Page 55 of Hitting the Goal Line
Twenty-Two years old
(Eight months from present day)
“There you go, Mr. Henderson,”I say to the patient that I’m helping back into his bed after taking a trip to the bathroom. “Do you need anything else?” I ask.
The man is in his sixties and landed here at the hospital after a motorcycle accident. No family or friends have come to visit, so the nurse that’s in charge of us nursing students, told us to take care of him the best we can. To make his stay is a little easier, she said.
Mr. Henderson gives me a nod. “Think you can turn the TV on to the sports channel? The Knights are playing in game seven of the Stanley Cup and I don’t want to miss them kicking Florida’s ass and them winning. A Chicago team hasn’t made it this far in so damn long.”
I smile at the man, a bit of pride swarming around in my chest. “Sure, I’ll turn it on, but you do know that the game doesn’t start for another four hours, right?”
Grabbing the control from the bedside table, I click through the channels until I find the one where I know the hockey game is going to air.
“I know, but I don’t want to miss a single thing,” he answers.
“I’m with you there,” I say, finding the channel and look back at Mr. Henderson. “Anything else, I can do for you?”
“Yeah, keep the Knights in your thoughts and prayers. They are going to need everything that they can get,” he says, giving me a dazzling smile, that I’m sure turned more than a few heads when he was younger.
“Oh, I already got you there,” I say to him right before I lift my scrub top and showing the old man my Dark Knight’s long sleeve that I have under.
“Atta girl. I knew I liked you for a reason,” Mr. Henderson praises, giving me a nod in appreciation.
I let out a laugh. “Enjoy the game,” I say to him before walking out.
As I head back to the nurse’s station, I check the time on my watch and I let out a sigh. I was supposed to get off an hour ago, so that I would have time to go home, take a nap, shower, and look somewhat presentable before heading to the Dark Knights arena for the pregame festivities.
But of course, when you are a nursing student, nothing ever works out the way that you have it planned.
Maybe if I leave in the next thirty minutes, I can still go home and shower, but I might have to skip the nap if I want to do my hair and my makeup, but that’s fine. As long as I make it to the game, that’s all that matters, because out of all the hockey games that I can miss, this one is definitely not one of them.
“Weren’t you supposed to leave early today?” Linda, the RN in charge of the department, asks as I approached the desk.
I give her a nod as I take a seat at one of the computers. “Yeah, but Cindy had me help her with a catheter insertion and then Mr. Henderson asked for help to go to the bathroom.”
She gives me a nod as she takes a sip of her water. “Yeah, time gets away from you when you are having fun,” she throws me a wink because we both know that inserting a catheter is not fun for anyone. “Why don’t you head out? No need for you to stay any later.”
“Really?” I ask, already reaching for my bag under the desk. I don’t know why I’m so excited, I’m already off the clock.
“Yeah, really. Go have a life outside of this place.”
“Is that even possible?” I ask through a laugh, but still get my everything I need to call it a day.
“Nope and as soon as you get your nursing degree and your license, you will find out,” she tells me, waving me away.
“Thanks, Linda.” I wave to her as I start making my way toward the elevators to get out of here.
For the last six months, I’ve been taking part in nursing clinicals to be able to finish off my degree. I have quite of few hours left to complete, but even then, I couldn’t be happier. I’m one step closer with each passing day. Hopefully in a few months, I will be able to wear my stethoscope with pride and officially be a registered nurse.
I never thought that I was going to see the light at the end of the, especially since I transferred into the program, but the transfer was the best thing that I could have done. I’m grateful every single day that Blake asked me to move to Chicago with him. If I hadn’t, I wouldn’t have gotten the opportunities that I’m getting here, back home.
Speaking of Blake, I check my watch one more time and let out a sigh of relief when I see that I have plenty of time to do what I’d planned, with plenty of time to make it to the game.
Like Mr. Henderson said, this is the first time in years that the Dark Knight have come this close to getting that cup. And the fact that Blake is a part of that team, absolutely blows my mind.
I’m so damn proud of him.
Last year was a little rough, since it was his first year, not only with the Knights but also playing at this level, so there were thing that he still had to learn. I thought that this year was going to be the same, but Blake showed up and became an asset to the Knights.
