A cape, a sword and a batmobile

Sigrid opened one blood shot eye and glanced wearily at her monochrome wrist watch. Its small hand tick tick ticking like a time bomb, threatening to detonate her into an explosion of rushed chaos. "Four am, half an hour longer of break time" she thought wearily as she then gazed apprehensively at her turkey and cranberry sandwich she had purchased from the staff room vending machine. Usually she would have demolished it by now, yet this particular early morning she had face planted the staff room table as soon as her aching backside had fallen hungrily into the seat. Her body desperate for the caressing nurture of REM sleep.

Her stomach wasn't feeling the hunger that her exhausted ass had felt when she sat down. This particular shift was one of the hardest she had ever worked through. There had been a rush of new patients turn up to the emergency ward where she had been assigned and as usual, since the pandemic the hospital was very understaffed. First there had been a two year old little girl, whom had accidently swallowed one of her Mothers antidepressants, carelessly left somewhere where the plump baby hands could find it. This of course was considered a priority patient and so who ever else was her suffering temporal offspring for the night would have to live up to their titles and be patient.

After a stomach pumping, IV drips and standing uncomfortably beside the Doctor as he had stern words for the Mother, she then got yelled at by a withdrawing meth addict whom was clammy skinned and fidgety in bed number three. "What is it slow useless nurse day? I've been pressing my buzzer for ten minutes. I need some valium NOW!!" He spat out his words with the venom of a king cobra. After politely yet firmly letting him know she had other patients and would get to him as soon as she possibly could, his red blemished face suddenly turned the grey hue of old porridge, "Blllllllllaaa" he retched as his maw opened up to gush a projectile waterfall of half digested cream of corn soup, stomach bile and something that was the colour of murky green pond water all over her chest.

It hit her upper body like a behemoth paint ball of stink, splashing her face and warming her up like a shrawl from hell. Dripping with his stomach ejection, she breathed through her mouth as she reached for a hospital vomit baggie. "Sir please use this when you need to vomit, I'll get somebody to see you but i need to clean myself up!!" she muttered as she turned towards the emergency department reception desk to momentarily shift the responsibilities to a colleague. "If you hadn't have taken so damn long to come to me, i wouldn't have puked on you!!" the man yelled out, not able to help a momentary smirk.

Usually she could handle highly stressful moments but this particular shift, tears streamed down her cheek as she wiped vomit off her face in the staff toilets.

The thirty seven year old face gazing at her in the mirror with her reddened hazel eyes and long auburn hair tied neatly in a bun. At least her hair hadn't suffered the bile bombing, just her clothing, cheeks and forehead. She quickly changed her scrubs and disinfected herself. Her personal life was combining its donations of stress into the metaphorical piggy bank of her work load. She wished she could grab a hammer and smash it into a thousand pieces letting out all the inner turmoil that got heavier by the day.

The cheating husband with his twenty three year old mistress, the Saint Bernard puppy

"Mr Bear" whom had died when a milk truck flattened him like a pancake on her residential street, whom had also been a last gift from her recently departed Mother. All these things just needed to be released. Yet she was a professional, she knew she was supposed to keep her home life separate to work, so taking a deep breath of antibacterial hospital air, she had left the toilets and rushed as quickly as she could back to the noisy emergency ward.

yes it had been a tough shift and yet, she still had another twelve hours to go.

She knew she would have to force some of the sandwich down, she needed the calories that would help her continue to power one shoe infront of the other, at a frenzied pace as so many patients were depending on her. When she put on her nurse scrubs, clocked in and introduced herself to the patients with a friendly " Hello, my names Sigrid and I'll be taking care of you today" she was their momentary Momma. Their problems, their discomforts became her own.

So as the sandwich hovered on the outskirts of her lips, she choo choo trained it into the gustation cave. Afterwards having just enough time for a deliciously seductive caffeine hit, she clocked back into her shift.

The unappreciated hero, with a nurses cap instead of a cape, walking down the corridor to save lives.

