics pull the two nurses apart again? And can Pam’s problems be fixed by a pecan bun?<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Previously: Dolly peddled pecan buns to the Arms’ inhabitants but found no takers. Laura’s mysterious telephone call finally bore fruit, when another nurse shows up at the Arms demanding to be taken to Beverly’s sick bed, while a distraught Lois … 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":[271,222,215,211,270],"class_list":["post-986","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-serial-siping-at-the-magdalena-arms","tag-audley","tag-beverly","tag-lesbian-career-girls","tag-magdalena-arms","tag-nurses"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/986","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=986"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/986\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":987,"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/986\/revisions\/987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=986"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=986"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/monicanolan.com\/pulppep\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=986"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}