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Bunny triedto tamp down her irritation as she made her way back through the Lobby. She didn’t want Death to know her efforts had been in vain, and she needed to calm down enough to be able to form a game plan for the next four days. Being angry wasn’t going to solve her problem.
He would just have to hang out in her apartment. That was all there was to it. She had to work and earn a living in the real world, and she still had her cosmic duties to perform on top of that. There was no getting around it—her world continued to turn, and she’d have to deal with the rest as it came.
But that thought made her mind turn to another pressing matter. She knew the problems she’d faced when she hadn’t been putting in enough souls to fill her quota. What was going to happen if Death wasn’t taking them out? What happened to a soul if it was left to sit in a body past its ‘best before’ date?
The thought made her shudder as she stepped up to the portal and slipped through it.
To her astonishment, an old lady stood just inside the supply closet’s door, her hand still on the doorknob. She was hunched in the darkness like she was listening out for something, her arm raised to protect her eyes from the blinding light that filled the space when Bunny entered.
Death had his back to a blank part of the wall, eyes wide as he pressed himself flat against it like they were playing a bizarre game of Blind Man’s Bluff and he was worried the woman might find him. Bunny looked from him to the woman, rushing forward to assist her.
“What are you doing in here, Mrs. Howard?”
“Oh,” Mrs. Howard said with relief in the darkness that had once again consumed the closet. “Is that you, nurse?”
“Yes,” Bunny replied, placing a comforting hand on the old lady’s frail shoulder as she reached to switch on the light with the other. “Are you all right?”
“I just felt restless.” Mrs. Howard shuffled from left to right, looking around as though trying to make out where she was. “Like I need to go on a journey.”
“You need to be in your room,” Bunny told her gently. “It’s past your bedtime.”
That got a breathless chuckle out of the woman. “Don’t be silly, dear,” she smiled kindly. “I haven’t had a bedtime since I was eleven years old!”
“Well, we don’t want you missing out on your beauty sleep,” Bunny joked, opening the door. She began to usher the woman through it before looking back at Death. Once she caught his eye, she jerked her head at him as an indication to follow them. “You need to show up at breakfast tomorrow morning and grace everyone with that beautiful smile of yours.”
“You’re very sweet.” Mrs. Howard pursed her lips, blinking as she looked at the corridor Bunny was guiding her down. “Where am I again?”
Bunny felt sadness settle on her shoulders. After a while of working here, it felt like a well-worn cardigan that smelled faintly of mothballs. When she’d first learned from Julian, her old boss, that the board at Stillwater General Hospital planned to ship her out to an aged care facility, she’d been beyond livid. Caring for the elderly certainly had its fair share of challenges—ones she hadn’t been so ready to admit when she’d first started at Arcadian Waters. But time had done wonders for her sense of compassion, and she’d come to realize that watching people take their final steps on this Earth was a special kind of blessing in itself.
Some people had families that visited them very single week—sometimes multiple times a week. They’d sit and chat, have a cup of tea or coffee. Do puzzles or crosswords. Read. Enjoy companionable silence. Almost like they were trying to soak up those last precious moments together. Bunny wished she been able to enjoy time like that with her mom. Spending time in her company when she was old and ready to leave, instead of having her torn away too soon.
Then there were the folks who never had visitors at all. Bunny could surmise they hadn’t been very nice people. Maybe that was why they never had family come. But… maybe their family hadn’t been nice to them? Maybe they were viewed as living inheritance schemes.
Those were the thoughts Bunny took home with her day after day, contemplating them in the shower when she got home, or in the afternoon when she got out of bed to start her night shift. The situation was sad and poignant and beautiful all at once.
She’d learned so much about life in the last few weeks. She’d learned a helluva lot about dying, too.
“This is Arcadian Waters Care Home, Mrs. Howard,” she explained now, with the same amount of calm assertiveness she always used when reminding a patient who was a little confused. “You’re staying here with us for a while.”
Mrs. Howard’s shuffle paused, and she frowned. “For how long?”
“Not too long,” Bunny promised, patting her arm as she led the woman on. “Just long enough to have a bit of a vacation.”
“Oh, good.” The woman seemed pleased by that and relaxed a little. “I need a vacation. I feel very tired.”
Bunny smiled knowingly. “That’s because it’s quite late and you should be sleeping. Come with me and I’ll take you back to your room.”
“No, dear,” Mrs. Howard told her. “Not that kind of tired. Really tired. Like someone is coming to take me away.”
It was Bunny’s turn to pause as she was hit by an idea. She focused on Mrs. Howard’s face, but she saw Death lingering in the corner of her vision. Like he used to do before he’d been sure of her.
“Is that why you were in the closet?” she asked the elderly lady gently, looking into her eyes.
“Yes.” Mrs. Howard seemed relieved to have someone understand her. “I felt drawn to it for some reason. Like I was meant to be there.”
Bunny’s gaze refocused and she looked past Mrs. Howard. Death met her gaze calmly, obviously not having understood a single syllable of that very important conversation. But Bunny knew that this was getting more serious by the moment.
She couldn’t just leave Death alone in her apartment until Roberta came back while she, herself, got on with life both literally and figuratively. Because he was still a celestial, and he still had a role to play. Whether he knew it or not.
