The Hospital Murders

re her rump and bust inflated, “t

re a plain blue coat suit and a small

d from Miss Kerr

said. “You sick?” and reac

y face was somber. “Dr. Sterling thinks I

“Two vacant beds. Oh, yes, that patient in 21 went

chicken-heartedness to succumb to physical ailments. And Miss Kerr’s manner plainly 134 said so. But Ro

’t I be put in that vacant b

rst and thought that the vacant bed she had forgot

lung should not be near a window ... and a nu

. Mrs. Witherspoon, who spent most of her waking hours with her bed curtains drawn and up

nurse! Nurse,

itcase upon the assigned bed and prepared to open it, but footsteps ... male footsteps ... were coming up the corridor, so she

aker? You 135 are not to sleep in t

d and deep into the eyes of the avenging female, whatever her age. Miss Kerr moistened her lips and prepared t

ndressed immediately, I wan

ess myself,

your area, the more rest, the better. Rememb

it ... and Miss Kerr went down the cor

and silk blouse with the rose-point and her plain suit and put them into the small suitcase. On top she placed her hat and patent leather pumps. She put her hairbrush ... the ivory one with heavy bristles which To

top the same volume of Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s “Sonn

ase, dropped her black satin bedroom slippers from her f

n her small round breasts. It caressed her thighs. She op

case and brought the bed-pan for a specimen. Then s

eted her operations for the mom

earie. Hope yo

you. How are

e, do you?” Her small murky eyes fast

er book and smil

t remember. 137 I’ve been sick and tire

in’ was low. Too much sugar you know, honey ... and you was so kin’. I could scarce speak

d on ... and Miss Kerr knows was daid ... three patients done died in thet bed sence Thursday. Miss Frisby, an awful nice girl with a goitr

mes. They pulled the curtains to Miss Standish’s bed and Mrs. Withersp

ticed her feet f

g something wrong, and her nurse’s disdain for a person who allowed herself to get sick disturbed her considerably. Supp

er crocheting and peered at

m blood tests and things. Severe I calls it

laughed in spi

nd. A nurse gets

n. Four breeches presentations, three feet, three dry, and one nat’rul. And would you believe it, the nat’rul was the wors’! It lef’ me kinda flat fo’ month

best weapon with which to fight diseas

thet bed, too. Death-beds is weakenin’. It takes a sunnin’ every d

, and shivered. “Lose your heart, 139 lose your appendix, lose

ay Dr. MacArthur had looked when she offered to come ... Galsworthy said that your mouth was what you had become but your eyes were what you were....

utes than anybody in the hospital has eve

had looked when he said it that made her tremble. That look was the gran

he throat; good heavens, all of that was perfectly natural under the cir

tant actress watching a play of which she knows all of the lines being enacted 140 by amateurs. Remember what you used to

to bring the patients in off the porch and prepare for supper. Behind her she heard a voice and tu

probably. That queer revived look a wilted flower has whe

on cool and ’pears like we may g

he outlines of her obese legs were visible under the sheets. Rose shivered. Nice job bathing a hog like that. She had s

ed at her and

ew

ish,” Mrs. Withe

4

owed p

man whispe

r, Mrs. Wi

en

... He

’d

Her’?” Ro

edge. Mrs. Witherspoon snatched

t thet was Thursday, an’ she ain’t daid yit. The windie shade is alway

y,” the fat woman

erspoon c

he ward an’ the porch! I ain’t no hosbittle fixer, but it ’

dish laug

ends a general duty nurse to do ‘special charting’. So dying pati

4

rivett nurse!” the

her there when she came in and can’t risk mo

dulous breasts and swung

am. Long enough to know thet I wouldn’t sleep in

r with it?” Rose

rested upon her bed as she lea

ht her speech to a sudden halt. She flopped he

es myself my chillun is the cleanest goin’, and the teachers always seys so

saying, “When did you decide to be sick?” Miss Standish caught the sarcasti

am not, I aren’t,” she kept saying it over and over to herself. Rose Standish had been

it on a ward. Hard as we work, I must say in spite of the depression, I

tone was conversational. “Came so suddenly hadn’t thought about it. Awfu

t?” Miss Kexter’s voice

and then yesterday I spit a little blood, so I went to D

e, like her face, was shallow and fl

o. Why?”

on the spot about it.” She had leaned forward and her whisper was 144 flat, also

ed them?” Rose’s voice

? Even ‘Foots’ hasn’t seen their charts since au

ought of Miss Roenna Kerr bursting a brassiere fi

It saved her tears. It cleared her system.

ommon face expa

” she begged, “or y

he hushed immediately. She had, fo

sts swayed forward and said, “Let

er. A pan, quick!” And as she ran from the ward Miss Kexter turned an

4

y still. That laugh had made her realize how tired she really was, and how silly she had been to let the superstitions of these wo

bout Tony again. For two years, now, she had taught her mind to close up as suddenly as a four-o’clock when s

have pneumonia, and heart trouble and ... and then she smiled to herself at the funny child she had been. If she had ever come down with a combination of any two of the

tudent nurse saying, “Miss Standish, ar

4

r watch and smil

time, ar

laughed

ide and inquired, “And suppe

g to begin bringing

behind her ears. That felt good, too. She took a small comb from her hand bag and slid it through her short black hair. Then she

ked down the ward at the rows of beds, and the glass partition which separated them from the other fourteen beds; at the place where the partition stopped in the center of the ward to crea

ewed 147 from bed and with nothing to do. Perhaps it was because she had been through s

in order before the duty changes, rushing to remember this an

nd the covers swelled with her rising breasts.

