The HOSPITAL

Chapter 4. Bertha

   Life is a mystery that is difficult to guess about everything, sure and absolute. We can never imagine what will happen for sure, like a soul mate and a death, even about tomorrow.When we meet our soul mate, with whom we will match, and how long our relationship will be, that reminds a puzzle in life until the time comes, but we never know when is the exact time. We also never know who will build a relationship and who will become our life partners forever. Yeah, there is no a forever in this life; everything is temporary. Only one thing is sure, that is Death!.

Death will surely come to all living things and creatures. There is no exception even to humans, animals, plants whose trees will die and the leaves will fall. And also to other God's creatures.Since childhood, Bertha never imagined that she would marry more than once as she grew in a rigorous and religious family environment. Bertha is an obedient child in her family, and she is the eldest of four siblings; even Bertha helps pay for her younger siblings to finish school. The unpredictable and enigmatic life brings her to the reality that she must marry twice in her life. However, even if it is in any religion, there is nothing wrong because Bertha does not violate any norms in life, especially in the rules. Religion her embraces.

Not her fault when at a relatively young age of twenty-five years of her first marriage, she had to lose her husband in a tragic accident that had to take the life of the man she loved. It is miserable that her husband's life cannot survive while Bertha is pregnant with her first child.

Bertha's deep sorrow was long gone by then; She had to wait almost ten years to heal.

Bertha is a beautiful woman inside and out, cares about the people around her, family, friends even her colleagues. It is not hard to ask Bertha for help as long as she can help. Even a patient he was treating had fallen in love with Bertha, but unfortunately, the patient had died due to suffering from cancer, terminal stage. Bertha could not even contain her sadness; she cried like she had lost a family.

After almost ten years of being widowed and raising her daughter alone, a beautiful teenage girl, Bertha's second marriage took place, and she marries. She remarried a second time to a businessman who was ten years apart. At that time, Bertha was thirty-five years old, and her second husband was forty-five years old. The man is a widower who has no children. He loves Bertha's child from Bertha's first husband. With their second husband, they have a son who is handsome and very healthy. Happiness is indescribable, right, but sadly, the mystery of life returns to Bertha, her husband died of a heart attack, and now Bertha has healed for the second time.

The situation this afternoon in the hospital seemed more crowded.  Well, it does not mean every day, The hospital that deserted,  as a public hospital. There are always many visitors with little people from the ordinary local community who need medical services. Those who cannot bestow it come to a private doctor's clinic or a more luxurious hospital.      

Bertha has just arrived at the hospital to start her shift for the day. Her face is slightly sullen looked she feels annoyed. Bertha goes to work by commuters to take public transportation and stops across the street where lots of people are drunk and hanging out with no purpose on the side of the highway. They sometimes like to be nosy to disturb people passing by pedestrians who will cross towards the street. Bertha is one of the victims of that jobless unemployment. They are catcalling and whistling when they see Bertha walking towards the hospital. But what can to say?: 

 "Dealing with those people is equivalent to making a fuss and lowering yourself to their level," thought Bertha. 

  They do not go to school, let alone know the word manners. When Bertha entered the hospital building, she noticed that many undergraduate nursing students were doing practical job training that afternoon.  Their school was sent these students as apprenticeship job training approved by the hospital to conduct their empirical studies. The head nurse guides them, divides the tasks into each group:

 "And please don't forget to be disciplined and not fuss because it will disturb the patients." advises the head nurse to them.  They nodded and answered in unison: 

" Yes, ma'am."! They obey the head nurse's orders and follow each nurse to assist them to the patient room to monitor and administer intravenous medication infusions. 

     Bertha walked down the corridor hospital to visit one of the patient rooms under her care to check the patient's condition. Before she entered the room, Bertha met three students with Grace, one of the nurses who assisted them. Grace greeted Bertha, and Bertha also greeted her; Bertha smiled and welcomed Grace and the nurse students.  

    Suddenly, one of the nurse students stared at Bertha and glared. Bertha was shocked to see the student's gaze towards her with shock and fear. Bertha tried to be calm and looked at the student with a signal. 

 " Are you okay?" asked Bertha to her. She does not say anything, but her hand pointed toward Bertha. The two of her friends are confused then asking her, 

 " Claire, what's going on?" asked her friends simultaneously 

 "that is ma'am Bertha one of my senior nurses here." explained Grace to them with confusion. 

 Claire was very frightened by the shock of seeing a wounded man behind Bertha as if he wanted to whisper something into Bertha's ear. Simultaneously Bertha likes brushing something in her ear; she is like shuddering.  