Irene put her aching feet up on another chair, allowing herself to take a short break in the hospital staff room. She had been working like a pack mule for eight gruelling hours and even though the manager insisted that feet shall never go on chairs, the staff room was currently empty. She had passed one of the emergency ward nurses as she had entered the staff room. The nice lass with her hair always in a bun, "Sigrid" that was her name. She didn't know the young women very well but she was always extremly kind to Irene and treated her like more than just an invisible hospital cleaner. The only remnants of Sigrids lingering presence was an empty sandwich package. The remnants of cranberry sauce bleeding the centre of the plastic with a tiny piece of turkey nested right on top of it. It almost seemed an art piece made from trash. Irene didn't take the accidental littering personally, she knew the nurses had a million things to think about.

Discarding garbage wasn't very high on their priority list. Irene pulled her voluptuous form up off the seat and put the forgotten rubbish in the bin. "while I'm standing i might as well make a strong cup of tea" Irene muttered to herself. She stirred in the milk and sugar and dunked the teabag, thinking about her day. It was always flat out busy at work, but this particular night had been beyond chaos. As more and more patients came rolling in on ambulance beds, more and more patients came in on foot as well. Every single one of them demanding instant gratification.

Irene didn't have to listen to their vocal demands like the nurses, doctors and receptionists did, yet it was the secretions from their bodies that demanded her instant attention. The blood and other biological hazards were always top priority as her first patients. A good dose of hospital grade disinfectant was enough to cure the microbes into sweet desolate oblivion. Then there were the empy pill cups, the tissues, cotton swabs that had fallen from patients inner elbows like tainted snowflakes. If there was a mess, it was Irene to the rescue.

Yet, very rarely was she even acknowledged. She wondered to herself from time to time, "Perhaps I'm invisible because I'm old", being sixty five she wondered, if she was a pretty twenty two year old, fluttering around in a French maid outfit, feather duster in one hand and a sultry smirk on her face, would she be acknowledged then? She would never know. The graceful ship of youth had left the dock long ago and sailed far far away to a land of forgotten opportunities.

Her home life was quite lonely if you don't count her gorgeous ginger cat Marmelaide, who would meow with delight as Irene dragged her tired self through the front door, desperate for the hot water from the shower to wash away all the yuckiness of the day. If not for Marmalade and the staff room gossiping circle she ignited when some of the other cleaning ladies were on their break, she would probably be swallowed by the pending void of isolation.

She used to be close with her younger Sister Ada and they would have fun outings to try out menus in new restaurants, then to have a few too many glasses of red wine and laugh as they held onto each other for balance, calling a taxi to take them home. Yet they had met a distinguished man sitting in a booth close to them one Sunday evening. He was all charm and smiles and he smelt like woodfire and spiced rum. A handsome dashing man who went by the name Arthur with his neatly trimmed moustache and hair as black as a full solar eclipse.

They invited him to sit with them and after a night of exciting tales of adventure and whirlwind romance, the two women got swept away in the currents of this charming chap. It became a regular thing, dinner, drinks and laughter. Until one day Irene found out that Ada and Arthur were going out privately together without informing her. Ada had even lied about it, choosing to go out with Arthur instead of a visit from Irene. " I'm not very well, not up for visitors today" she would declare meekly into the phone and then go out gallivanting all night with her new lover. Irene cut then both out of her life and trying her best not to feel the emptiness, she put her heart into cleaning long stretches of hospital corridors, washing the linen and folding it into neat ironed origami squares and cleaning up everybody else's mess.

Four hours to go, she washed her calloused hands and put hospital gloves on

Her tea had given her a nourishing fill of energy, not much but enough to get her up and going. Sometimes when it wasn't too busy she would hum softy to herself as she went about her scheduled array of duties. Not tonight though, tonight was just too chaotic. A women had come in with a severe blood nose and it had dripped everywhere like a child's finger painting. With cautions from the nurse warning Irene that the women had Hepatitis C, she covered up her arms and any areas of her body, placed "Warning, infected biohazard area" signs around the crimsom spillage and got to work.

An invisible hero, weilding a mop instead of a sword.

