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“When I was your age, I was quite the wild one. Ahhh that look, that ‘sure granny’ look, well if you don’t believe me.”
The underpaid nurse attempting to spoon-feed the elderly lady sat, heaped spoon waiting for a pause between words.
“I had quite the adventure, back when I was twenty-two, I never told your mam about this one”
Susie suppressed a sigh, every resident took her as a different relative. They used a warm, familiar tone with her, looking into her eyes, and seeing those of another. She’d given up correcting them, not one of them could remember her name.
“It was during the war, your grandpa worked intelligence out of one of those top-secret northern bunkers, that’s where he got that compass you used to love playing with.”
There was something about never been seen as herself that was starting to eat at Susie. At first, she’d pitied them, unable to see things for what they were, but as time went by, every word spoken to her, meant for another, began to cut.
“It’s been two months since I'd had a letter from him, and well, you can imagine what I thought when a man in uniform knocked at the door.”
Finally catching a pause in the residents flow, Susie swooped in with a spoon full of buttery mash, beaded with peas. For loud, sloppy moments the lady chewed, and trying to draw on her compassion, Susie smiled, scooping up another spoonful.
“Well my heart dropped and I nearly fainted before he could speak. That awkward young officer grabbed my hands, looking me firm in the eyes, ‘He’s not dead Mrs Ellerton, he’s fine, I just need you to come with me’. I’ve never packed a bag so fast in my life!”
Susie quickly exploited the dramatic moment, dropped another spoon of mash, this time laked with stewed beef and gravy, into the open mouth. She used to hate herself for finding those too far gone to chatter away easier, avoiding the talkers, but despite her best evasions, she’d got stuck with conversational Mrs Ellerton today.
“We sped down those country roads, whizzing up north, in hours. He told me nothing on the way, offering only that Nick would tell me when we got there. I’d had no idea what to bring, and had frantically thrown everything I could think of into my bag, as we drove up I began to realise all the things I’d not thought of, but there was no turning back, I could tell by the way that officer gripped the wheel we were in a hurry!”
Mrs Ellerton wasn’t letting up, Susie glanced at the clock, her shift was due to finish in ten minutes, but she couldn’t go anywhere until the old bag wrapped it up. Putting the spoon down, she tried to fight the rising anger, and decided to try and get Mrs Ellerton to cut to the chase.
“So why had your husband had you brought there?”
My finish to the story:
“Well you’re not going to believe this, child, but he wanted me to do an undercover mission with him!” Mrs. Ellerton revealed, eyes glittering with excitement.
Susie rolled her eyes at the ceiling and slowly expelled her breath. There was no help for it now, the senile old bag was going to keep right on talking.
“As soon as we arrived, Tom took me right to Nick’s quarters. Nick was pacing back and forth and, my, didn’t he look handsome raking his fingers through that thick black hair,” Mrs. Ellerton continued, for the moment looking dreamily off into space.
Susie thought to herself, “yeah, yeah, he looked good, so get on with this so called story”.
“Daniel grabbed me in a bear hug. We were so happy to see each other! Then I asked him what the devil was going on. He explained that they had received intelligence that a vital map was being smuggled into General Heimmel’s grand ball that very evening and it was to be carried in by General Heimmel’s wife, Bretta. Heimmel’s wife was an undercover agent for our side and the plan had been set for our operative, Veronica. Bretta didn’t know Veronica, only the code phrase to be used and that Veronica would be wearing a yellow dress.”
Susie yawned and wondered if the old lady was on some new meds causing her to be hallucinating this crap. “So what did all that have to do with you?”
“Well Veronica arrived at the base the night before, yellow dress ready, but shortly after arriving became violently ill. They were beside themselves, for women were in short supply in the area. Nick studied the dress and realized it would be a fit for me and convinced his handlers that I would be the perfect solution.
Susie sniffed loudly and her disbelief was obvious to Mrs. Ellerton.
“I’ll have you know my first assignment as a “secret agent” went off beautifully. I obtained the map from Bretta and she never knew that I wasn’t the original Veronica. And when I admired her diamond broach while we were transacting our business, she gave it me, saying that it was from her husband and she loathed it.
That’s why I have told you this story. That diamond broach has always been very special to me. I know I'm nearing the end, and I'm giving it to you, dear granddaughter. There’s a small red box in that top drawer, hidden inside that box of playing cards.”
Susie’s eyes lit. Could it be true? She opened the drawer and extracted the cards. Sure enough, inside was a small red box nestled among wads of stuffing. Susie opened the packet and gazed upon the twinkling diamond broach.
She abandoned the supper tray and threw her arms around Mrs. Ellerton’s neck. “Oh thank you so much, grandma! Now I really have to run, I’m going to be late for school.”
On her way out, she stopped by the administrator’s office, and called out “Sorry, but I’m quitting today.” And she sauntered out the front door, never to return.