    Bertha noticed something strange around her, and the nurse student Claire could feel and even see it. Although she is an indigo person like her, Claire has the advantage of handling the presence of energy that comes from another dimension.  Claire remained flabbergasted and looked at Bertha without saying anything. At the same time, Grace admonished the students to follow her to the patient's room immediately, 

 " Guys, meet me at room 215," she said to the students, then walked in a hurry ahead of them after saying goodbye to bertha first.  

 Claire's two friends are trying to calm her, who looks pale and suddenly weak like a sick person. Bertha came closer to them, but Claire got scared and screamed, then fell limply. Her friends panicked and tried to wake her up; Bertha helped Claire stand up, supported by Claire's friends, and brought her to sit in a row of chairs reserved for patients waiting in a queue. Fortunately, at that time, no patients were sitting in line. Instead, one of Claire's friends ran to the water dispenser to get a drink for Claire. Then drink the water to her while Claire is starting to wake up and back strong again.  

    After Grace, the nurse, finished with her errands, she was confused and realized the three students did not follow her. She was confused looking for the three students and asked, 

 "where are they? Why didn't they come to see me in this patient's room? Started to be undisciplined," Grace grumbled.  

    Grace came out looking for the three students after she finished checking the patients in the room. But she did not see them in the corridor where they were standing with Bertha earlier. She just thought to walk back to the nurse's room but suddenly stopped in her steps when she saw them on the chair with worried faces. Grace came approaches and asked: 

 "What happened to Claire?"   Bertha replied, 

" Oh, she almost fainted, so we carried her here." 

"Please check on her," asked Bertha. 

 "I have to go check on my patient," added her. 

 "Oh please, ma'am, no problem. Let me take care of her," said Grace. 

     Bertha left them and walked to the patient's room which is under her care. When bertha left, Claire started talking in a frightened tone. 

 "Why, Claire, are you sick?" asked Grace. 

  Clair replied, 

 "no ma'am grace, but I saw a man standing behind ma'am Bertha,"  

"And the man was full of the wound a knife stabbed in his back." 

" Whaaaaaaaat?!!!!" shouted her two friends, accompanied by a scream of Grace that was no less loud.  "There was no one behind ma'am Bertha earlier, Claire," 

 Grace said frantically.  

“Claire, you scare us," said one of Claire's friends. 

 "I am sorry," said Claire quietly, with a guilty face. 

 "That's okay, Claire, maybe you saw it wrong. or your eye deceives you," repeated Grace.  

    After finishing checking on her patient, Bertha rushed out and went downstairs through the stairs, and suddenly she remembered when she just arrived there was a message from the security guard that there was a letter for her. At the same time, Grace and the three students also descended through the stairs to the ground floor. And Bertha greeted Claire, 

 "Are you feeling better, Claire?" asked Bertha. 

  "Yes, Mrs. Bertha, thank you, sorry I was bothering you," answered Claire slowly.  

 "Oh, no need to apologies, Claire. I was just worried about what happened to you earlier," said Bertha with a smile.  

    Suddenly there was a loud noise in front of the hospital, people were running and screaming hysterically! Two men were running in the middle of the road, one of the men chasing the man who ran towards the hospital screaming and cursing, the man who was chasing him looked furious while holding a sharp, shiny knife in his hand. 

     Even when chased and tried to dodge with all his might, he was still reachable and caught by his pursuers, and he stabbed the knife into the man's back repeatedly until the man fainted. Then, before collapsing, he had a chance to reach the hospital's front door, where Bertha was standing. But, instead, he collapsed, at Bertha's feet, his hands gripping Bertha's white skirt and whispering, stuttering with exhaustion, and bleeding. 

  "He ...e e l p me," then fell covered in blood.  

Bertha was shocked and could not say anything. She could not move but trembled in fear. Bertha stared at the man covered in blood in front of her; she pointed to him while his hand still gripping her skirt. With a choking voice, Bertha says something. 

 "He's the one who always teases me and is rude every time I get out of the vehicle, across the street," told Bertha with a trembling voice. 

     Claire and her two friends witnessed the incident screaming hysterically, and both of Claire's friends fell and fainted together. 

  Bertha tried to control herself even though she was still shaking; she gently pulled her skirt, were yet pulled by the man covered in blood, and something fell from the man's hand; a chain bracelet with a dangling heart slipped from the man's hand.  

  "Oh.," Bertha said, her voice choking in her throat. 

  "This is my bracelet which is snatched on my arm a week ago," said Bertha in shock. 

“But I remembered the mugger's face, and it was not him," repeated her. and pointing at the man, who fell to the ground with a knife stabbed in his back.

 At the same time, the people around them were busy and trying to transport the man to take to the emergency room. Bertha is still crying and in shock; she does not know what to do, what just happened suddenly, and is tragic.