Jane breathed a sigh of relief as she entered the welcoming staff room of the hospital. Twelve hour shift done and dusted, she sat down in a chair and placed her aching elbows onto the table. She was simply too exhausted to head straight home where her Husband and Children were waiting patiently for her return. She needed just a moment to collect her thoughts, it had been a stressful night after all. Once her tired limbs had rested, she thought a nice cup of cocoa would be just the thing to lower the cortisol that had been pumping through her blood stream like icy venom. She moved to the kitchen counter and put the electric kettle on. As the water boiled away, she got a scoop of cocoa from the hot chocolate tin and placed it into the mug. She then opened up the fridge to find no milk.

"Oh for crying out loud, who used up the last of the milk!!" She whinged. It had been Irenes responsibility to notify the kitchens to bring another two litre bottle to the staff room, yet she had been so lost in her thoughts that the milk had been forgotten. Now Jane had to trudge her aching feet all the way back to the kitchen where she had been all day, to get some damn milk. Not just for her but for the next poor sod who would be craving the warm love of a hot beverage after an exhausting day.

She entered the overheating kitchen with all it's noise. Clattering dishes, boiling pots with the aromatic tendrils of cream of chicken soup steaming it's wispy dance out of the pot and into the nostrils of the kitchen staff, noisy staff gossiping and laughing as they set out everything like clockwork for the next meal time. Breakfast time would be soon, so out came the small boxes of cereal, packaged prunes for the constipated patients, jams, butters, yoghurts and toast all being lined up on trays. Jane being the head of the kitchen staff couldn't help herself when she caught two younger girls in a dreamy dazed gossip over which male doctor was the most attractive. "Penny, Sarah, watch what you're doing. If either of you screw up anyone's order I'm gonna be wild!!"

The two girls instantly pulled themselves together, standing straight and passive like obedient military soldiers. " Sorry Jane, we will watch what we are doing" they chimed simultaneously as they got back to their clock work. Jane took pride in the hospital kitchens, she strived on it running smoothly like a well oiled machine and anybody who put a chink in the chain would be the next victim of her wrath. In truth she suspected that her staff were scared of her, yet better to work hard out of fear than laze about without any consequential thinking. Intimidating she may be with her ultra blonde hair hidden away by a hospital kitchen cap, her sky blue eyes quick for detail and her buff forty five year old frame that stood at an impressive six feet tall, yet her interior possessed a heart of gold.

Grabbing the bottle of milk she nestled it like a baby into her strong arms, arms that lifted weights at the gym every weekend when she got a moment to bask in her personal life. "Well everyone I'm off!!" she smiled and as she left, she felt like they were breathing a sigh of relief. She had been in a bad mood earlier that day, not with anyone in particular but she took it very personally whenever she got feedback that the patients thought the food was "slop." She did her absolute best to put out meals that were nutritious and wholesome.

It wasn't her fault if by the time they made their way around the vast hospital that they were luke warm, "it's a Hospital not the Hilton" she would say whenever there was bad feedback. The amount of meals that had to be prepared three times a day was exhausting work and sometimes a tiny ounce of appreciation was something she craved like a daffodil craves a watering can. If somebody could water the flowers of her soul, she could bloom to her full potential and perhaps not be so cranky all the time.

Reaching the staff room once again, she momentarily wondered if she should just put the milk in the fridge and go home. She had a ten year old Son who would want to enthusiastically tell her all about his game of hockey she had missed. She had a six year old Daughter who was dying to show her the finger painting she had lovingly created at school. Janes husband had told her it was a darling picture of Jane as a super hero chef and Mom. Though exhausted, she would be there with bells on to greet her babies with good morning kisses once they woke up. There would be time for sleep later once the kids went to school. Her family meant the world to her and unlike her kitchen cook job they appreciated her for everything she did for them, yet she still craved just a moment to herself.

So she made the hot mug of cocoa and sipped it slowly, letting the frothy chocolatey heaven warm her body like a velvet hug from the gods "Ahhhhhhhhh" she breathed as she closed her eyes and gave herself completly to the peaceful moment.

It was almost daybreak when she walked through the hospitals entrance to her car. She climbed into her car and with a slam, shut the door. Turning the key in the ignition she took off for home.

A tired yet determined hero with her car as her "batmobile"