by D K Mitchell

Created on: August 27, 2009

Silence, finally.

It had been half an hour of useless babble prior to the injection. Eileen capped the syringe and place it carefully into the special hazards box she carried in her bag.

Babbling idiots! She had been doing this for so many years she was immune to the rants and protestations of her home care patients.

"I don't need another shot! I'm fine!" Nick had been saying as she jabbed his rear end roughly, filling it with Haldol. His words went over her head as they always did.

"Don't tell me tell your doctor." A line she used more than once a day. "See you next month then." Her parting words totally flat, her heart holding no empathy.

Eileen Jenkins was once an enthusiastic young nurse full of sympathy for her patients. But time had chewed the edges of her own mental health 'til the fiery spirit was extinguished and not a single warm ember remained.

Middle aged now she was tired of the daily mini dramas. Tired of being spat on, verbally and physically abused, entering homes where the smell of urine and marijuana dominated, tired of faking interest in their therapeutic art works and smiling without meaning.

Sometimes, at night, sitting by the fire watching television something strange one of them had said would pop into her mind and invade even her home head space. Not that she ever really listened to them but when the words weren't the same old same old they managed to permeate the barrier blocks.

Eileen was used to threats, hell she received them almost daily. They bounced off her thick skin like water-drops off an umbrella.

But this last one was different.

It played on her mind and even as she drove away from Nick's she was thinking about Geneva.

"I saw you dead in my dream," Geneva said, "and then I saw Catty eat you."

Due to not really listening Eileen had only paid attention after the name Catty and for the first time in years she asked Geneva to repeat what she said before dulling her wit with medication.

Even she had to admit it was weird.

There wasn't one one her patients that knew anything of her personal life. Private was private and no-one in their right mind let the nutjobs know anything personal.

Geneva had laughed after repeating her statement. A laugh that said she would enjoy nothing more than seeing her dream come true.

But they all felt like that. What a job!

Every one of her patients hated the sight of her arriving and all wished she would disappear forever. Not so strange in her position.

Geneva wasn't due for an injection for another

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