In bed. At sunset. Awaiting supper, and watching the ugly faces of old women bloom, with t

late in bringing it to you,” the student nurse

se responded in a v

, took away the wash basin

eemed, at the moment, much nicer than the

ravy, and lettuce 148 salad with thousand island dressing, and then for d

red that her milk had real crea

had been drinking, and announced “Birdlike! That’s what you are! Set a body wondering soon as I seen yo

and blushed s

you feel so ni

and asked if there was anything she specially wanted before they left. But, of cours

had bot

rs. Witherspoon looked over

‘See you in the morning,’ and the clown seys, ‘Sure you will, doc, but will I see you?’ Bra

oman with the bad heart. The w

any a trouper before me. Circus folk

been “letting her supper down,” a new and

ell ... I ain’t ever known how, but the ringmaster seys the horse slipp

l sense of balance and courag

uta circuses, and nursing, too, I guess.”

e night. One brought around the bed-pans and tooth-mugs. Mrs. Witherspoon, and the wo

d with the thermometers an

ersation

5

child to count her pulse. How young this p

melody of their voices ... she had been in the accident room so long, she had forgotten about their singing after

se of work ceasing with the day, had left her tremendously happy and glad to be here.

ld about it. And while you are lying in that bed, I want you to decide what chang

hat to her! As soon as the ward quieted down, she’d have to begin to think about it ... or perh

oncerned, she had nothing to be afraid of, except hypodermics, and she would like to see th

g. Was Dr. Bear shrinking or did he just look so little and chubby because he was walkin

s and talking briskly to his father about each patient. But Dr. Bear put his famous hands firmly across his back and looke

evening, Miss Standish. Want Father to look you over. This

und ran for the instrument basket, and Dr

er and looking straight into he

rig

5

kish red. They accentuated the

d many more times, you are bound to find so

. Bear this way. He was accept

morning. Breasts. Two ruptured appendice

and go over me in

ic dynamo,” he growled and the nurse

for?” Dr. Bear frown

you want, sir.” sh

t. My son will hand me what I

se in the building must permit no doctor to approach any pati

nd to me....” and then “Hurry,

carefully to his ears and lis

5

ght to. Don’t make me

, turned so that he could listen through her back. Repeated it a

mm

r winke

ar will row you to the St

Sterling gave both of them a hara

At its conclusion Dr. Sterling, Junior, said a very clipped, “Thank you, Mis

ngered long e

y. Thank you, my dear.

tle hand in his capa

if you need it.” And then he squeezed her hand gratefully and uttered, for t

5

ight, D

ut she put her hand under the

t the way he had explained Dr. Sterling’

e mustn’t forget that she was here for a purpose. Perhaps if she took a sho

she thought perhaps if she entered the conversation she might discover ... or maybe she w

something they were interested in and

l and she asked

better when you cook pork wi

I give it to my children since they was babies and I always

down her 155 crocheting, inserte

so ez the pork and kraut is mixed flavored, if you

about to say,” the fat woman drew u

cookeths. It doz gran’,”

er a frivolous glance,

at come to see me Satd’y has one. And Mr. Witherspoon seys after we went to Sammy’s Easter dinner, ‘Jennie, the only way to cook victuals is to cook ’e

h shifted her attention to the clouds. If the women kept up for fifteen minutes more ... and if she knew war

5

ming along, in just a few minutes. And while she was waiting for her to come a

be made to equalize the lighting over the two tables. And also to give the nurse at the instrument table enough light to see what she was handing. And in some of the badl

hard to convince the Superintendent of Nurses, but she was going to tell Dr. MacArthur that she needed another student nurse on duty there. After a football game or a big race meet when the a

poon’s, “Lan’ sake, nurse, I’ve wet my bed,” and Miss Kerr’s

you better? Here’s

re seemed something too saccharin in its tone to Rose Standish.

didn’t associate the name and the girl. She had never liked this girl when she had been in the acci

the thermometer into Miss Standish’s hand and

d who had received the toy in the night, began crying in her sleep. She

ite bavvy, don cwy,” struck Miss Standish as highly amusing. She slipped her thermometer around and l

ning, a sudden hissing, and the lights went out. It was followed by a

ing at the horrible pulling. A thing, like a brick, hit her upon the head as she tried to sit up, and she thought, “it can’t be the murderer, he only uses hypo

k, and it was the book she had been reading and stuck upon the edge of her pillow which

dry she couldn’t speak and a horrible nausea began rising within her, but Mrs. W

an massaging her neck. This was no way to do. Get frightened at a little thing like a book hitting you. A person who lost her nerve over such things wasn’t fit to look for mice in a dark pantr

time, but that should be finished in a minute, and she turned over to watch the girl make

the night. She took the pink roses which the clowns had sent to the circus woman, and the nasturtiums the children had brought the fat woman, and Mrs. Witherspoo

ng with the horrible labor of a heart attack. Rose Standish started to call the student nurse and tell her to get Mattus righ

sponge does water, the withered body soaked it up, and she fell into a deep slumber. The woman with t

the aid of the drugs, of course, was soothing and lulling them into oblivion. The long, slow torrents fe

alized her condition ... a tuned ear could have noted it down the corridor ... she turned and walked prissily off the ward ... not hurrying, an

6

lis into her ... Rose could have told the nurse to do that! Then when she

t, Miss S

tly. Th

er pulse

nior, said you could have a sedative if

it be,

iffed, “Poison! Little nurses mu

was broad,

asional drippings. Everything was cool and still. Miss Kerr had settled down to doing her fever charts at the des

she did that for thirty counts, she would drift off to sleep. If she buckled. ... she’d show ’em. Begin to get some rest ... plen

ldn’t the person ... whoever it was ...

hurt to open them. This was foolish. How was her heart doing? She took her pu

desk. Miss Kerr wasn’t